ellapäätteellä

Ellapäätteellä is a Finnish term for the suffix -lla/-llä that forms the adessive case. The ellapääte marks location on a surface, means or instrumentality, and it appears in various constructions as part of the noun form or a pronoun in the adessive.

Usage and meaning

- Location on a surface or at a site: pöydällä (on the table), seinällä (on the wall), kadulla (on the street.

- Means or instrument: käsivarrella (with the arm), kynällä (with a pen).

- Possession in certain constructions: with the adessive pronoun forms such as minulla (at me, I have), where the phrase “minulla on” expresses possession.

Formation and phonology

- The ellapääte attaches to the noun stem as -lla or -llä, depending on vowel harmony and the final sound of the stem. Most common pattern is you add -lla/-llä after the stem, producing forms like kukalla, kukalla, pöydällä, seinällä.

- The surface form may involve small changes to pronunciation or spelling to preserve smooth pronunciation (for example, compounds with pHTML stems like pöytä → pöydällä).

Related concepts

- Ellapäätteellä is the adessive form in contrast to other cases formed with suffixes such as -lle (allative, meaning “to/on”), or -lta/-ltä (ablative, meaning “from/off”).

- It is one of Finnish’s primary locational and instrumental markers and is widely used in everyday speech to indicate where something is or how an action is performed.

See also: adessive case, ellapääte, Finnish grammar.