inessiivimuotoinen

Inessiivimuotoinen is a linguistic term used in Finnish grammar to describe a word form that is inflected in the inessive case. The inessive (inessiivi) marks location inside something and is typically expressed with the suffix -ssa/-ssä in singular and -issa/-issä in plural. A noun that appears in this case is described as inessiivimuotoinen. The term is mainly used in linguistic descriptions, grammar references, and language-learning materials rather than in everyday speech.

Formation and examples: The inessive forms arise from adding the appropriate suffix to the noun stem. For example, talo meaning “house” becomes talossa (in the house) in the singular, and taloissa (in the houses) in the plural. Other common inessive forms include kaupungissa (in the city) and koulussa (in school). Adjectives preceding a noun typically reflect the noun’s case in agreement, as in isossa talossa (in the big house), where the adjective aligns with the noun’s inessive form. The concept is useful for describing patterns of Finnish noun inflection and for analyzing sentences with locative meaning.

Use in analysis and education: Inessiivimuotoinen is primarily encountered in linguistic discussions of Finnish morphology, grammars, and typological comparisons of case systems. It helps identify when a word is functioning with the inessive suffix and facilitates parsing and description of Finnish sentence structure. The concept complements other case-based descriptors such as elatiivimuotoinen (elative form) and allatiivimuotoinen (allative form).

See also: Finnish language, Finnish case system, inessive.