The Genetive Case – Genetiivi – Finnish Grammar
In this article, you can find information about the genetive case. We’ll go over when to use it and how you inflect words into the genetive.
- The Use of the Genetive Case
- When indicating possession (John’s, Pekka’s)
- In front of postpositions (takana, edessä)
- When expressing necessity (täytyy)
- With the object of a sentence
- In certain more advanced constructions
- The Formation of the Genetive Case
- The genetive of the personal pronouns
- Words ending in a vowel
- Words ending in an -e
- Words ending in -i
- New words ending in -i
- Old words ending in -i
- Old words ending in -si
- Words ending in a consonant
- Words ending in -nen
- Words ending in -as
- Words ending in -is
- Words ending in -us/-ys
- Words ending in -os/-ös
- Words ending in -ton
- Words ending in -in
- Words ending in -ut
- Words ending in -tar
- Non-Finnish words ending in a consonant
- Consonant Gradation in the Genetive Case
1. Use of the Genetive Case (minkä, kenen)
1.1. When indicating possession
The genetive is used to express someone possessing something. The genetive’s marker -n will be added to the end of the possessor of the sentence.
When a group of words all belong together (say: a pronoun, an adjective and a noun), all three of them will be put in the genetive.
- “[This young woman]’s dress is blue” becomes “[Tämän nuoren naisen] mekko on sininen”
- “[Anna’s sister’s ex-husband]’s cupboard is locked” becomes “[Annan siskon entisen miehen] kaappi on lukossa.”
- “[That angry man’s dangerous dog]’s collar is loose” becomes “[Tuon vihaisen miehen vaarallisen koiran] kaulapanta on irti.”
Finnish | English |
---|---|
[Tuon miehen lompakko] jäi pöydälle. | [That man’s wallet] was left on the table. |
[Mikon lempiväri] on musta. | [Mikko’s favorite color] is black. |
[Naapurin apua] ei tarvita. | [The neighbor’s help] is not needed. |
[Suomalaisten asenne] on kielteinen. | [Finns’ attitude] is negative. |
[Oppaan selitykset] olivat mielenkiintoisia. | [The guide’s explanations] were interesting. |
[Äidin tyttönimi] on Nieminen. | [Mom’s maiden name] is Nieminen. |
1.2. In front of postpositions
Postpositions in Finnish are often used to indicate location in relation to another object (eg. päällä “on top”; lähellä “close by”; vieressä “next to”). Postpositions generally require their complement to be inflected in the genetive.
Finnish | English |
---|---|
[Television päällä] on kukkaruukku. | There is a flower pot [on top of the television]. |
[Television takana] on seinä. | [Behind the television] is a wall. |
[Television lähellä] tapahtuu kaikenlaista. | [Close to the television] happen many things. |
Hiiri on [jääkaapin alla]. | The mouse is [underneath the fridge]. |
[Koulun vieressä] on karkkikauppa. | [Next to the school] there’s a candy store. |
[Liisan kanssa] on aina hauskaa. | [With Liisa] there’s always fun. |
1.3. When expressing necessity
In Finnish you will need to use the genetive with verbs expressing necessity (täytyy, pitää, kannattaa). Necessity can also be expressed with the more advanced “on mentävä” sentence construction, which also requires the genetive.
Finnish | English |
---|---|
Minun täytyy käydä kaupassa tänään. | I have to go to the store today. |
Sinun kannattaa tulla ajoissa. | You should come on time. |
Aleksin pitää siivota huoneensa nyt. | Aleksi has to clean his room now. |
Isoäidin on pakko asua vanhainkodissa. | Grandma has to live in a retirement home. |
Sinun ei pitäisi olla täällä. | You shouldn’t be here. |
1.4. With the object of a sentence
The -n ending is also used with the object of affirmative sentences. Depending on how familiar you are with linguistics and cases in general, you might call this case the genetive or the accusative. I’m adding it on my genetive page, but there are plenty of people who would rather I’d only add it on the accusative page.
The -n (call it either the genetive or the accusative) is used for objects in normal affirmative sentences. It expresses that whatever is being done is happening to the whole object.
Finnish | Explanation |
---|---|
Minä syön omenan. | I eat a whole apple. / I plan to eat a whole apple. |
Minä syön omenaa. | I eat some apple. / I am currently eating an apple. |
Minä luen kirjan. | I am reading the whole book. / I plan on reading the whole book. |
Minä luen kirjaa. | I’m reading part of this book. / I am currently reading this book. |
Minä luin kirjan eilen. | I read the whole book yesterday. / I finished reading the whole book. |
Minä luin kirjaa eilen. | I read part of this book yesterday. |
I’m simplifying the matter here, but these sentences are the core of the object phenomenon. You can read about it more in my article about the object.
1.5. In Certain More Advanced Constructions
The genetive will also appear in some constructions that are meant for advanced learners of Finnish. Check out the following pages if you want to learn more:
2. The Formation of the Genetive Case
The marker of the genetive is always –n. Words undergo certain changes when you add the genetive case to the end of them.
2.1. The genetive case ending of the personal pronouns
Personal pronouns inflect as follows:
Nominative | Genetive | English |
---|---|---|
minä | minun | my, mine |
sinä | sinun | your, yours (singular) |
hän | hänen | his, her, hers |
me | meidän | our, ours |
te | teidän | your, yours (plural) |
he | heidän | their, theirs |
In addition of the genetive, you can also use a possessive suffix to express possessive with personal pronouns (eg. minun auto – minun autoni).
Finnish | English |
---|---|
Minun autoni on rikki. | My car is broken. |
Sinun siskosi on raskaana. | Your sister is pregnant. |
Meidän koiramme on nukahtanut. | Our dog has fallen asleep. |
2.2. Words ending in a vowel (-a/-ä, -u/-y, -o/-ö): add -n
Nominative | Genetive | Nominative | Genetive |
---|---|---|---|
kala | kalan | tyyny | tyynyn |
talo | talon | seinä | seinän |
työ | työn | melu | melun |
vaikea | vaikean | takuu | takuun |
museo | museon | televisio | television |
2.3. Words ending in -e: add an extra -e- + -n
Words ending in -e belong to wordtype B, which means their basic form will be weak (eg. parveke, koe) and their genetive strong (eg. parvekkeen, kokeen).
Nominative | Genetive | Nominative | Genetive |
---|---|---|---|
huone | huoneen | perhe | perheen |
kappale | kappaleen | kirje | kirjeen |
lentokone | lentokoneen | taide | taiteen |
parveke | parvekkeen | koe | kokeen |
2.4. Words ending in -i
2.4.1. New words ending in -i: add -n
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.
Nominative | Genetive | Nominative | Genetive |
---|---|---|---|
banaani | banaanin | paperi | paperin |
kahvi | kahvin | pankki | pankin |
posti | postin | maali | maalin |
tili | tilin | adverbi | adverbin |
2.4.2. Old words ending in -i: replace -i with -e- and add -n
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, even though mothers have been around since the beginning of time!
Nominative | Genetive | Nominative | Genetive |
---|---|---|---|
suomi | suomen | ovi | oven |
järvi | järven | kivi | kiven |
suuri | suuren | nimi | nimen |
pieni | pienen | lehti | lehden |
2.4.3. Old words ending in -si: replace -si with -de- and add -n
More old words, but this time with –si at their end. This group has its own additional change.
Nominative | Genetive | Nominative | Genetive |
---|---|---|---|
uusi | uuden | vuosi | vuoden |
käsi | käden | kuukausi | kuukauden |
vesi | veden | reisi | reiden |
Find out more about the inflection of the different types of words ending in –i!
2.5. Words ending in a consonant
2.5.1. Words ending in -nen: replace the -nen with -se + -n
This is the same change that -nen words go through in any case except the partitive.
Nominative | Genetive | Nominative | Genetive |
---|---|---|---|
nainen | naisen | hevonen | hevosen |
suomalainen | suomalaisen | eteinen | eteisen |
iloinen | iloisen | ihminen | ihmisen |
sininen | sinisen | toinen | toisen |
2.5.2. Words ending in -as: replace -as with -aa- + -n
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 (eg. rakas, opas) and the strong grade in their genetive form (eg. rakkaan, oppaan).
Nominative | Genetive | Nominative | Genetive |
---|---|---|---|
rakas | rakkaan | rikas | rikkaan |
taivas | taivaan | lipas | lippaan |
opas | oppaan | itsekäs | itsekkään |
2.5.3. 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 which that get -ikse- when inflected.
Nominative | Genetive | Nominative | Genetive |
---|---|---|---|
kallis | kalliin | roskis | roskiksen |
kaunis | kauniin | kirppis | kirppiksen |
kauris | kauriin | fiilis | fiiliksen |
ruis | rukiin | futis | futiksen |
2.5.4. Words ending in -os/-ös: replace –os with –okse– and add –n
Words ending in -os and –ös will respectively get -okse- and –ökse– when inflected.
Nominative | Genetive | Nominative | Genetive |
---|---|---|---|
ostos | ostoksen | jäljennös | jäljennöksen |
piirros | piiroksen | käännös | käännöksen |
annos | annoksen | luonnos | luonnoksen |
2.5.5. Words ending in -us/-ys: two groups
Words ending in –us can belong to two groups: some get -ukse-, others get -ude- before the genetive’s -n. This depends on whether the word is derived from an adjective (eg. 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.
Nominative | Genetive | Nominative | Genetive |
---|---|---|---|
mahdollisuus | mahdollisuuden | vastaus | vastauksen |
rakkaus | rakkauden | kysymys | kysymyksen |
ystävyys | ystävyyden | keskus | keskuksen |
pimeys | pimeyden | tarjous | tarjouksen |
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- in the genetive.
- If the word is based on a noun (such as ystävä > ystävyys), it will get –ude- in the genetive.
- If the word ends in –uus/yys (double vowel), you will get –ude-.
2.5.6. Words ending in -ton: replace -ton with -ttoma- + -n
Read more about words ending in -ton here.
Nominative | Genetive | Nominative | Genetive |
---|---|---|---|
työtön | työttömän | koditon | kodittoman |
rahaton | rahattoman | rasvaton | rasvattoman |
maidoton | maidottoman | alkoholiton | alkoholittoman |
2.5.7. Words ending in -in: replace -in with -ime- + -n
Read more about words ending in -in here.
Nominative | Genetive | Nominative | Genetive |
---|---|---|---|
puhelin | puhelimen | keitin | keittimen |
avain | avaimen | kiharrin | kihartimen |
puhallin | puhaltimen | suoritin | suorittimen |
2.5.8. Words ending in -ut: two groups
Words ending in -ut are most commonly NUT-participles (eg. kuollut “dead” from kuolla “to die”). These nouns will get -een in the genetive case. Separate from this group there are regular nouns ending in -ut (eg. ohut, kevyt, lyhyt, olut). This is a pretty rare wordtype, which has a genetive ending in -uen/yen.
Nominative | Genetive | Nominative | Genetive |
---|---|---|---|
väsynyt | väsyneen | rakastunut | rakastuneen |
kuollut | kuolleen | pudonnut | pudonneen |
ohut | ohuen | lyhyt | lyhyen |
2.5.9. Words ending in -tar
Words ending in -tar are rare, but at least tytär (daughter) is a common word. In the genetive, these words get -ttare- in place of the basic form’s -tar.
Nominative | Genetive | Nominative | Genetive |
---|---|---|---|
tytär | tyttären | kuningatar | kuningattaren |
herttuatar | herttuattaren | jumalatar | jumalattaren |
2.5.10. Non-Finnish words ending in a consonant
Loanwords and foreign names (eg. Jonathan, Facebook) which end in a consonant will have an extra -i- added before the genetive’s -n.
Nominative | Genetive | Nominative | Genetive |
---|---|---|---|
Jonathan | Jonathanin | Facebookin | |
William | Williamin | Windows | Windowsin |
Marian | Marianin | Steam | Steamin |
Mohamed | Mohamedin | McDonalds | McDonaldsin |
3. Consonant Gradation in the Genetive Case
Wordtype A | |||
---|---|---|---|
Nominative | Genetive | Nominative | Genetive |
tyttö | tytön | pankki | pankin |
puku | puvun | pöytä | pöydän |
hattu | hatun | kauppa | kaupan |
silta | sillan | kampa | kamman |
hiekka | hiekan | apu | avun |
I have a separate article on wordtype A.
Wordtype B | |||
---|---|---|---|
Nominative | Genetive | Nominative | Genetive |
savuke | savukkeen | opas | oppaan |
keitin | keittimen | tavoite | tavoitteen |
rakas | rakkaan | hammas | hampaan |
soitin | soittimen | puhallin | puhaltimen |
allas | altaan | työtön | työttömän |
I have a separate article on wordtype B.
Read more elsewhere
- Kielikello: Genetiivin tehtävistä
Korpela’s Handbook of Finnish also addresses some less common genitive-related topics — I’ve copied them below:
The genitive form of an adjective can be used to qualify another adjective or an adverb. In these constructs, the adjective is always in singular, and it typically characterizes the amount of the quantity expressed by the other adjective. Additional examples:
Similar examples of genitive modifier + adjective written together as one word (e.g., hiuksenhieno super fine, subtle; kristallinkirkas crystal clear) are included in the Adjectives with Fixed Modifiers page, as well as more general-purpose examples in the Compound Adjectives page.
A genitive form of an adjective can be used in adverb-like manner to qualify another adjective or an adverb, e.g. tavattoman halpa (unusually inexpensive). In English, an adverb ending with “-ly” is typically used instead.
The genitive of a superlative form can also be used as a qualifier. Finnish has three ways of expressing e.g. “as large as possible”:
Ah, nice! At one point I was planning to make a separate article about these, but when I started I just couldn’t think of enough examples to warrant doing so. Thanks for listing these!
‘Genetive’ should be ‘Genitive’. Ohterwise people have trouble to find this page.
The word “read” in the following explanations is ambiguous because it can also mean the past tense of read in English, but the Finnish sentences are not in past tense. Should they be changed to “am reading” for clarity?
Minä luen kirjan. I read the whole book. / I plan on reading the whole book.
Minä luen kirjaa. I read some of this book. / I am currently reading this book.
That’s a good point! I changed it, but also added “Minä luin kirjan/kirjaa” example sentences because this also holds true in the past tense. Thank you for your comment!
Thanks for this! Quick piece of feedback for English speakers: when denoting possession, this isn’t limited to apostrophe-denoted possession (that’s the easy part). We often use nouns as qualifiers in English which also denotes possession (‘shoe size’- ‘the size of the shoe’; ‘Windsor Castle’- ‘the Castle of Windsor’). It’d be great if you could also expressly call this out- I’m finding it tough!
Thanks Eva!
Hi,
regarding to 2.6.3, does it suppose to be -us/-ys? based on your content?
Kiitos! Yes, it should be. I’ve adjusted it and awarded you one point!