kotiin

Kotiin is the illative form of the Finnish noun koti, meaning “home.” It expresses direction toward home and is used with verbs of motion to indicate a destination, rather than a static location. For example, in the sentence Mennä kotiin, the speaker is going toward home.

In Finnish grammar, koti is the base noun and -in marks the illative case, which answers the question “to where?” in the context of movement. The illative form can be used with different nouns to specify destinations, and kotiin is a common example due to the everyday importance of returning home. The pronunciation is typically described as roughly “KO-teen.”

Usage and examples:

- Menen kotiin. (I’m going home.)

- Hän lähti kotiin aikaisin. (He left for home early.)

- He suunnittelevat paluuta kotiin; the compound kotiinpaluu combines the illative form with paluu (return) to mean “return home.”

Kotiin is not a location marker by itself, but part of a grammatical case system indicating direction. Its usage is most frequent in spoken Finnish and in written contexts that reflect natural speech. Related terms include koti (home), elatiivi or elatiiv forms for other directional meanings, and compounds like kotiinpaluu (return home) that extend the illative sense.

See also: koti, illatiivi in Finnish grammar, kotiinpaluu.