ssässapäätteet

Sässapäätteet is a term used in some Finnish linguistic discussions to refer to the suffixes that express location or state in the context of the inessive case, most notably the ending -ssa/-ssä. The name is a playful fusion of the inessive ending -ssa/-ssä and the word päätteet, meaning suffixes. In standard grammars the phenomenon is described under the inessive case, but some teaching resources and online discussions use sässapäätteet as a shorthand to illustrate how locative suffixes function in Finnish.

Morphology and usage

The inessive suffix marks location “inside” or “in” a place. The common surface forms are -ssa and -ssä, depending on orthographic conventions and phonological considerations. Examples include talo + -ssa = talossa (in the house) and maa + -ssa = maassa (on the ground). Other clear examples are janoinen joki? joessa (in the river) and vesi + -ssa = vetssa? In standard usage, the exact shape of the suffix follows general Finnish phonology, with the surface form appearing as -ssa after most stems and as -ssä when phonological rules favor that variant. The suffix can appear in simple nouns as well as in nouns that participate in compound phrases and locative expressions.

Relation to other locative forms

Sässapäätteet describe the inessive category alongside related locative forms such as elative (-sta/-stä), illative (-Vn or -V) and others. In everyday Finnish, the inessive is used to answer “where?” and to denote a state of being inside a place. The term sässapäätteet is not always used in formal grammars, which typically list the inessive as -ssa/-ssä and teach it within the full set of Finnish case endings.

See also

Finnish grammar, inessive case, locative suffixes, -ssa/-ssä endings.