Nominative, genitive, partitive: singular

These three cases are called grammatical cases, because they have special role in sentences: they identify the subject and the object. There is also the accusative case, but some grammars don't mention it because it looks like the genitive.

More how to use these cases on the sentence article.

Nominative singular

Nominative is the basic case found in dictionaries, it answers the question what?. Nominative doesn't have any ending in singular.

Genitive singular

Genitive shows the owner, and answers the question whose?. Genitive case ends with n.

• talon
• pihan
• pullon
• verhon
• seinän
• juoman
• kynttilän
• korkean

Consonant gradation makes this little bit more complicated; genitive is usually in the weak grade.

One exception is words ending with s. Then it's reversed: nominative is in weak grade, and genitive in the strong grade:

Note also, that in this word type the last s disappears and the last vowel is long.

Other exceptions and changes on stems:

There are some othee exceptions, as well. Usually the problem is with consonants because you cannot add n after another consontant. That's why the stem transforms.

Words ending nen. Because words cannot end with two n's, that's why nen in the end of the word becomes sen

words ending with t. You cannot add n after t, that's why:

Words ending with s are always difficult. There are several types of these words.

Sometimes kse must be added:

Many loan words belong to this group. For example, some Latin names and names from Bible.

Sometimes the s must be left out, and vowel lengthened:

Sometimes de need to be added, if the word ends with -us:

Sometimes there are no rules at all:

There are some exceptions with vowels as well:

The last i becomes e in genitive in some words:

If there is a short e in the ending of the word, it becomes long e (e:ee).

There are lots of rules, but if you know how to form genitive, you are able to form the location cases. See also the article about the declination types.

Partitive singular

Partitive answers the question what. It's an important case because objects are often in partitive case. (Read more about when to use partitive.)

Minä syön leipää.

I'm eating bread. / I eat bread.

You form the partitive case by adding -a or -ta -ending. You must also remember the vowel harmony.

a-ending is used, when the word ends with a single vowel (short vowel):

j behaves like vowels:

ta is used, when there are 2 vowels (vowel is long or a diphthong):

or the word ends with consonant

Partitive is in same grade as nominative and opposite grade as genitive, thus:

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Additional reading

• Leila White: A Grammar Book of Finnish
• Suomen mestari 1
• Kuulostaa hyvältä 1
• Hyvin menee 1
• Oma Suomi 1
• Kieli käyttöön 1