taloihin

Taloihin is a Finnish word meaning “into houses” or “to the houses.” It is the illative plural form of talo, which means house. In Finnish, the illative expresses movement toward or into a place; taloihin specifically indicates movement into multiple houses or into a group of buildings. The corresponding singular illative is taloon, meaning “into a house.” The plural illative suffix -ihin attaches to the stem talo to form taloihin, following vowel harmony.

Usage notes: taloihin is used with verbs of motion or direction, such as mennä (to go), tulla (to come), or asettua (to settle into), when the destination is more than one building. It contrasts with taloon (singular) and with other cases used for different spatial relations.

Examples:

- Mennään taloihin katsomaan vanhoja rakennuksia. (Let’s go into the houses to see the old buildings.)

- Hän meni taloihin sateelta suojaantumaan. (He went into the houses to shelter from the rain.)

Origin and form: taloihin is formed from talo plus the illative plural suffix -ihin. This reflects Finnish’s rich case system and the role of suffixal morphology in marking direction and plurality.

See also: Finnish grammar, illative case, Finnish nouns, case system.