Understanding the Genitive Case in Finnish
In Finnish, the genitive case is used to show ownership or belonging. It's like saying 'Tom's book' or 'the dog's tail' in English. When we use the genitive case, we change the end of the word to show who owns what.
Important Points
- The genitive case is used to show possession.
- It often ends with an 'n' sound in Finnish.
- It can also show relationships, like family or parts of a whole.
To change a word to the genitive case, we usually add an 'n' to the end of the word. Sometimes, we might have to make other small changes to the word too. Let's look at some examples to see how this works.
Examples
- Koira -> koiran (dog -> dog's)
- Kirja -> kirjan (book -> book's)
- Auto -> auton (car -> car's)
Sometimes, if a word ends with a vowel, we might need to drop that vowel before adding the 'n'. This can happen with words that end in 'a' or 'ä'.
Examples
- Kukka -> kukan (flower -> flower's)
- Poika -> pojan (boy -> boy's)
The genitive case is also used when talking about family members or parts of something. For example, if you want to say 'my brother's hat' or 'the edge of the table', you would use the genitive case.
Examples
- Veli -> veljen (brother -> brother's)
- Pöytä -> pöydän (table -> table's)