tammikuuta

Tammikuuta is the partitive singular form of the Finnish month name tammikuu, which corresponds to January in English. In Finnish, the month name changes form according to case, and tammikuuta specifically signals the partitive case.

The primary use of tammikuuta is in contexts where the month is the object of a verb or a time span. It is commonly seen in date expressions and formal writing, especially for indicating a time period. For example, in date ranges you may encounter phrases such as 1.–31. tammikuuta 2020, which means from January 1 to January 31, 2020. In other contexts, tammikuuta can denote a duration of January, as in Kampanja, joka kesti tammikuuta (a campaign that lasted January).

Etymologically, tammikuu is a traditional Finnish month name and the form tammikuuta reflects the language’s regular use of the partitive case for certain time expressions. The exact historical development of Finnish month names is complex, but tammikuu belongs to a set of native Finnish month names that also use various case forms in different constructions. The suffix -kuu is a common element in Finnish month names, and tammikuu literally adapts to case as needed in sentences.

In everyday Finnish, tammikuu refers to January, while tammikuuta appears in grammatically specific situations, notably in dates and durations. For most simple references, the nominative tammikuu is used, with tammikuuta appearing when the sentence requires the partitive form.