In this article, you can find information about the genitive case. We’ll go over when to use it and how you inflect words into the genitive.

1. Use of the Genitive Case (minkä, kenen)

1.1. When indicating possession

The genitive is used to express someone possessing something. The genitive’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 genitive.

• “[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.”

1.2. In front of postpositions

Postpositions in Finnish are often used to indicate location in relation to another object (e.g. päällä “on top”; lähellä “close by”; vieressä “next to”). Postpositions generally require their complement to be inflected in the genitive.

1.3. When expressing necessity

In Finnish you will need to use the genitive with verbs expressing necessity (täytyy, pitää, kannattaa). Necessity can also be expressed with the more advanced “on mentävä” sentence construction, which also requires the genitive.

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 genitive or the accusative. I’m adding it on my genitive 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 genitive or the accusative) is used for objects in normal affirmative sentences. It expresses that whatever is being done is happening to the whole object.

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 genitive 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 Genitive Case

The marker of the genitive is always –n. Words undergo certain changes when you add the genitive case to the end of them.

2.1. The genitive case ending of the personal pronouns

Personal pronouns inflect as follows:

In addition to the genitive, you can also use a possessive suffix to express possession with personal pronouns (e.g. minun auto – minun autoni).

2.2. Words ending in a vowel (-a/-ä, -u/-y, -o/-ö): add -n

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 (e.g. parveke, koe) and their genitive strong (e.g. parvekkeen, kokeen).

2.4. Words ending in -i

Find out more about the inflection of the different types of 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.

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!

This section combines words belonging to the OVI-type and the PIENI-type into one because these types undergo the exact same change when inflected in the genitive case.

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.

I have a more extensive list of words that belong to this type here.

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.

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 (e.g. rakas, opas) and the strong grade in their genitive form (e.g. rakkaan, oppaan).

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 get -ikse- when inflected.

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.

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 genitive’s -n. This depends on whether the word is derived from an adjective (e.g. 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.

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 genitive.
• If the word is based on a noun (such as ystävä > ystävyys), it will get –ude- in the genitive.
• 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.

2.5.7. Words ending in -in: replace -in with -ime- + -n

Read more about words ending in -in here.

2.5.8. Words ending in -ut: two groups

Words ending in -ut are most commonly NUT-participles (e.g. kuollut “dead” from kuolla “to die”). These nouns will get -een in the genitive case. Separate from this group there are regular nouns ending in -ut (e.g. ohut, kevyt, lyhyt, olut). This is a pretty rare wordtype, which has a genitive ending in -uen/yen.

2.5.9. Words ending in -tar

Words ending in -tar are rare, but at least tytär (daughter) is a common word. In the genitive, these words get -ttare- in place of the basic form’s -tar.

2.5.10. Non-Finnish words ending in a consonant

Loanwords and foreign names (e.g. Jonathan, Facebook) which end in a consonant will have an extra -i- added before the genitive’s -n.

You might also want to check out these two articles:

3. Consonant Gradation in the Genitive Case

I have a separate article on wordtype A.

I have a separate article on wordtype B.

Related posts:

Finnish Postpositions – Edessä Takana Vieressä The Inflection of Postpositions – Finnish Grammar Necessity Sentences – Täytyy – Pitää – On Pakko Adverbs of Location: Täällä, Kaikkialla, Ylhäällä