If you’ve been studying Finnish for a while, you know for sure that, in general, adjectives are inflected in the same case as their noun: [iso talo] becomes [isossa talossa] and [isoihin taloihin]. We call this “congruence” (kongruenssi). Congruence is sometimes also called agreement in English. The opposite is incongruence.

This article deals with incongruence, which is what we call it when congruence is broken. In these phrases the attribute and the noun are both inflected, but in different cases, as in the phrase [vähäksi aikaa] “for a little while”. These are phrases you will have to learn by heart because these are not logical or predictable. There are, however, certain nouns that will have this happen quite regularly (e.g. the words tapa, paikka and aika). In some cases, incongruence is obligatory, but in others, we can have two correct forms.

Don’t get overwhelmed!

I am very much aware that this article is overwhelming. I hope it’s comforting to know that the words listed in the first section of this article are all you will need for a long time. Consider the rest of this article an “interesting read” but don’t create any pressure for yourself to remember all of these. This will come with time. My advice is to actively study the phrases listed in the first section and learn the rest of the phrases one by one when you actually come across them somewhere or need them.

So many people were involved in making sure this article contains as accurate information as possible. I especially want to thank Viltsu, takkutaa and Jukka_K for their extensive help! This has been a challenging topic, not in the least because the usage of these phrases can differ depending on the speaker and the situation. Thank you for taking the trouble to go over certain phrases in your mind and giving such valuable feedback! This article would probably never be published without you.

1. The most important phrases

The following tables contain really common phrases where incongruence is either the only option, or by far the more common one of the options. These tables don’t contain any explanations or translations, but you can find the same phrases in the rest of the article below.

2. Incongruence vs. congruence

Some phrases have two possible forms. Below, you can see some examples. On the left side in the table, you can find phrases where the words are in a different case. On the right, there’s the same phrase but with both words in the same case. These are examples where both versions are possible. The numbers provided are the google search results for each phrase. This can give you some idea of how common both forms are. You can use this same trick to figure out how common a phrase is. Search for each phrase by putting them between quotation marks (e.g. “näillä keinoin” and “näillä keinoilla“).

In meaning, these phrases are synonyms. The incongruent version is generally more idiomatic. Some phrases can only be used with two different cases. The expressions above in section 1 are words where it would be very beneficial for you to learn and use the incongruent phrase.

3. Translative + partitive

In the sentences below, the translative case is combined with the partitive case.

Some remarks:

4. Inessive + partitive

The following phrases consist of the inessive case and the partitive case.

Some remarks:

5. Inessive + instructive

The following phrases consist of the inessive case and the instructive case.

Some remarks:

6. Elative + partitive

The following phrases consist of the elative case and the partitive case.

Some remarks:

7. Elative + instructive

The following phrases consist of the elative case and the instructive case.

Some remarks:

8. Adessive + partitive

The following phrases consist of the adessive case and the partitive case.

Some remarks:

9. Adessive + instructive

The following phrases consist of the adessive case and the instructive case.

Some remarks:

10. Ablative + partitive

The following phrases consist of the ablative case and the partitive case.

Some remarks:

• For many of the examples above, we’re using the miltä form (the ablative case – rather than mille or millä) because the verb requires it. This doesn’t always match up with the form you’d use in English. For example, in Finnish you find something from a place rather than in a place. This is because the verbs löytää and löytyä require -sta or -lta. You can read more about verb rections like this here.
• Translating kohta to English can be difficult to do with just one word: it can mean a spot, a point, a location or an area. It really depends on the example which one fits better. Keep that in mind when looking at the translations. I feel I did a pretty bad job with the translations here!
• The difference in meaning between [samasta kohtaa] and [samalta kohtaa] fits with the general difference between these two cases. The general rule is that we use -sta for small, clearly defined areas and -lta for larger, less specific areas. However, it’s up to the speaker to choose which one they find more appropriate in the context at hand.
• It would be beneficial to learn the incongruent phrase for [tältä erää]! While [tältä erältä] does exist and has the same meaning, the idiomatic phrase [tältä erää] (meaning “for now”) is much more common.

11. Ablative + instructive

The following phrases consist of the ablative case and the instructive case.

Some remarks:

1. For many of the examples above, we’re using the miltä form (the ablative case) because the verb requires it (e.g. löytää + mistä, poistaa + mistä). This doesn’t always match up with the form you’d use in English. For example, in Finnish you find something from a place rather than in a place. This is because the verbs löytää and löytyä require -sta or -lta. You can read more about verb rections like this here. I’ve opted for translating these sentences in a way that makes sense in English, which means the word “from” is missing in many of the translations.
2. The form puolen in the examples above (#1) looks very much like the genitive form of puoli. Grammatically, it’s the singular instructive case, which is only very rarely used in Finnish. Only the singular puolen is used in incongruent phrases, so you won’t find “toisilta puolin“. You can find the plural in the congruent phrases [molemmin puolin] and [kaikin puolin] (more examples here). Also note for phrases marked with #1 that the pronoun used with puolen is in its singular form (e.g. tuolta puolen rather than noilta puolen). The congruent phrase (e.g. tältä puolelta) is more of an everyday phrase, while the incongruent phrase (e.g. tältä puolen) has a slightly more fancy, literary nuance.
3. In the phrase [puolelta päivin] (#2) we have two different cases as well as a difference in singular and plural incongruence. The phrase [puolilta päivin] matches up better, since both words are plural. As such, the plural form might “sound” better to some Finns. However, both forms are used very commonly.
4. Translating kohta to English can be difficult to do with just one word: kohta can mean a spot, a point, a location or an area. For the [miltä + instructive] forms (#3), the most natural translation is “area”, as you can see in the examples above.
5. For seuduin, tienoin and main (#5) there is an added complication. While these forms are grammatically plural, they don’t necessarily get understood as a plural. For example, “Näyttelijä on kotoisin [näiltä seuduin]” could be both translated as “from these regions” and “from this region”. This is a peculiarity in English but doesn’t bother most Finns because the instructive is almost always used in its plural form. This is also the reason why the pronoun used with it is inflected in the plural (e.g. [niiltä seuduin] rather than [siltä seuduin]).

12. Allative + instructive

The following phrases consist of the allative case and the instructive case.

Some remarks:

12. Accusative + partitive

The following phrases combine the accusative case (which looks like the genitive here with the marker -n) and the partitive case.

Some remarks:

13. Full paradigm examples

Theoretically, for every phrase that can be used with the inessive’s marker -ssa, there could also be a similar phrase with the elative‘s marker -sta or the illative‘s mihin form. However, the extent to which these forms are used can vary dramatically.

In the following table, you can find the inessive (missä), elative (mistä) and illative (mihin) forms used in combination with kohtaa. Forms that are green and bolded are very common. Words between brackets are very rare. I’ve taken the easy way out and used Google to determine how common these forms are.

The table below has the the adessive (millä), ablative (miltä) and allative (mille) forms used in combination with puolen. Unlike kohtaa, you will never use -ssa or -sta with puolen. Forms that are green and bolded are very common. Words between brackets are very rare. Note that many of these forms are used but not many of them are common.

One more table to demonstrate the paradigm of words that can get -lla.

Read more elsewhere on the internet:

• Kongruenssittomia ilmauksia
• Kongruoimattomat lausekkeet ja ilmaustyypit