Monikonmuoto

Monikonmuoto is a Finnish grammar term referring to the plural form of a word. It denotes how a word changes to express more than one item and applies to words that inflect for number, such as nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and numerals. For each word, there is a set of monikonmuotoja (plural forms) across the different cases, including nominative, genitive, partitive, and the various illative, inessive, elative, and other cases. The nominal plurals are often built by endings, but many nouns also undergo stem changes, making the plural forms irregular in some cases.

In practice, monikonmuotoja are the forms you use when you refer to more than one of something. The nominative plural for many nouns ends in -t (for example, talo → talot). Other plural forms include talojen (genitive plural), taloja (partitive plural), taloissa (inessive plural), and taloista (elative plural). Similar patterns appear with other nouns: kala → kalat (nominative plural), kalojen (genitive plural), kaloja (partitive plural), kaloissa (inessive plural), and kaloista (elative plural). Adjectives agree with nouns in number as well; for example, iso talo becomes isot talot (nominative plural), isojen talojen (genitive plural), and isoja taloja (partitive plural).

Usage and reference: monikonmuotoja are listed in dictionaries and grammar references to show the plural inflection of a word in a given case. They are essential for correct agreement in phrases and clauses and for understanding how Finnish expresses quantity and relationships between items.