When it comes to words that end in -s, Finnish has a large variety. While they all have that -s in common, the meaning and inflection of these words can vary wildly. In this article, we’re taking a closer look at words ending in –is and their inflection.

1. “is-ii” Words (kallis – kalliit)

These adjectives are inflected by turning -is into -ii- for all cases except the partitive singular. The missä, mistä, mille, millä, miltä, as well as the essive and translative, will look identical in both the singular and the plural.

1.1. Adjectives that end in -is (and get -ii-)

The Finnish language only has a couple of adjectives that end in -is. Below, you can find the conjugation of the words kallis (expensive), kaunis (beautiful), valmis (ready) and raitis (fresh).

1.2. Old nouns that end in -is (and get -ii-)

This is another small group of words, from which I’m highlighting below the nouns saalis (prey), nauris (turnip), kauris (capricorn) and ruis (rye).

2. is-ikse –words (roskis – roskikset)

2.1. Old nouns that end in -is (that get -ikse-)

There are only a few nouns that inflect with -ikse- that can be called authentic Finnish words rather than loanwords or spoken language. This table contains the inflection of the words jänis (rabbit), kasvis (vegetable) and varis (crow).

*Or jänisten, kasvisten, varisten

2.2 New words / loanwords / spoken language words ending in -is (and get -ikse-)

Finnish has a lot of spoken language words that end in -is. The general rule for these is that they get -ikse- when they’re inflected. Below, you can find a table with the inflection of the words fiilis (feeling), roskis (trash can), julkkis (celeb) and kirppis (flea market).

*Or fiilisten, roskisten, julkkisten, kirppisten

You can find out more about spoken language words ending in -is on our separate page.

3. Summary

There are two major groups for words ending in -is. First, there are words where the -is turns into -ii- when inflected. Second, there are words where the -is turns into -ikse-.

The majority of the -ikse- words are spoken language, while all the -ii- words are old Finnish words.

Related posts:

Spoken Language Words ending in -is – Puhekieli Sanasto Old Words versus New Words Ending in -i Words Ending in a Consonant: Overview Finnish Spoken Language Vocabulary