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Plural Location Cases – Monikon Paikallissijat

This article deals with the formation of the plural location cases. It contains the rules for the following location cases:

The plural illative (mihin) is not included on this page, regardless of the fact that it is one of the plural location cases. This is due to the fact that it inflects in a different way than all the cases above. If you want to move on to other plural cases, we have the following pages:

Table of Contents
  1. Words ending in -u/-y, -o/-ö
  2. Words ending in –ä
  3. Words ending in –a
    1. Words of two syllables (kissa-words)
    2. Words of two syllables (koira-words)
  4. Words ending in –i
    1. New words ending in –i
    2. Old words ending in –i
  5. Words ending in an –e
  6. Words ending in –nen
  7. Words ending in two vowels
  8. Words ending in diphthongs –ie, -uo, -yö
  9. Words ending in a consonant
    1. Words ending in -as/äs
    2. Words ending in –is
    3. Words ending in -us/os/ys/ös
    4. Words ending in –ton/tön
    5. Words ending in -in
    6. Words ending in ut/yt
  10. Consonant gradation in the plural location cases

The plural marker that all plural cases have in common is an -i-. Depending on the word, the plural location cases can have -i- or -oi- before their case ending. In the tables below, I will be adding any of the cases I mentioned in the introduction. I’m doing this because their case endings are all added to the exact same stem, so they’re identical apart from their case ending (e.g. taloissa, taloista, taloilla, taloilta, taloille)

1. Words ending in -u/-y, -o/-ö: add -i-

Basic Plural Basic Plural Basic Plural
talo taloissa tyttö tytöillä katu kaduilla
hylly hyllyistä pallo palloilla aamu aamuilla
pöllö pöllöissä helppo helpoilla sato sadoissa

2. Words ending in –ä: replace the –ä with i

Basic Plural Basic Plural Basic Plural
kynä kyniltä metsä metsissä isä isillä
kesä kesistä leipä leivillä kylmä kylmille
pöytä pöydille ystävä ystävillä hätä hädissä

3. Words ending in –a

Just like in the plural genitive and the plural partitive, we’re dividing words ending in –a in “kissa-words” and “koira-words”. These two words are easy to remember and each belongs to a different group of words ending in -a. If you can remember “kissa – kissoissa” and “koira – koirissa” and apply that rule to other, similar words, you’re on your way to mastering the plural location cases!

3.1. Words of two syllables (kissa-words): -oi-

Kissa-words are words of two syllables. Their final letter is –a. In the first syllable, you will have either –e-, –i– or –a-. In other words, the vowels of these words can look like:

  • a…a (kana, maksa, sana, marja)
  • e…a (herra, tela, teema, leija)
  • i…a (kissa, tina, hinta, silta)

When you inflect these words in the plural location cases, you will replace the final –a with –oi- before the case ending.

Basic Plural Basic Plural Basic Plural
sana sanoissa hinta hinnoilla kala kaloista
kissa kissoille teema teemoissa marja marjoista
kirja kirjoissa herra herroille liima liimoista

3.2. Words of two syllables (koira-words): -i-

Koira-words are also words of two syllables. Their final letter is also –a. They differ when it comes to the first syllable: for koira-words you will have either –o- or –u- in the first syllable. In other words, the vowels of these words can look like:

  • o…a (koira, konna, honda, nokka)
  • u…a (kukka, sukka, suora, juoma)

For koira-words, you will replace the final –a with –i– before adding the case ending.

Basic Plural Basic Plural Basic Plural
koira koirilla kukka kukista tukka tukilla
muna munille loma lomilla oja ojissa
kooma koomissa tumma tummilta kuha kuhille

4. Words ending in –i

Words ending in –i are once again divided into several groups. The following rules only applies to short words. Long words (e.g. lääkäri, paperi) have their own rules.

4.1. New words ending in –i: add -ei-

Basic Plural Basic Plural Basic Plural
banaani banaaneissa äiti äideille tiimi tiimeistä
pankki pankeissa posti posteilla maali maaleissa
tili tileille tyyli tyyleistä bussi busseille

4.2. Old words ending in –i and –si: no change before the case

Basic Plural Basic Plural Basic Plural
järvi järvissä ovi ovilla lapsi lapsilta
lahti lahdissa lehti lehdiltä pilvi pilvistä
vesi vesissä kuukausi kuukausilla susi susille
si sissä vuosi vuosilla reisi reisissä
pieni pienille meri merissä kieli kielillä
sieni sienistä suuri suurilta nuori nuorille

5. Words ending in –e: add -i-

Basic Plural Basic Plural Basic Plural
huone huoneista perhe perheillä osoite osoitteissa
kirje kirjeissä kone koneilta aate aatteilla
parveke parvekkeilta koe kokeissa palaute palautteilla

6. Words ending in –nen: replace the –nen with -si-

Basic Plural Basic Plural Basic Plural
nainen naisille hevonen hevosilla suomalainen suomalaisilta
eteinen eteisistä iloinen iloisille ihminen ihmisille
sininen sinisistä toinen toisilla tavallinen tavallisilta

7. Words ending in two vowels: remove one vowel, add -i-

Basic Plural Basic Plural Basic Plural
maa maissa sää istä jää illä
suu suista DVD DVD:illä harmaa harmaissa
vapaa vapailla kuu kuissa klisee kliseillä

8. Words ending in diphthongs -ie, -uo, -yö

For words ending in a diphthong, you will remove the first vowel of the diphthong and add -i- to the end of the word before adding the case marker. However, if the diphthong ends in an –i (e.g. täi), you will not remove the first vowel-

Basic Plural Basic Plural Basic Plural
tie teillä vyö vöistä täi täistä
yö öillä työ töistä suo soille

9. Words ending in a consonant

9.1. Words ending in -as: replace -as with -ai-

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 plural (e.g. rakkaissa, oppailla). Read more about words ending in -as here.

Basic Plural Basic Plural
rakas rakkaista rikas rikkaille
taivas taivaissa lipas lippaissa
opas oppailla itsekäs itsekkäillä

9.2. Words ending in -is: two groups

For words ending in -is, we have two groups. Firstly, words like kallis that get -ii- when inflected. These words will look the same in both singular and plural: kalliissa could be both singular or plural. Secondly, words like roskis which get -ikse- when inflected, will have their –e- replaced with –i- (e.g. singular: roskiksessa → plural: roskiksissa).

Basic Plural Basic Plural
kallis kalliista roskis roskiksissa
kaunis kauniilla kirppis kirppiksistä
kauris kauriista fiilis fiiliksissä
ruis rukiissa futis futiksille

9.3. Words ending in -us/-os

In the singular, words ending in -us or -os can belong to two types and that inflected in a different way, some get -ukse- (e.g. vastauksessa), others get -ude- (e.g. rakkaudessa). You will want to check out this article to get the specifics.

In the plural missä form, this difference disappears: both types get -uksi- in the plural.

Basic Plural Basic Plural
mahdollisuus mahdollisuuuksista vastaus vastauksista
rakkaus rakkauksissa kysymys kysymyksillä
ystävyys ystävyyksillä keskus keskuksista
pimeys pimeyksissä tarjous tarjouksille

9.4. Words ending in -ton: replace -ton with -ttomi-

Words ending in –ton undergo consonant gradation (wordtype B) in their stem, so you get -ttoma- in the conjugated forms. In the plural, the -a- at the end of the stem gets replace by the plural’s –i- so you end up with a stem ending in -ttomi-. Read more about words ending in -ton here.

Basic Plural Basic Plural
työtön työttömillä koditon kodittomille
rahaton rahattomilta rasvaton rasvattomissa
maidoton maidottomissa alkoholiton alkoholittomista

9.5. Words ending in -in: replace -in with -imi-

In the singular conjugation, –in gets replaced with -ime-. In the plural, you get –imi– because the plural’s –i- replaces the singular stem’s –e-. Read more about words ending in -in here.

Basic Plural Basic Plural
puhelin puhelimista keitin keittimille
avain avaimilla kiharrin kihartimissa
puhallin puhaltimissa suoritin suorittimista

9.6. 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 –i- before the case ending. So the singular form oluessa becomes oluissa in the plural.

The much larger group is made up of NUT-participles such as väsynyt and tottunut. For these words, you will replace the -ut/yt with -ei- before the location case ending. So the singular form väsyneellä because väsyneillä in the plural.

Basic Plural Basic Plural
kevyt kevyistä väsynyt väsyneillä
olut oluissa ollut olleissa
ohut ohuilla mennyt menneistä

9.7. Words ending in -tar

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

Basic Plural Basic Plural
tytär tyttärillä kuningatar kuningattarille
herttuatar herttuattarilta jumalatar jumalattarista

10. Consonant Gradation in the Plural Location Cases

All the cases in this article has a similar marker: they consist of two consonants and one vowel (e.g. -ssa, -lta, -stä), both in their singular and in their plural form. As such, words inflected in these cases follow the exact same rules in the plural as in the singular.

This means that wordtype A words will always become weak and wordtype B words will always become strong.

Wordtype A
Basic Plural Basic Plural Basic Plural
tyttö tytöillä pankki pankeissa puku puvuissa
pöytä pöydillä hattu hatuista kauppa kaupoissa
silta silloilla kampa kammoista hiekka hiekoilla

I have a separate article on wordtype A.

Wordtype B
Basic Plural Basic Plural Basic Plural
savuke savukkeissa tavoite tavoitteilla soitin soittimilla
opas oppailla rakas rakkailta puhallin puhaltimissa
keitin keittimissä hammas hampaissa allas altaissa

I have a separate article on wordtype B.


That concludes the article on the plural location cases!

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Katka

What a great page and great help…Thank you sooooo much:-)

Finn-ish

Hi, unless I’m missing something, “3. Words ending in -a” eventually refers to 2-syllable words only.

What about more than 2 syllables, e.g: kahvila, opiskelija?

Inge (admin)

There’s a separate article for long words here: https://uusikielemme.fi/finnish-grammar/location-cases/plural-location-cases-of-longer-words/ 🙂

I think I need to edit this article a little to make sure everyone finds that article as well. I also totally forgot that there’s still the “coming soon” note for words ending in a consonant, whoops!

Lily

This is an AMAZING article. Thank you so much for your time and effort. Almost all the materials dive directly into the topic without specifying/grouping the words according to their type. It is much easier and logical to go step by step: First the regular words and then each word type. We started the subject with one of my groups, but I hated the way it was explained in the book. I decided to create a completely new material right after the class, grouping the words logically and your article has been a great help and saver. SUURET KIITOKSET!

Inge (admin)

The best way to learn a topic is often by figuring out the groups and how things fit together yourself. That’s what you’ve been doing, it seems. Glad my website is of help!