Plural Partitive vs Plural Genitive
How can we compare the plural partitive vs plural genitive? Can one of them help you learn the other? Find out now!
1. Plural Partitive -IA → Plural Genitive -IEN
When the plural partitive’s ending is -ia/iä, the plural genitive’s ending is –ien.
| Nominative | Partitive | Genitive | Nominative | Partitive | Genitive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| kynä | kyniä | kynien | metsä | metsiä | metsien |
| kesä | kesiä | kesien | leipä | leipiä | leipien |
| pöytä | pöytiä | pöytien | ystävä | ystäviä | ystävien |
| koira | koiria | koirien | kukka | kukkia | kukkien |
| muna | munia | munien | loma | lomia | lomien |
| tumma | tummia | tummien | tukka | tukkia | tukkien |
| järvi | järviä | järvien | sieni | sieniä | sienien |
| uusi | uusia | uusien | vuosi | vuosia | vuosien |
| sormi | sormia | sormien | lehti | lehtiä | lehtien |
| pelaaja | pelaajia | pelaajien | ohjelma | ohjelmia | ohjelmien |
2. Plural Partitive -JA → Plural Genitive -JEN
When the plural partitive’s ending is -ja/jä, the plural genitive’s ending is -jen/-jen.
| Nominative | Partitive | Genitive | Nominative | Nominative | Genitive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sana | sanoja | sanojen | hinta | hintoja | hintojen |
| kissa | kissoja | kissojen | marja | marjoja | marjojen |
| kirja | kirjoja | kirjojen | kala | kaloja | kalojen |
This rule doesn’t work for nouns with a plural partitive ending in -eja/ejä (hotelli : hotelleja : hotellejen → hotelleiden; metalli : metalleja : metallejen → metallien).
3. Plural Partitive -ITA → Plural Genitive -IDEN / -ITTEN
When the plural partitive’s ending is -ita/-itä, the plural genitive’s ending is -iden/-itten. Of these two, –iden is more common (except in some spoken language areas), but both forms are equally “correct”.
| Nominative | Partitive | Genitive #1 | Genitive #2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| huone | huoneita | huoneiden | huoneitten |
| perhe | perheitä | perheiden | perheitten |
| kirje | kirjeitä | kirjeiden | kirjeitten |
| kone | koneita | koneiden | koneitten |
| parveke | parvekkeita | parvekkeiden | parvekkeitten |
| koe | kokeita | kokeiden | kokeitten |
| maa | maita | maiden | maitten |
| suu | suita | suiden | suitten |
| vapaa | vapaita | vapaiden | vapaitten |
| harmaa | harmaita | harmaiden | harmaitten |
| tie | teitä | teiden | teitten |
| yö | öitä | öiden | öitten |
| opiskelija | opiskelijoita | opiskelijoiden | opiskelijoitten |
| kaveri | kavereita | kavereiden | kavereitten |
| rikas | rikkaita | rikkaiden | rikkaitten |
| kaunis | kauniita | kauniiden | kauniitten |
| radio | radioita | radioiden | radioitten |
4. Words with a Consonant Stem
Words that have a consonant stem, will have two options in the plural genitive. These words can end in a consonant in their basic form (e.g. keskus, mies, avain) or in some conjugated form (e.g. kiel-tä, nais-ta).
Which of the two genitives is the most common can be a little unpredictable. Below, the most common of the two has been bolded. My advice would be to learn the most common by heart and ignore the other one at the beginning of your plural genitive studies.
| Nominative | Partitive | Genitive #1 | Genitive #2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| keskus | keskuksia | keskuksien | keskusten |
| yritys | yrityksiä | yrityksien | yritysten |
| vastaus | vastauksia | vastauksien | vastausten |
| avain | avaimia | avaimien | avainten |
| soitin | soittimia | soittimien | soitinten |
| mies | miehiä | miehien | miesten |
| nainen | naisia | naisien | naisten |
| kieli | kieliä | kielien | kielten |
| vuori | vuoria | vuorien | vuorten |
| käsi | käsiä | käsien | kätten |
| vesi | vesiä | vesien | vetten |
That’s it for this plural partitive vs plural genitive comparison!
Moi! I have a doubt: as all we know monikon genetiivi that finish in r, l and n haave 2 genetiivimuotuoa. And specially in the case de ”Kuningatar” is ”kuningaTTarien”/ ”kuningaTarten”. Why, the first ole is strong (tt) and the second one weak? Thank you do much.
That’s a very good question with a complicated answer!
It’s due to the syllables in both those versions:
Open syllables (ie. syllables ending in a vowel, such as -tta-) get strong consonant gradation. Closed syllables (ie. syllables ending in a consonanent, such as -tar-) get weak consonant gradation.
This is complicated stuff! Thanks for asking 🙂
Oh excellent! I have been wondering this for other words for a while. Can’t remember the examples of course. 🙂
nvm. I can’t remember the exact example.
but is this the right way to think of syllables?
a-ja-tel-la
a-ja-tte-len
As far as open and closed syllables go, that’s correct!
But I just realized that I actually neglected the -tt- part of the syllables… It’s more intuitive to do as I did with kuninga-tta-rien and as you did with aja-tte-len, but it’s not 100% accurate.
In fact, the -tt- is spread over two syllables, so it’s a-jat-te-len and ku-nin-gat-ta-ri-en. This does nothing to the open or close syllable that decides consonant gradation though. Even when the tt is spread over two syllables, the syllables you need to look at still open and closed in the same way.
I hope I didn’t add too much confusion now.
No, not too much confusion! I think I get it.
This will help with pronunciation, I think, and better being able to guess what sounds right