Laivoille

Laivoille is the allative plural form of the Finnish noun laiva, meaning ship. It marks direction toward ships, indicating a destination or target in movements or actions involving ships. In Finnish, the allative case expresses motion toward something, as opposed to the adessive on ("laivoilla," meaning on the ships) or the illative or inessive forms used for other spatial relations. The singular allative of laiva is laivalle, while the plural allative is laivoille.

Morphology and usage

Laivoille is formed from the stem laivo- combined with the allative plural suffix -ille. This form is primarily used with verbs of movement or arrival and in maritime contexts, such as boarding, docking, or planning trips that involve ships. It often appears in phrases describing going toward ships, heading to a port, or joining a fleet or cruise.

Examples

- Mennään laivoille. (Let’s go aboard the ships.)

- Hän saapui laivoille myöhässä. (He arrived at the ships late.)

- Retket laivoille ovat suosittuja omalla rannikolla. (Trips to the ships are popular along the coast.)

See also

- Finnish cases and their functions

- Finnish maritime terminology

- Laiva (ship) and related inflected forms

Laivoille thus functions as a specific case form used to express movement toward multiple ships, distinguishing destination from location or origin in Finnish grammar.