Lukumuoto

Lukumuoto is a linguistic term used in Finnish grammar to refer to the inflectional forms that numerals can take. The concept covers how numerals, both cardinal and ordinal, change in different grammatical contexts and how they interact with the nouns they quantify. In practice, lukumuoto describes the set of forms a numeral may assume when it functions within a sentence, such as when it agrees with case, number, or determiner function.

In Finnish, numerals often exhibit distinct forms for different grammatical cases and syntactic roles. The lukumuoto of a numeral can vary between a base form used in dictionary entries and the inflected forms used in actual utterances. The exact forms depend on the numeral and the case system, and some numerals have more complex inflection patterns than others. Because numerals interact with the noun they modify, lukumuoto is also relevant for agreement and for determining the appropriate determiner or modifier in a noun phrase.

Lukumuoto is primarily a descriptive concept found in Finnish grammar and language–learning resources. It is useful for understanding how numbers function across different contexts, for analyzing sentence structure, and for producing accurate, natural-sounding Finnish. While many learners focus on common numerals, the full set of lukumuoto forms becomes clearer with exposure to extensive examples and reference tables in grammatical descriptions.