käändelistes

Käändelistes is a Finnish term that refers to the case system in the Finnish language. Finnish is known for its extensive case system, which is a significant feature of its grammar. Nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and numerals can all be inflected to indicate their grammatical function within a sentence. There are typically considered to be fifteen grammatical cases in Finnish, although the exact number can vary depending on how certain distinctions are categorized.

These cases express a wide range of relationships, including location, direction, possession, and various abstract meanings. For example, the inessive case (-ssa/-ssä) indicates being "in" something, while the elative case (-sta/-stä) indicates being "from" something. The partitive case (-a/-ä, -ta/-tä) has multiple uses, including marking the object of a negated verb or indicating an indefinite quantity.

Understanding and correctly using these cases is crucial for fluency in Finnish. The endings attached to words change based on the case and the vowel harmony of the word. The case system allows for a relatively free word order in Finnish, as the grammatical role of each word is clearly marked by its case ending. This contrasts with languages like English, which rely more heavily on word order and prepositions to convey grammatical relationships.