Genetiiviä

Genetiiviä is the Finnish term for the genitive case, one of the language’s inflectional endings used on nouns and pronouns. It marks a range of relationships between nouns, most commonly possession or belonging, but also other connections such as part of a compound or origin in certain phrases. The genitive forms sit in the noun’s inflected paradigm and interact with other grammatical elements in a sentence.

Genitive singular is usually formed by adding a genitive ending to the noun stem. A common pattern is the suffix -n, as in talo (house) → talon, or kirja (book) → kirjan. Some nouns show stem changes or irregularities, but many follow this basic pattern. Genitive plural endings vary by noun class and can be -en or -ien, among others. Examples include talo → talojen (of houses), kirja → kirjojen (of books), nainen → naisten (women’s).

Usage examples illustrate its core function. The door of the house is talon ovi, where talon is the genitive form of talo. A dog’s name is koiran nimi, with koiran as the genitive singular of koira. The genitive also appears in noun phrases to express possession, such as naisen hame (the woman’s skirt) or talomme omistajan nimi (the owner’s name of our house). In addition, Finnish often uses possessive suffixes on the possessed noun to indicate the possessor directly, for example taloni meaning “my house.”

Overall, genetiiviä serves as a versatile tool in Finnish grammar for indicating possession, association, and other relational links between nouns, complementing the language’s broader system of noun inflection.