tumman

Tumman is the genitive singular form of the Finnish adjective tumma, meaning dark. In Finnish, adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in number and case, so tumma takes a genitive singular form, tumman, when it precedes a noun in the genitive case.

Usage and examples

Tumman is used to express possession or association in noun phrases. For example, tumman talon ikkunat means “the windows of the dark house” or “the dark house’s windows.” Another common construction is tumman verhon takana, meaning “behind the dark curtain.” In these phrases the noun that the adjective modifies is in genitive, while the rest of the sentence follows normal Finnish grammar.

Notes

Tumman is not a standalone lexical word; it is a grammatical inflection of tumma. The form appears only when the noun it modifies is in the genitive case, and the pronunciation follows standard Finnish phonology for the word tumma plus the genitive ending. The general rule is that adjectives in Finnish take the appropriate case ending to match the noun they describe.

Etymology and related forms

Tumma derives from Finnish vocabulary meaning dark or dim. The genitive singular form tumman is one of the standard inflected forms used with nouns in genitive to indicate possession or attribution. Other inflected forms of tumma include its basic positive form tumma (nominative singular) and the plural forms such as tummat (nominative plural).

See also

Finnish grammar, Finnish adjectives, genitive case, noun-adjective agreement.