Inessiivvormiks

Ininessiivvormiksi is a term used in Finnish grammar to describe the process of inflecting a word into the inessive case, i.e., forming the word so that it denotes being inside something. The inessive (inessiivi) is one of Finnish locative cases and answers questions about location, roughly corresponding to “in” or “inside” in English. For example, talossa means inside the house, kaupungissa means in the city, and kissassa means inside the cat.

Formation and rules

The inessive form is created by adding the suffix -ssa or -ssä to the noun stem. The choice between -ssa and -ssä follows Finnish vowel harmony: -ssa is typically used with back vowels, while -ssä is used with front vowels. In practice, common examples include talo → talossa (in the house), kissa → kissassa (in the cat), and kaupungi → kaupungissa (in the city). Some stems may experience minor phonological adjustments, but the underlying idea is the same: mark location as being inside or within the referent.

Usage

The inessive is used with verbs and prepositions to express location inside something, as in asua talossa (to live in the house) or se on pöydässä (it is on the table, when referring to something inside the table’s interior or area). It is part of a broader system of Finnish cases that also includes adessive, elative, illative, and others, each serving different spatial or directional meanings.

Forming into inessive (inessiivvormiksi) is a common instruction in grammar exercises, where learners are asked to convert a given word into its inessive form to practice case endings and vowel harmony.