Äidillä

äidillä is the adessive singular form of the Finnish noun äiti, meaning mother. In Finnish grammar, the adessive case marks location or companionship, so äidillä is commonly translated as “on/at/with the mother,” depending on the context. It is used when talking about being at a mother’s place or about being with one’s mother. A typical sentence is Käyn äidillä kahvilla, meaning “I go to my mother’s for coffee” or “I visit my mother for coffee.”

Morphology and related forms: The base noun äiti has several cases, including äidin (genitive, “of/’s mother”), äitiä (partitive, used when the mother is a direct object in a partitive sense), and äitini (my mother, nominative with the possessive suffix -ni). The adessive can appear with possessive suffixes as well, for example äidilläni meaning “at my mother’s [place]” or “with my mother.”

Usage notes: Äidillä is most natural in everyday speech when referring to visiting or being at one’s mother’s home. In many contexts, speakers may prefer expression with luona: äidin luona (at mother’s place) or käydä äidin luona, but äidillä remains common in colloquial phrases emphasizing location or company.

Etymology: The word äiti is a native Finnish term for mother, with cognates in related Finnic languages (for example Estonian ema). The exact historical development is part of the broader Proto-Finnic lexicon; äidillä is a regular inflection formed from äiti plus the adessive suffix -llä.

See also: Finnish noun cases; Finnish kinship terms; Finnish possessive forms.