Laivoilla

Laivoilla is the plural adessive form of the Finnish noun laiva, meaning "on ships." It denotes location on more than one ship. In Finnish, the adessive case (ending in -lla/-llä) marks a location on a surface or object, and laivoilla is used for multiple ships.

In practical use, laivoilla appears in maritime contexts, logistics, travel writing, and reporting to describe where people or things are situated. It can convey both physical location and organizational context, for example when describing crews, operations, or activities conducted on board ships. A typical sense is “on the ships.”

Examples of usage include: "Laivoilla työskentelee merimiehiä" (Seamen work on ships). The term is often contrasted with related forms such as laivalla ("on the ship" for singular) and laivoille ("onto the ships"), illustrating Finnish case and number patterns for location expressions.

Related concepts include the singular adessive laivalla, the illative laivoille, and the elative laivoilta, which together illustrate how Finnish marks on-ship location across number and direction.