nuoriin

Nuoriin is a Finnish grammatical form derived from nuori, meaning a young person. It functions as the illative plural of nuori and is used to express motion into or toward a group of young people. In practice, nuoriin appears chiefly in descriptive or narrative contexts where the action involves entering or joining a cohort of youths; it is less common in everyday speech outside formal or literary registers.

Etymology and form: The base nuori forms the plural nuoret for the nominative, and nuorten for the genitive of the plural. The illative plural suffix -iin attaches to the stem to yield nuoriin. Like other illative-plural forms, nuoriin follows Finnish vowel harmony rules. The form thus conveys the sense of “into the youths” rather than “to the youths” in some contexts; the precise interpretation can depend on the surrounding verb and preposition.

Usage and examples: In sentences with motion verbs, nuoriin marks direction into the group of young people. It contrasts with nuorille, the allative plural, which marks a destination or recipient without implying entering. The form also appears in discussions of Finnish inflection as an example of the illative plural.

See also: Finnish language, Illative case, Partitive and genitive in Finnish, Nuori.