Nominative singular Nominative plural
auto car auto/t the cars
maa country maa/t the countries
talo house talo/t the houses
hylly shelf hylly/t the shelves
nainen woman naise/t the women (cf. §20.1)
kivi stone kive/t the stones (cf. §18.2)
käsi hand käde/t the hands (cf. §18.4)
There are no articles in Finnish corresponding to the way the difference
between definite and indefinite meaning is expressed e.g. in English (the car,
a car). Whether the Finnish expression auto is to be interpreted as definite or
indefinite is often indicated by the word order of the sentence in question
(§25.3). The nominative plural, e.g. auto/t, almost always has the meaning
‘definite’.