Päivältä

Päivältä is a Finnish noun form that belongs to the elative case. It is the elative singular of the noun päivä, meaning “day.” The elative marks origin, source, or starting point and answers questions such as “from where?” or “out of which day?” In everyday Finnish, päivältä is most commonly encountered in written or formal language and is less frequent in casual speech.

Usage and meaning

Päivältä indicates origin or source associated with a specific day or time period. It can refer to information, memories, events, or actions that originate from a particular day. The form can also be used to describe movement away from a time period, effectively marking the starting point of a duration or sequence in time.

Morphology

The elative singular suffix is -ltä, so the stem päivä becomes päivältä. The corresponding plural elative is päiviltä. Other related forms of päivä include päivän (genitive), päivällä (inessive, “on the day/on daytime”), and päivälle (allative, “to the day/to daytime”).

Pronunciation

Päivältä is pronounced roughly as PAI-vält-tä, with the accent on the first syllable.

Relation to other Finnish cases

Päivältä contrasts with other forms of the word that express location or time in different senses, such as päivällä (on the day), päivän (of the day), or päivää (partitive). The elative is specifically about origin or source, not simply location.

See also

Finnish grammar, elative case, päivä (day).