illatiivne

Illatiivne, also known as the illative, is a grammatical case in the Estonian language used to express movement toward a destination or into something. It answers the question kuhu? (to where?) and is most commonly employed with nouns and pronouns in contexts of entering or reaching a place. In sentences with verbs of motion, the illative marks direction rather than the static location.

Formation and variations: The illative singular is typically formed by adding the suffix -sse to the noun stem, with phonological adjustments governed by vowel harmony and consonant gradation. For the plural, the illative usually attaches to the plural stem, generating forms such as majadesse (into the houses). Because of Estonian’s extensive vowel harmony and stem-changing processes, some nouns have irregular illative forms or require stem alterations. In daily usage, the illative complements various other location-related cases to specify directional meaning.

Usage notes: The illative contrasts with other locative cases that express location or movement from a place, such as inessive (inside), elative (out of), and allative (onto/onto toward). It is widely used after verbs of motion to convey entering or reaching a destination, and it also appears in phrases that denote movement toward abstract domains or objects in certain contexts. The illative is an integral part of Estonian’s system of locative cases and interacts with standard case endings and postpositional expressions.

See also: Estonian grammar, illatiiv, inessive, elative, allative, adessive, ablative, translative.