muurahaisilla

Muurahaisilla is the adessive plural form of the Finnish noun muurahainen, meaning ant. In Finnish grammar, the adessive case conveys location or surface and is also used to indicate the possessor in certain existential constructions. Muurahaisilla, therefore, can mean “on the ants” or “at the ants,” but in typical sentences it functions as the possessor in constructions like “X on Y,” for example describing something that belongs to or is possessed by the ants.

The base noun muurahainen has the plural form muurahaiset. Other common case forms include muurahaisien (genitive plural), muurahaisia (partitive plural), and, as noted, muurahaisille (allative plural) and muurahaisilla (adessive plural). These forms illustrate how Finnish uses case endings to express grammatical relationships, number, and other relations without articles.

Usage examples:

- Muurahaisilla on ruokaa. (The ants have food.)

- Muurahaisilla on suuria kolonioita puutarhassamme. (The ants have large colonies in our garden.)

- Tutkijat voivat seurata muurahaisille annetun reitin kulkua. (Researchers can trace the path laid out for the ants.)

Notes:

- Muurahaisilla is most common in everyday Finnish when describing possession by ants or a location related to ants in plural form.

- It is a standard example of the adessive plural in Finnish noun morphology and is often encountered in ecological, behavioral, and natural-science contexts.

See also: muurahainen, Finnish grammar, adessive case.