【芬兰语语法】§31 CONCORD OF ATTRIBUTES

 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’.