Illativinen

Illativinen is a case in the Finnish language, belonging to the group of locative cases. It expresses motion into a place or the state of being inside something. Finnish grammar uses illative to indicate that a subject is moving towards or is located within a defined boundary. This case is formed by adding specific suffixes to the noun stem, which vary depending on the noun's declension class and whether it is singular or plural. Common illative suffixes include -hyn, -hän, -seen, -in, and -een. For example, the word 'talo' (house) becomes 'taloon' in the illative case, meaning "into the house." Similarly, 'kaupunki' (city) becomes 'kaupunkiin' for "into the city." The illative case is fundamental for expressing spatial relationships and directions in Finnish sentences. It distinguishes itself from other locative cases like inessive (inside) and elative (out of) by specifically denoting movement into a location. Understanding the illative case is crucial for comprehending Finnish sentence structure and meaning.