The three cases presented above, the inessive, elative and illative, are the
internal local cases: talo/ssa ‘in the house’, talo/sta ‘out of the house’, talo/
on ‘into the house’. The corresponding external local cases are the adessive,
ablative and allative, cf. kadu/lla ‘in the street’, kadu/lta ‘from the street’,
kadu/lle ‘to the street’, and Peka/lla ‘“at” Pekka’, Peka/lta ‘from Pekka’,
Peka/lle ‘to Pekka’.
The adessive often means location ‘on top of’ or ‘near’, ‘owner’, or
‘instrument’ by means of which an action is performed.
116 Finnish: An Essential Grammar
Basic Adessive Adessive
Form singular plural
Pöytä pöydä/llä on the table pöyd/i/llä
Katu kadu/lla in the street kadu/i/lla
auto auto/lla by car auto/i/lla
ihminen ihmise/llä ‘at’ the person ihmis/i/llä
kone konee/lla with a machine kone/i/lla
vastaus vastaukse/lla with the answer vastauks/i/lla
The basic meanings of the adessive are illustrated in the sentences below.
Matto on lattia/lla.
Kupit ovat pöydä/llä.
onko juna jo asema/lla?
Vaatteeni ovat tuoli/lla.
Auto on jo lauta/lla.
Kokous on Ylioppilastalo/lla.
Vainikkala on Venäjän raja/lla.
Penkki on peräseinä/llä.
Puukko on vyö/llä.
Poja/lla/ni on kolme lasta.
Minu/lla ei ole rahaa.
Perti/llä on uusi vene.
Isä/llä on harmaat hiukset.
Matkustamme Kuopioon juna/lla.
Hän kirjoittaa kynä/llä.
Syön keittoa lusika/lla.
The adessive is also used in time expressions, especially those wher the
headword is not preceded by attributes (time expressions containing attributes
are frequently in the essive -na ~ -nä, §49). If the headword is hetki
‘moment’, tunti ‘hour’, viikko ‘week’, kausi ‘period’, or vuosisata
‘century’, however, the case is invariably the adessive.
Talve/lla voi hiihtää. In winter one can ski.
Päivä/llä teen työtä. In the day I work.
Yö/llä pitäisi nukkua. At night one should sleep.
Tä/llä hetke/llä en voi tulla. At the moment I can’t come.
Viime tunni/lla puhuimme objektista.
In the last lesson we spoke about the object.
Ensi viiko/lla lahden Lappiin.
Next week I am going to Lapland.
The adessive can also express manner.
The mat is on the floor.
The cups are on the table.
Is the train already at the station?
My clothes are on the chair.
The car is already on the ferry.
The meeting is at the Student House.
Vainikkala is at the Russian border.
The bench is on the back wall.
The knife is in the belt.
My son has three children.
I have no money.
Pertti has a new boat.
(My) father has grey hair.
We travel to Kuopio by train.
He writes with a pen.
I eat soup with a spoon.
The six local cases 117
Tä/llä tava/lla ei voi tehdä. One can’t do (it) this way.
Puhukaa kova/lla ääne/llä. Speak in a loud voice.
Tulen miele/llä/ni. I’ll come with pleasure.
Attributes agree in the normal way.
kolme/lla auto/lla in (‘with’) three cars
pitkä/llä kadu/lla in the long street
tä/llä pöydä/llä on this table
vanha/lla niiehe/llä ‘at’ the old man
