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Words ending in -tar – Kuningatar, Jumalatar

Some nouns allow you to add -tar/-tär to them in order to make the person depicted female. The base word is generally a word that doesn’t explicitly reveal the gender of the person. Learn some words ending in -tar right here!

Do note however that not all of these -tar words are actively used in regular communication situations. While you CAN specify that someone is a female salesperson, there is rarely a need to do so.

Base Noun Translation Female Noun Translation
herttua duke herttuatar duchess
jumala god jumalatar goddess
kenraali general kenraalitar female general
myyjä salesperson myyjätär saleswoman
näyttelijä actor näyttelijätär actress
pappi priest papitar priestess
perijä heir perijätär heiress
rakastaja lover rakastajatar mistress
sankari hero sankaritar heroine
suojelija patron suojelijatar protectress
ystävä friend ystävätär female friend
kuningas king kuningatar queen
ruhtinas prince ruhtinatar princess
valtias lord valtiatar lady

In addition, there are at least a couple of words ending in -tar that don’t seem to have a male counterpart.

  • The word “tytär” (aka tyttö) means “daughter”
  • The word “kaunotar” means “a beauty”
  • The word “kohtalotar” means “destiny” (kahtalo means the exact same thing)

The word sisar is the only word of its kind: there are no other Finnish words as far as I can tell that end in -ar but don’t have -tar.

The Inflection of Words Ending in -tAr

Words ending in -tAr belong to wordtype B, so they have “reversed” consonant gradation. Their basic form and singular partitive will have one -t-. The plural genitive ending can be added to both the weak consonant stem (e.g. kuningatarten) or the strong vowel stem (e.g. kuningattarien).

Case Singular Plural
Nominative kuningatar kuningattaret
Partitive kuningatarta kuningattaria
Genitive kuningattaren kuningatarten, kuningattarien
Missä kuningattaressa kuningattarissa
Mistä kuningattaresta kuningattarista
Mihin kuningattareen kuningattariin
Millä kuningattarella kuningattarilla
Miltä kuningattarelta kuningattarilta
Mille kuningattarelle kuningattarille
Translative kuningattareksi kuningattariksi
Essive kuningattarena kuningattarina
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