genitivmuodossa

The genitivmuodossa, or genitive case, is one of the grammatical cases in Finnish that indicates possession, origin, or a relationship between nouns. It is one of the most commonly used cases in the language, alongside the nominative, accusative, and partitive cases. The genitive case is formed by adding suffixes to the stem of a noun, often with vowel harmony taken into account.

In Finnish, the genitive case is used primarily to express possession. For example, the word *kirja* ("book") becomes *kirjan* ("the book’s") in the genitive form. This is used in phrases like *kirjan sivu* ("the book’s page") or *kirjan nimi* ("the book’s title"). The genitive can also indicate origin, as in *Suomen pääkaupunki* ("Finland’s capital"), where *Suomen* is the genitive of *Suomi* ("Finland").

The genitive suffix varies depending on the noun’s stem vowel. Common genitive suffixes include *-n* (for stems ending in a vowel), *-en* (for stems ending in a consonant), and *-n* (for stems ending in *-a* or *-ä*). Some nouns have irregular genitive forms, such as *kansan* ("the people’s") from *kansa* ("people") or *lapsen* ("the child’s") from *lapsi* ("child").

The genitive case is also used in certain prepositional phrases, such as *kanssa* ("with") or *vastaan* ("against"), where the genitive indicates the object of the preposition. For instance, *minun kanssa* ("with me") uses the genitive form *minun* ("my") derived from *minä* ("I").

Unlike some other languages, Finnish does not have a separate genitive pronoun for all cases, as the genitive suffix is applied directly to the noun. This system helps maintain clarity in expressing relationships and ownership in Finnish sentences.