Päätteys

Päätteys is a Finnish grammatical term that refers to the declension of nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and numerals in Finnish. Finnish is an agglutinative language, meaning it uses suffixes to indicate grammatical function. Päätteys is the process of adding these suffixes, known as case endings, to the stem of a word.

There are fifteen grammatical cases in Finnish, each with a distinct function. These cases indicate relationships such as location, possession, direction, and manner. For example, the genitive case (-n) indicates possession (e.g., talon means "of the house"). The illative case (-Vn, where V is a vowel that harmonizes with the stem) indicates movement into something (e.g., taloon means "into the house"). The elative case (-sta/stä) indicates movement out of something (e.g., talosta means "from the house").

The correct application of päätteys is crucial for forming grammatically correct Finnish sentences. The specific case ending used often depends on the stem of the word and vowel harmony rules. Mastering päätteys is considered one of the more challenging aspects of learning Finnish for non-native speakers. The system of cases allows Finnish to express a wide range of meanings that might require prepositions or different word orders in other languages.