This article deals with the missä, mistä and mihin forms of comparative adverbs. Most of the adverbs on this page express relative location and are commonly used as postpositions.

This topic is advanced. To fully benefit from this article, you should have a grasp on the following topics:

1. Terms used

In this article, I’m using many grammar terms. Here’s a short overview of what you need to know:

2. Adverbs in the missä, mistä and mihin form

If the inflection of adverbs in the missä, mistä and mihin forms is new to you, I strongly suggest you read about the basics of this system here. The following table has a couple of examples.

3. The meaning of adverbs in the comparative and superlative

This article adds another level of difficulty to this topic: each of the inflected forms from the table above can also be put in the comparative.

3.1. Paradigm of kaukana

For example, in addition to saying someone lives far away (kaukana), we can say that someone lives farther away (kauempana) and another person lives the farthest away of all (kauimpana). These are the missä forms of kaukana, used because we’re expressing a static location. The people live at a place, there is no movement to or from.

We can also express movement from a distance towards a location using the mistä-forms of the comparative and superlative. This means that we can say that someone comes from far away (kaukaa), but also that someone else comes from farther away (kauempaa) and a third person comes from the farthest away of all three (kauimpaa). These are the mistä forms of kaukana.

Movement towards a farther away location can be expressed using the mihin-forms of the comparative and superlative. We can express that someone goes to a far away place (kauas), a second person moves even farther away (kauemmas), and a third person moves the farthest away of all (kauimmas).

3.2. Paradigm of kaukana, lähellä and ylhäällä

The table below has similar information but a different format: you can find the comparative and superlative forms in separate column.

4. The cases used for adverbs in the comparative and superlative

Everywhere on the page, marked in green, you can see the case ending that’s used in each of the forms.

For most words, the missä-form ends has the essive marker’s -na, the mistä-form has the partitive case marker -a, and the mihin-form is inflected in either the translative (-ksi) or the lative (-s). There are some words that used the outer location cases -lla, -lta and -lle (eg. perällä becomes peremmällä: peremmältä : peremmälle).

Please realize that this “lative case” is not one of the productive Finnish cases. It’s a remnant of old Finnish, which isn’t used in many other situations than this. I strongly suggest you take a closer look at the article about the lative case to understand the mihin-forms on the page you’re currently on.

5. Example Sentences

Before I hit you with the whole list of inflected comparative adverbs, let’s take a look at some example sentences!

5.1. Kaukana Kauempana Kauemmaksi

The table below contains the comparative (C) and superlative (S) forms of the missä, mihin and mistä forms of kaukana. Note that the comparative’s mihin form can also be kauemmas and the superlative’s mihin form also kauimmas.

5.2. Lähellä Lähempänä Lähemmäksi

The table below contains the comparative (C) and superlative (S) forms of the missä, mihin and mistä forms of lähellä. Note that the comparative’s mihin form can also be lähemmäs and the superlative’s mihin form also lähimmäs.

5.3. Alhaalla Alempana Alemmaksi

The table below contains the comparative (C) and superlative (S) forms of the missä, mihin and mistä forms of alhaalla. Note that the comparative’s mihin form can also be alemmas and the superlative’s mihin form also alimmas.

5.4. Ylhäällä Ylempänä Ylemmäksi

The table below contains the comparative (C) and superlative (S) forms of the missä, mihin and mistä forms of ylhäällä. Note that the comparative’s mihin form can also be ylemmäs and the superlative’s mihin form also ylimmäs.

6. Missä, mistä and mihin forms in the comparative

In the following table, you can find the comparative forms of adverbs in the missä, mistä and mihin forms. I’m just listing them in this table. Some words have two possible paradigms. For example, edessä (close-by) can be both edempänä and etempänä in the comparative missä-form (closer by).

Note that the mihin-form nearly always has two separate options. Both of these are used regularly and there’s no difference in meaning between the two.

7. Missä, mistä and mihin forms in the superlative

In the following table, you can find the superlative forms of adverbs in the missä, mistä and mihin forms. I’m just listing them in this table. You can find more information about these forms in section 7 below.

This list doesn’t have the same amount of items as the list with the comparative forms because some words aren’t used in the superlative at all.

8. How commonly are these forms used?

While you will come across some of these forms fairly regularly (e.g. lähempänä, peremmälle or kauemmas), some forms in these tables are much rarer.

The least common ones will sound weird even to a Finn. For example, as Karlsson mentions in his Comprehensive Grammar: “the word vasemmammalla looks and sounds weird, and we mostly say enemmän vasemmalla (more to the left) instead. The superlative vasemmimmalla is very rare; we normally say eniten vasemmalla (most left)”.

The same is true for some other forms in these lists. Here are some more common phrases that replace rare forms:

9. Exotic expressions of time

The most exotic forms of this type are probably the ones that don’t express a location but rather a time. We can use this construction to express that an event has been moved to a point of time further along in spring, for example. Here are some example sentences:

Not everyone is equally fond of these forms, but they are used to some extent. It’s also important that these can be easily replaced by less exotic expressions such as “myöhemmin illalla” rather than illemmalla, or “myöhemmin syksyllä” rather than syksymmällä or syksympänä.

Read more in other sources online:

The missä, mistä and mihin forms of comparative adverbs are an exotic feature of Finnish. Hopefully you enjoyed this article!

Related posts:

Finnish Comparative and Superlative of Adverbs Finnish Superlative of Adjectives – Superlatiivi Eri Pikku Rikki Viime Ensi Poikki – Indeclinable Words Use of the Partitive in Comparative Phrases