genitifmuoto

Genitifmuoto, or the genitive form, is a grammatical case in Finnish used to express possession or a close association between nouns. It marks the possessor in noun phrases, as in pojan koira, “the boy’s dog,” where pojan is the genitive of poika and koira is the head noun. The genitive also appears in phrases where adjectives modify a noun in the genitive case, for example vanhan talon katto, “the roof of the old house,” where vanhan agrees with talon in genitive singular.

Formation: The genitive singular is usually formed by adding the suffix -n to the noun stem (talo → talon, poika → pojan). The genitive plural is realized with various suffixes depending on the noun stem; common endings are -en or -ien (talo → talojen, poika → poikien, nainen → naisten, kaupunki → kaupunkien). There are irregular nouns and stems that follow different patterns, so the genitive forms must be learned case by case.

Usage: The genitive primarily indicates ownership or close association. It is used to show what something belongs to or relates to, and to form possessive attributes with other modifiers. Finnish also allows a possessive suffix on the possessed noun (taloani, “my house”), which is a separate mechanism for marking ownership. Both forms can appear in the same sentence, depending on nuance and emphasis, but they express possession in distinct syntactic ways.

Notes: The genitive is one of several nominal cases in Finnish and contrasts with others such as the partitive or illative. Adjectives and numerals that modify a genitive noun must agree in case with the head noun. Mastery of the genitive involves recognizing both its singular and plural patterns and the irregular forms common to many Finnish nouns.