Attributes are modifiers of nouns. There are two kinds of attributes occurring
before the noun: pronoun attributes (tämä auto ‘this car’) and adjective
attributes (sininen auto ‘a blue car’). Both agree with the headword in case
and number.
Attributes agree with the headword in case and number.
Basic sentence structure 75
iso auto a big car
iso/t auto/t the big cars
iso/ssa auto/ssa in the big car
iso/i/ssa auto/i/ssa in the big cars
sininen kukka a blue flower
sinise/t kuka/t the blue flowers
sinise/ssä kuka/ssa in the blue flower
sinis/i/ssä kuk/i/ssa in the blue flowers
tuo punainen kukka that red flower
tuo/n punaise/n kuka/n of that red flower
tuo/ssa punaise/ssa kuka/ssa in that red flower
nuo punaise/t kuka/t those red flowers
no/i/lla punais/i/lla kuk/i/lla with those red flowers
tämä vanha kahvi this old coffee
tä/tä vanha/a kahvi/a this old coffee (part.)
tä/stä vanha/sta kahvi/sta out of this old coffee
tä/llä vanha/lla kahvi/lla with this old coffee
Attributes occurring before plural headwords (§26) are always in the plural,
but such expressions may refer to either singular or plural concepts.
kaunii/t kasvo/t a beautiful face/the beautiful faces
nämä kasvo/t this face/these faces
terävä/t sakse/t sharp scissors (one pair or several)
harma/i/ssa housu/i/ssa in grey trousers
yhde/t sakse/t one pair of scissors
kahde/t kasvo/t two faces
There are a few adjectives or adjective-like words which are exceptions to the
concord rule and do not agree with the headword. The most common ones
are: ensi ‘first’, eri ‘different’, joka ‘every’, koko ‘whole’, pikku ‘little’,
viime ‘last’, cf. ensi kerra/lla ‘next time’; viime talve/na ‘last winter’; koko
kaupungi/ssa ‘in the whole town’; joka ihmise/lle ‘to every person’; eri
sängy/ssä ‘in a different bed’.
