The ending of the genitive singular in Finnish is -n. When added to foreign names ending in a consonant, the genitive ending (and other endings as well) is preceded by i, which functions as a link vowel.
| Kallen auto Johnin opettaja Saksan pääkaupunki New Yorkin poliisi |
'Kalle's car' 'John's teacher' 'the capital of Germany' 'the New York police' |
As can be seen from the examples, the word in the genitive precedes the thing possessed. If there is an adjective in front of the noun, it also gets the genitive ending:
The stem to which the genitive ending is added may differ from the basic form. Some of those irregularities depend on the sound that the word ends in. For example, the genetive stem will differ from the basic form
| - always if the basic form ends in -nen | suomalainen --> suomalaisen |
| - always if the word ends in a consonant | Sibelius --> Sibeliuksen puhelin --> puhelimen |
| - in most cases when the basic form ends in -e | perhe --> perheen |
| - fairly often if a 2-syllable word ends in -i | Suomi --> Suomen uusi --> uuden |
| - often when the word is a pronoun or a question word | minä --> minun sinä --> sinun hän --> hänen, se --> sen me --> meidän te --> teidän he --> heidän, ne --> niiden mikä --> minkä kuka --> kenen |
Last reviewed: January 25, 2004.
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