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Plural Location Cases – Monikon Paikallissijat

Included in this article are the rules for inflecting nouns in most of 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 section 1. 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)

Table of Contents
  1. The plural cases included in this article
  2. Words ending in -u/-y, -o/-ö
  3. Words ending in –ä
  4. Words ending in –a
    1. Words of two syllables (kissa-words)
    2. Words of two syllables (koira-words)
  5. Words ending in –i
    1. New words ending in –i
    2. Old words ending in –i
  6. Words ending in an –e
  7. Words ending in –nen
  8. Words ending in two vowels
  9. Words ending in diphthongs –ie, -uo, -yö
  10. 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
  11. Consonant gradation in the plural location cases

1. The plural cases included in this article

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

Technically the same rules also apply to the the translative case (-ksi – taloiksi, busseiksi, öiksi), but this is not typically considered a location case as it has other, more prominent functions.

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, you can click through to one of the following pages:

Included cases
Plural Case Pöytä Lääke
Inessive (-ssA) pöydissä lääkkeissä
Elative (-stA) pöydistä lääkkeistä
Adessive (-llA) pöydillä lääkkeillä
Allative (-lle) pöydille lääkkeille
Ablative (-ltA) pöydiltä lääkkeiltä
Not included
Plural Case Pöytä Lääke
T-plural pöydät lääkkeet
Illative (mihin) pöytiin lääkkeisiin
Partitive (mitä?) pöytiä lääkkeitä
Genitive (-n) pöytien lääkkeiden
Essive (-nA) pöytinä lääkkeinä

The plural cases are a pretty complicated system with many rules. On the page you’re currently at, we’re looking at what are typically called “short words” in course books. This is an important distinction because words of three syllables or more usually have different rules for their plural cases than the shorter words do. I have a separate article all about the plural location cases of long words for you to look at once you’ve made yourself familiar with the rules on the current page.

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

Word Plural forms Word Plural forms
talo taloissa tyttö tytöillä
hylly hyllyistä pallo palloilla
pöllö pöllöissä helppo helpoissa
sato sadoilla katu kaduille

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

Word Plural forms Word Plural forms
kynä kyniltä metsä metsissä
kesä kesistä leipä leivillä
pöytä pöydille ystävä ystävillä
hätä hädissä isä isille

4. 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!

4.1. 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.

Word Plural forms Word Plural forms
sana sanoissa hinta hinnoilla
kissa kissoille teema teemoissa
kirja kirjoissa herra herroille
marja majoilta liima liimoista

4.2. 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.

Word Plural forms Word Plural forms
koira koirilla kukka kukista
muna munille loma lomilla
kooma koomissa tumma tummilta
oja ojissa tukka tukilla

5. 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.

5.1. New words ending in –i: add -ei-

Word Plural forms Word Plural forms
banaani banaaneissa äiti äideille
pankki pankeissa posti posteilla
tili tileille tyyli tyyleistä
bussi busseille tiimi tiimeistä

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

Word Plural forms Word Plural forms
ovi (1)
ovissa meri (2) merissä
kivi (1)
kivillä sieni (2) sienillä
sormi (1) sormilla tuli (2) tulille
järvi (1) järvistä kieli (2)
kielissä
uusi (3)
uusista vuosi (3) vuosissa
si (3) käsiltä reisi (3) reisillä

Find out more about the inflection of the different types of words ending in –i! This table contains three different types:

  1. Words that inflect like OVI
  2. Words that inflect like PIENI
  3. Words that inflect like UUSI

6. Words ending in –e: add -i-

Word Plural forms Word Plural forms
huone huoneista perhe perheillä
kirje kirjeissä kone koneilta
parveke parvekkeilta koe kokeissa
osoite osoitteissa palaute palautteilla

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

Word Plural forms Word Plural forms
nainen naisille hevonen hevosilla
eteinen eteisistä iloinen iloisille
sininen sinisissä toinen toisilta
ihminen ihmisillä suomalainen suomalaisista

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

Word Plural forms Word Plural forms
maa maissa sää istä
suu suista DVD DVD:illä
vapaa vapailla kuu kuissa
harmaa harmaille klisee kliseille

9. 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.

Word Plural forms Word Plural forms
tie teillä vyö vöillä
yö öille työ töissä
täi täistä
suo soista

10. Words ending in a consonant

10.1. 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.

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

10.2. 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).

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

10.3. 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.

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

10.4. 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.

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

10.5. 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.

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

10.6. 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.

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

10.7. 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.

Word Plural forms Word Plural forms
tytär tyttärillä kuningatar kuningattarille
herttuatar herttuattarilta jumalatar jumalattarista

11. 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
Word Plural forms Word Plural forms
tyttö tytöillä pankki pankeissa
pöytä pöydiltä hattu hatuista
silta silloilla kampa kammoista
puku puvuissa kauppa kaupoissa

I have a separate article on wordtype A.

Wordtype B
Word Plural forms Word Plural forms
savuke savukkeissa tavoite tavoitteilla
opas oppailla rakas rakkailta
keitin keittimille hammas hampaissa
puhallin puhaltimissa osoite osoitteista

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!

Vasyochek

Hi, I found a small typo in 10.3. in the examples of plural.

mahdollisuuuksista

—————————————————————–

Thank you for this article!

Last edited 2 months ago by Vasyochek