illatiivit

Illatiivi is a grammatical case found in several languages, most notably in Finnish and Estonian. It is primarily used to indicate movement into or within a place. Think of it as the "into" or "in" case. For example, in Finnish, one might say "taloon" which translates to "into the house," where "taloon" is the illative form of "talo" (house). Similarly, "metsässä" in Finnish can mean "in the forest," showing the illative's function for location within.

The illative case often contrasts with other locative cases. For instance, Finnish also has the inessive case ("-ssa/-ssä"), which means "in" (static location), and the elative case ("-sta/-stä"), meaning "out of" or "from." The illative specifically denotes entrance or being inside something as a destination or current state of being within.

The exact form of the illative varies depending on the language and the noun's declension class. In Finnish, it typically involves adding suffixes like -Vn (where V is a vowel that harmonizes with the noun, e.g., -n, -en, -hän) or -seen. Estonian uses suffixes such as -sse. While the core function of movement into or location within remains consistent, the specific grammatical rules for its formation can be complex for learners of these languages.