Mistä sinä tulet? Mistä sinä tykkäät? The marker -sta is the elative case. If you’re looking for an overview about missä, mistä and mihin, look here.

1. Use of the Elative Case (Mistä)

1.1. When something comes FROM something/somewhere

When the missä-form ends in -ssa, then you can be pretty sure the mistä-form will end in -sta. So if you’re IN the library (-ssa), you will come FROM the library (-sta). This is different from e.g. IN the kiosk (-lla) and FROM the kiosk (-lta). Learn more about this relation between the cases in our missä mistä mihin article.

1.2. When giving your opinion

This is a special use of the -sta-form: it expresses that something is your personal opinion.

1.3. Rections with the mistä form

In Finnish, certain words will always be accompanied by a specific form of the word connected to it. We call this phenomenon a “rection“. Some word’s rection requires the mistä form of verbs or nouns.

1.3.1. Verbs + Noun in the –sta form

There are several verbs that require the -sta form of a noun. Two important ones are tykätä and pitää, synonyms that both mean “to like“. You can find more examples on my website about verb rections. You can also take a look at verbs that answer to the question kenestä.

1.3.2. Verbs + Verb in the –masta form

Verbs can also be inflected in the mistä-form. This is possible with both the third infinitive (-masta) and the fourth infinitive (-misesta).

The examples below all utilize the –masta form of the verb. Sometimes these examples make sense in English, but there are also plenty of cases where they don’t. I have translated these sentences to match the Finnish construction rather than making the sentences sound natural in English. You can learn more about rections which utilize –maan, –massa and –masta here.

1.3.3. Verbs + Verb in the –misesta form

Verbs can also be inflected in the mistä-form by making them into nouns first. For example uiminen “swimming” is a noun derived from the verb uida “to swim”. However, note that in English, both uimasta (section 1.3.2) and uimisesta (this section) will be translated as “swimming”.

As such, translating directly isn’t helpful at all. It’s all tied to which verb you’re using. You need to look at the verb used in the sentence to know which version should be used. For example, the verb lähteä needs the -masta form, but nauttia needs the –misesta form.

1.3.4. Adjectives + Noun in the –sta form

Some adjectives also have mistä rection. Below, you can find a couple of examples, but there are plenty more in the article about adjective rections. Knowing English won’t help you at all in this situation, as you can see from the translations of the examples.

1.4. Sentences expressing a transformation

When something changes from one thing to another, we can sometimes use both the mistä form (#1) or the translative case (#2). The mistä form is much less widespread than the translative; it’s limited to only a small number of verbs.

I have a whole separate article about the Minusta tulee opettaja -sentence type!

1.5. Some Other Uses

These are some other small functions that the elative case can fulfill:

2. The Formation of the Elative Case

The elative is one of the six location cases. Its ending is -sta or -stä, according to the vowel harmony rules. It gets added to the same form as most of the other locations cases (-ssa, -lla, -lta, -lle)

2.1. Words ending in a  vowel (-a/-ä, -u/-y, -o/-ö): add -sta/-stä

This is also true for some words ending in -i and -e, but they generally have a different rule. See below!

2.2. Words ending in -e: add an extra -e- before the -sta/-stä

Words ending in -e get a second -e- in any case except the partitive.

2.3. Words ending in -i

We have a separate article that goes into more detail about new and old words ending in -i. Check that out after you’ve read the basic rules below!

2.3.1. New words ending in -i: add -sta/-stä

New words are often loanwords. Usually they’re recognisable because they resemble words in other languages, like pankki for “bank”, or paperi for “paper”. Loanwords are easier than Finnish words because they don’t undergo as many changes when you add endings.

2.3.2. Old words ending in -i: replace -i- with -e- and add -sta/-stä

Old words are very often nature words. After all, nature has been around for so long that Finns have had names for them since the very beginning. Some words’ age can be confusing, for example äiti (mother) is actually a new Finnish word, eventhough mothers have been around since the beginning of time!

This section combines words belonging to the OVI-type and the PIENI-type into one because these types undergo the exact same change when inflected in the elative case.

2.3.3. Old words ending in -si: replace -si with -de- and add -sta/-stä

More old words, but this time with -si at their end. This group has its own additional change, as you can see below.

I have a more extensive list of words that belong to this type here.

2.4. Words ending in a consonant

2.4.1. Words ending in -nen: replace the -nen with -se- before the -sta/-stä

This is the same change that -nen words go through when being used in any case except the partitive.

2.4.2. Words ending in -as: replace -as with -aa- + -sta

Words ending in -as (or –äs, depending on vowel harmony rules) belong to wordtype B, so they will have the weak grade in their basic form (e.g. rakas, opas) and the strong grade in the elative (e.g. rakkaasta, oppaasta). Read more about words ending in -as here.

2.4.3. Words ending in -is: two groups

For words ending in -is, we have two groups: words like kallis that get -ii- when inflected, and words like roskis that get -ikse- when inflected.

2.4.4. Words ending in -os/-ös: replace –os with –okse– and add –sta

Words ending in -os and –ös will respectively get -okse- and –ökse– when inflected.

2.4.5. Words ending in -us/-ys: two groups

Words ending in –us can belong to two groups: some get -ukse-, others get -ude- before the elative’s -sta. This depends on whether the word is derived from an adjective (e.g. pimeä > pimeys) or not. Words which have been derived from an adjective get –ude-, while other words get –ukse-. You will want to check out this article to get the specifics.

Some general guidelines:

• If the word is based on a verb (such as opettaa > opetus), it will generally get –ukse-.
• If the word is based on an adjective (such as pimeä > pimeys), it will get –ude-.
• If the word is based on a noun (such as ystävä > ystävyys), it will get –ude-.
• If the word ends in –uus/yys (double vowel), you will get –ude-.

2.4.6. Words ending in -ton: replace -ton with -ttoma- + -sta

Read more about words ending in -ton here.

2.4.7. Words ending in -in: replace -in with -ime- + -sta

Read more about words ending in -in here.

2.4.8. Words ending in -ut: two groups

Words that end in -ut/yt can belong to two wordtypes. The smallest group of the two contains words such as olut, kevyt and lyhyt. For these words, you will replace the final -t with an –e- before the elative’s case ending.

The much larger group is made up of NUT-participles such as väsynyt and tottunut. For the words, you will replace the -ut/yt with -ee- before the elative’s case ending.

2.4.9. Words ending in -tar

Words endin in -tar are rare, but at least tytär (daughter) is a common word. In the mistä-form, these words get -ttare- in place of the basic form’s -tar.

2.4.10. Non-Finnish words ending in a consonant

Loanwords and foreign names (e.g. Jonathan, Facebook) which end in a consonant will have an extra -i- added before the elative’s -sta/stä.

You might also want to check out these two articles:

3. Consonant Gradation in the Elative Case

I have a separate article on wordtype A.

I have a separate article on wordtype B.

That concludes the article on the elative case!

Related posts:

Location Case Verb Rections – Rektiot Missä Mistä Mihin The Inflection of Postpositions – Finnish Grammar Adverbs of Location: Täällä, Kaikkialla, Ylhäällä Finnish Comparative Forms – Vertailuasteet