illatiivipäätteen

The illative case is a grammatical case found in some languages, particularly Finnic languages like Finnish and Estonian. It is used to express motion into or towards a location. In essence, it answers the question "into where?" or "where to?".

The illative case is typically formed by adding specific suffixes to the noun stem. For example, in Finnish, the illative ending is often -Vn, where V represents a vowel that harmonizes with the preceding vowel of the noun. So, "talo" (house) becomes "taloon" (into the house). Similarly, "metsä" (forest) becomes "metsään" (into the forest).

Estonian also features an illative case, though its forms and usage can differ slightly from Finnish. The endings vary depending on the noun's declension class. For instance, "maja" (house) in Estonian can become "majja" in the illative.

The illative case is crucial for expressing directional movement and is a fundamental part of the grammatical structure of languages that possess it. It distinguishes between being within a location (inessive case) and entering into it. Understanding the illative is key to correctly constructing sentences involving movement into a place.