Describing locations – adessive case

posti = post office

uimahalli = (indoor) swimming pool

pankki = bank

tori = marketplace

sairaala = hospital

katu = street (e.g. Aleksanterinkatu – A.lek.san.te.rin.ka.tu)

tie = road (Mannerheimintie – Man.ner.hei.min.tie)

· Missä = where

Missä Ryan on? Missä auto on?

Where is Ryan? Where is the car?

· Prepositions are very important in English:

Where is the post office?

It is on Main Street.

!!!! It is Main Street. …..Leaving out the preposition completely changes the answer!

· Finnish has no prepositions; it has special case endings instead. Think of them as prepositions at the end of the word, instead of in front of it.

Missä posti on?

Se on Aleksanterinkadulla.

It is Aleksanterikatu-ON

Missä tori on?

Se on Mannerheimintiellä.

It is Mannerheimintie-ON

· So in Finnish, you use the ending –lla (or –llä) to say on (on a street, on the table…)

· Remember vowel harmony! (a,o,u – e,i – ä,ö,y)

· This ending is called ADESSIVE

Question: But why does Aleksanterinkatu become Aleksanterinkadulla?

· katu is the basic form of the word ‘street’

· But the case endings are added to the genitive stem, which is kadu

· Many books recommend simply learning the genitive stem along with the basic form of each verb. (Vocab lists in our book list the basic form and then the genitive form, if they are different)

basic form gen. stem missä? where?

katu kadu kadulla on the street

kirja kirja (same) kirjalla on the book

ovi ove ovella at the door

tie tie (same) tiellä on the road

· What is this genitive stem, anyway?

· It is the form you use to create possessive expressions

· Lisa’s book = Lisan kirja

· street’s name = kadun nimi (!!!wrong!! katun nimi)

Describing locations

Answer these questions by putting the name of the street (in brackets) into the adessive case.

(1) Missä posti on? (Aleksanterinkatu) _____________________________________________________

(2) Missä uimahalli on? (Rauhankatu) ___________________________________________________

(3) Missä pankki on? (Museokatu) _____________________________________________________

(4) Missä tori on? (Mannerheimintie) _____________________________________________________

(5) Missä sairaala on? (Aleksanterinkatu) _____________________________________________________