Finnish place cases: in, out of, into, on and off

English uses prepositions for places: in, out of, into, on, off, onto. Finnish has no separate word for these. It adds a case ending to the place noun instead. There are six location cases, and they form two sets of three.

The short version: inside words end in -ssa / -sta / -an, and surface words end in -lla / -lta / -lle.

The six location cases

Notice that the endings follow the vowel pattern of the word (see the vowel harmony guide). Talo takes -ssa, and pöytä takes -llä.

Examples

• Asun Helsingissä. (I live in Helsinki.) Helsinki + inessive.
• Menen kouluun. (I am going to school.) Koulu + illative.
• Tulen koulusta. (I am coming from school.) Koulu + elative.
• Kissa hyppää pöydälle. (The cat jumps onto the table.) Pöytä + allative.
• Kirja on pöydällä. (The book is on the table.) Pöytä + adessive.

Common mistakes

• Mixing up in and into. Talossa means "in the house" (location). Taloon means "into the house" (movement).
• Using the surface cases for things you are inside. Pöydällä is on the table. Do not use it for a room or a city.
• Using a preposition in front of the case. Finnish puts the ending on the noun, so talossa is one word, not in talossa.

Going to a person

With people, Finnish uses postpositions instead of the place cases. Menen Liisan luo. (I am going to Liisa's.) The forms are luo (to), luona (at) and luota (from).