The genitive often marks the possessor, belonging to someone or something,
or origin.
Presidenti/n nimi on Ahtisaaari.
The President’s name is Ahtisaari.
Auli/n auto on keltainen.
Auli’s car is yellow.
Ihmise/n elämä on lyhyt.
Man’s life is short.
Kaarle Kustaa on ruotsalais/ten kuningas.
Carl Gustaf is the King of the Swedes.
Oletko juonut Aura/n olutta?
Have you drunk Aura beer?
Mies/ten vaatteet ovat pohjakerroksessa.
Men’s clothes are on the ground floor.
Öljyma/i/den politiikka kovenee.
The policies of the oil countries are getting tougher.
Kirjo/j/en sisältö on muuttunut.
The content of (the) books has changed.
Genitive expressions like the following are typical to Finnish; in many
European languages the corresponding forms are preposition or adjective
structures or compound nouns.
96 Finnish: An Essential Grammar
Turu/n kaupunki the city of Turku
Helsingi/n yliopisto Helsinki University
englanni/n kieli the English language
Venäjä/n ulkoministeri the Foreign Minister of Russia
Summa/n taistelut the battles of Summa
Niemise/n perhe the Nieminen family
Virtase/n Reino Reino Virtanen (colloquial)
Lapi/n mies a man from Lapland
maido/n hinta the price of milk
Suome/n kansa the Finnish people
Pohjoisma/i/den neuvosto the Council of the Nordic Countries
Ranska/n vallankumous the French Revolution
kadu/n mies the man in the street
ruotsi/n kiele/n opettaja a Swedish language teacher
Espanja/n matka a trip to Spain
The genitive is the case of the subject with some verbs of necessity or
obligation (täytyy ‘must’, on pakko ‘have to’, etc.), and some verbs with a
modal meaning (e.g. kannattaa ‘be worth (doing sth.)’, sopii ‘may’,
onnistuu ‘succeed’).
Minu/n täytyy lähteä. I must leave.
He/i/dän täytyy lähteä. They must leave.
Saksalais/ten täytyy lähteä. The Germans must leave.
Suome/n kannattaa yrittää. It is worth Finland trying.
Vireni/n onnistui voittaa. Viren succeeded in winning.
Mies/ten on pakko poistua. The men have to go away.
Sinu/n ei pidä uskoa kaikkea. You must not believe everything.
(In traditional Finnish grammar these genitives are not always analysed as
subjects, but are called dative adverbials. The two basic subject cases are
nominative and partitive (§25.3, §33.1).)
The genitive is also the case of the subject (traditionally: the dative
adverbial) in expressions like on hyvä ‘be good’, on paha ‘be bad’ and on
hauska ‘be nice’.
Minu/n on hyvä olla. I feel good.
Mauno/n oli hauska päästä kotiin. It was nice for Mauno to get home.
Suomalais/ten oli paha palata. The Finns felt bad about returning.
Mikä Tuula/n on? What’s up with Tuula?
The subjects of many participle and infinitive constructions also appear in the
genitive.
Talve/n tullessa… When winter comes…(lit. ‘Winter
coming…’)
Kesä/n tultua… Spring having come…
The genitive, possessive suffixes and the accusative 97
kaikk/i/en tuntema kirjailija a writer known by everyone
Näin Ulla/n tulevan. I saw Ulla coming.
Huomasin Kalle/n tulleen. I noticed Kalle had come.
And finally, many postpositions require the genitive for the headwords they
modify.
pöydä/n alla under the table
kesä/n aikana during the summer
auto/n jäljessä after the car
huonee/n keskellä in the middle of the room
äidi/n luo to mother
Virolaise/n mielestä in Virolainen’s opinion
talo/n sisällä inside the house
raha/n tähden for the sake of money
isä/n vieressä next to father
tämä/n yhteydessä in connection with this
tori/n ympärillä around the market place
