Language/Finnish/Grammar/Nouns

Finnish nouns are written with small initial letter and they are declined in 15 (or 14, see below) cases.

Cases in standard Finnish

Example for 'kauppa' ("shop, transaction, commerce"):

Case/Number	Singular	Plural
Nominative	kauppa	kaupat
Genitive	kaupan	kauppojen
Partitive	kauppaa	kauppoja
Accusative	kauppa kaupan	kaupat
Inessive	kaupassa	kaupoissa
Elative	kaupasta	kaupoista
Illative	kauppaan	kauppoihin
Adessive	kaupalla	kaupoilla
Ablative	kaupalta	kaupoilta
Allative	kaupalle	kaupoille
Essive	kauppana	kauppoina
Translative	kaupaksi	kaupoiksi
Abessive	kaupatta	kaupoitta
Instructive	-	kaupoin
Comitative	-	kauppoine

It is disputed, whether accusative really is case or not. Out of 15 (or 14 without accusative) cases, nominative, genitive, partitive, (accusative,) inessive, elative, illative, adessive, ablative, allative, essive and translative are in highly common use, whereas abessive, instructive and comitative are used significantly less and especially abessive and comitative may drop out of use in future, although it seems that new singular comitative case (likely then *kaupankaa, from colloquial 'kaupan kaa', kaa ('kanssa' in std Finnish) means "with") may be developing.

Usage examples

• Koira söi jäätelön ("Dog ate ice cream")
  • 'Koira' in nominative singular and 'jäätelö' in accusative singular (or in genitive if accusative doesn't exist)
• Tämä on sinun syytäsi! ("This is your fault!")
  • 'Syy' in partitive singular with possessive suffix '-si'
• [Needs expansion]

Cases in colloquial Finnish

Main colloquial variations of noun cases in colloquial Finnish include inessive 'kaupas(SNG)/kaupois(PL)' illative 'kauppaa/kauppoihi', adessive 'kaupal/kaupoil' and translative 'kaupaks/kaupoiks'. Abessive, instructive and comitative, already rare in standard Finnish, have even less use in colloquial Finnish. Other cases are as common (highly common) in both variants.