There are three kinds of nominals with a basic form ending in -i, all with an
inflectional stem in -e. The first group, words like kivi ‘stone’, also form the
partitive singular from this inflectional stem.
Inflectional stem followed by:
Basic form Case Plural Poss. suffix
kivi stone kive/n kiv/i/ssä kive/mme
Suomi Finland Suome/n – Suome/mme
kaikki all +kaike/n +kaik/i/ssa kaikke/mme
lehti newspaper +lehde/n +lehd/i/ssä lehte/mme
hetki moment hetke/n hetk/i/ssä hetke/mme
talvi winter talve/n talv/i/ssa talve/mme
järvi lake järve/n järv/i/ssä järve/mme
lahti bay +lahde/n +lahd/i/ssa lahte/mme
jälki trace +jälje/n +jälj/i/ssä jälke/mme
joki river +joe/n +jo/i/ssa joke/mme
nimi name nime/n nim/i/ssä nime/mme
ovi door ove/n ov/i/ssa ove/mme
Words like kivi thus form their partitive singular from an inflectional
stem in -e, and differ in precisely this respect from words of the kieli
type (§18.3) and the vesi type (§18.4).
The declension of nominals 47
Basic form Inflectional stem followed by partitive
kaikki all kaikke/a
Suomi Finland Suome/a
kivi stone kive/ä
lehti newspaper lehte/ä
hetki moment hetke/ä
ovi door ove/a
A comparison of the tunti and kivi types shows that it is not possible to
derive a rule from the basic form which would determine which nominals
have an inflectional stem in -e and which do not. However, it is possible to
state a rule operating in the opposite direction.
This rule always allows us to derive the basic form from the inflectional
stem. The rule does not cover nominals with an inflectional stem in long -
ee, such as perhe ‘family’, perhee/n (§19). There are a few exceptions:
kolme ‘three’, kolme/n; itse ‘self’, itse/n; nalle ‘teddy’, nalle/n; nukke
‘doll’, +nuke/n.
