ympäri

Ympäri is a Finnish adverb and postposition meaning around, surrounding, or throughout. It describes the area surrounding a center or the extent that encircles something, and it can also indicate circular movement or distribution around a place.

In typical usage, ympäri follows the noun that denotes what is being encircled, and the noun is inflected in the appropriate case. For example, kaupunki is used in the genitive: kaupungin ympäri means around the city; tien ympäri means around the road. For a circular route or leisurely walk, you can say lenkki kaupungin ympäri, meaning a lap around the city. When referring to broad scope, ympäri is used with place names in the partitive or other cases, as in ympäri maailmaa (around the world) or ympäri Suomea (around Finland).

Grammatical notes: ympäri is a postposition, not a standalone preposition. The governing noun precedes ympäri and is inflected according to Finnish case rules. The form of the following noun—genitive, partitive, or other cases—depends on the meaning and syntactic construction. Ympäri is common in both spoken and written Finnish and appears in a wide range of contexts, from directions and travel to descriptions of distribution or coverage.

See also: Finnish grammar, postpositions.