Partitive

The partitive suffixes A and tA

The suffix of the partitive is either A or tA, according to rather complicated rules, described below separately for singular and for plural. In some descriptions, ttA is also mentioned as partitive suffix, but such forms are better described so that the first t is part of the stem.

In spoken language, the A suffix of the partitive is often assimilated so that the actual suffix is *, i.e. the vowel before the suffix is prolonged, e.g. taloo (standard taloa), katuu (standard katua), hevosii (standard hevosia). A different, less common feature is that instead of a jA ending, mere i is used in spoken language, so that the form has no case suffix, just the plural suffix, e.g. taloi (standard taloja), katui (standard katuja).

In many forms of spoken language, the suffix is the lengthening of the last vowel of the stem, if the suffix is A in standard Finnish. Example: kivi : kivee : kivii instead of standard kivi : kiveä : kiviä.

Form of the partitive in singular

In partitive singular, the suffix is A for most words, e.g. poika|a, talo|a, risti|ä. The suffix is appended to the inflection stem, so the stem vowel may be different from the base form, e.g. veli : velje|n : velje|ä.

The tA suffix is used for

• words that end with a long vowel or a diphthong in nominative singular, e.g. maa|ta, tie|tä
• words that end with iO, e.g. radiota, keittiötä (though in spoken language, the forms radioo, keittiöö are often used instead)
• words with a consonant stem, e.g. kieli : kiele|n : kiel|tä, ihminen : ihmise|n : ihmis|tä
• other words that end with a consonant in nominative singular, e.g. taivas|ta, mies|tä, puhelin|ta
• single-syllable pronoun stems, e.g. tämä : tä|tä.

The tA suffix is also used for some other types of words in older language and in dialects, e.g. elämätä, ainoata instead of modern standard Finnish elämää, ainoaa.

Especially in words ending with eA in standard language, the tA suffix is common in spoken language. The reason to this is that their stems end with ee, e.g. colloquial korkee : korkeeta instead of standard korkea : korkeaa (∼ korkeata).

For words that end with e and boundary gemination in the nominative and with een in genitive singular, the partitive singular ends with ttA. The situation is best described so that the first t is part of the word stem, as it historically is, e.g. vene^x : venee|n : venet|tä. This only happens for words ending with e^x and for the truly exceptional word ori : oriin : oritta (stallion). In contrast, we have e.g. nalle : nalle|n : nalle|a (with no boundary gemination in the base form).

A few words have a simplification of a consonant pair before tA: lapsi : lapsen : lasta (instead of lapsta), veitsi : veitsen : veistä (instead of veitstä), peitsi : peitsen : peistä.

For some words that have a consonant stem, the partitive can alternatively be formed from the vowel stem, e.g. toimi : toime|a (∼ toin|ta). Such forms are rare, with the exception of niemi : nieme|ä (∼ nien|tä).

The words meri (sea) and veri (blood) have irregular partitive singular forms in the sense that the suffix vowel is a: merta and verta. These are an exception to vowel harmony rules; other forms of these words have regular front vowel suffixes, e.g. meressä and veressä.

Form of the partitive in plural

The basic rules for forming the partitive plural are:

• The suffix is tA, if the inflection stem in singular ends with two vowels, e.g. radio : radio|i|ta.
• Otherwise, the suffix is A, e.g. poika : poik|i|a. There is usually some change in the last vowel of stem; in the example, the vowel a is lost.
• If the case suffix is A and the plural suffix i would appear between two vowels, it is changed to j, e.g. talo|j|a.
• There are several exceptions in words with three syllables or more, described later in this section.

Changes in the final vowel of the stem are very common, e.g. maa : ma|i|ta, tie : te|i|tä, valas : valaa|n : vala|i|ta, upea : upe|i|ta, e.g. poika : poja|n : poik|i|a, hevonen : hevose|n : hevos|i|a. The changes are described in detail in section Vowel changes before an i suffix. The changes also apply to forms where j appears instead of i. For example, the inflection kala : kalo|j|a can be described so that we first append the plural suffix i, causing the stem change from kala to kalo-, and and the case suffix a, yielding kalo|i|a; and as the last step we replace i by j.

There is considerable variation in words with three syllables or more. They often have the tA suffix either instead of the A suffix or as an alternative to it, e.g. lukija : lukijo|i|ta, mansikka : mansiko|i|ta, omena : omeno|i|ta ∼ omen|i|a, yksikö|i|tä ∼ yksikkö|j|ä. (Note that forms like yksiköitä exceptionally have weak grade in consonant gradation.) This variation is complicated and depends on the ending of the stem, on the number of syllables in it, and on the length of its penultimate (last but one) syllable.

Many descriptions of Finnish present several rules on the partitive plural, yet do not cover all of the variation. For such reasons, the partitive plural is one of the thematic forms given in dictionaries of Finnish. When learning Finnish as a foreign language, you can thus choose to learn the form separately for each word, or to learn some rules of thumbs that cover some common types of words.

The following table summarizes the formation of the partitive plural of words with three or more syllables in their stem. The table lists, by word ending, the types of words that have a tA suffix at least as an alternative. Other words have an A suffix. In the first column of the table, C denotes any consonant, and V denotes any vowel. The second column describes the relative frequency of the tA suffix in words of the given type. The phrase “fifty-fifty” means that it is about as common as the A suffix, whereas “often” means that it is less common.

For stems ending with -lA, -nA, -rA, the tA suffix is usually either the only one or clearly more common. However, the A suffix appears as a relatively common alternative, if the penultimate syllable is long and open, i.e. ends with a long vowel or a diphthong, e.g. sairaala : sairaaloita ∼ sairaaloja. There is a small set of words that have, along with normal forms with the tA or A suffix, a form with the A suffix so that the final vowel of the stem is lost, e.g. omena : omenoita ∼ omenoja ∼ omenia. In this set, most words have variant ending with -OjA as a theoretical possibility only, e.g. hattara : hattaroita ∼ hattaria ∼ hattaroja (theoretical).

Adjectives ending with -nA have only the -A suffix, e.g. ihana : ihania.

The words jumala (god), miljoona (million), and persoona (personality, person) are exceptional: their plural stems are jumali-, miljooni-, and persooni- (instead of jumaloi- etc.), e.g. adessive plural jumalilla. Their partitive plural has always the suffix -a, i.e. jumalia, miljoonia, persoonia.

Partitive plural forms with a tA suffix are occasionally produced even by native speakers for words not covered by the rules above, such as pohatta : pohatoita (instead of the normal pohattoja). Some of such forms are mentioned in parentheses in dictionaries like Kielitoimiston sanakirja and might therefore be considered as correct, but rare.

Use of the partitive

The partitive has several meanings and uses:

• It indicates the partiality of a grammatical object. E.g. the sentence söin omenaa has such an object, and it would normally be translated as “I was eating an apple”. In contrast, söin omenan contains a total object (with the object in the genitive), meaning that the entire apple was eaten, and it could be translated as “I ate an apple” or “I ate the apple”, depending on the context. This is described in more detail in section Marking the object.
• Partiality can also mean incompleted action as opposite to completed action, for which genitive, nominative, or accusative forms for the object are used. For example, Etsin kirjaa, with the partitive, means “I was looking for a/the book” (though it could also be present tense), whereas Etsin kirjan, with the genitive, means “I looked up a/the book”, i.e. the book was searched for and actually found.
• The partitive is also used in an object-like quantifier according to the same rules as in an object, e.g. Asuin siellä useita vuosia (I lived there for many years).
• In some contexts, the partitive is used for an adverbial that means “relating to...”, e.g. kello 20 paikallista aikaa (at 8 o’clock PM local time).
• The partitive is used as the case of a subject in some types of presence clauses (existential clauses), e.g. Pöydällä on kirjoja (There are books on the table). The conditions for this are discussed in section Cases of the subject.
• The partitive is used (in singular!) with numerals, e.g. kolme taloa “three houses” and in other expressions for quantity, e.g. monta taloa “several houses”.
• For mass nouns, the partitive is used as an attribute in expressions that refer to a specific share of the mass, as in kuppi kahvia (a cup of coffee) or, more formally, kupillinen kahvia (a cupful of coffee). In an expression like kaksi lasia viiniä (two glasses of wine) there are two partitives: in the quantity expression kaksi lasia and in the mass noun expression viiniä.
• The partitive is often the case of a predicative, e.g. Lasissa on viiniä (There is wine in the glass).
• In comparisons, the partitive can be used instead of the word kuin (than) to express against what the comparison is made, e.g. the partitive sokeria in Tämä on sokeria makeampaa ∼ Tämä on makeampaa kuin sokeri (This is sweeter than sugar).
• In old idiomatic use, the partitive may express cause or reason, especially when it is a state of mind or treat in a personality, e.g. Hän teki sen ilkeyttään (He did it out of malice). This applies to verbs describing actions. In such contexts, the word may have an attribute, e.g. pelkkää ilkeyttään (out of mere malice). It is also possible to use the elative, without a possessive suffix, e.g. pelkästä ilkeydestä.
• The partitive is used with some prepositions and postpositions, e.g. ennen joulua (before Christmas), ilman autoa (without a car), minua kohtaan (towards me, to me), kohti taloa ∼ taloa kohti (towards the house), lähellä taloa (near the house), tietä pitkin (along the road), huomista varten (for tomorrow), seinää vasten ∼ vasten seinää (against the wall).
• The original locational use (corresponding to “from”) of the partitive is reflected in some adverb-like words like alempaa (from below, from a lower position) and for comparatives of nouns, e.g. rannempaa (from closer to the shore). See Locational cases.

Partitive as grammatically required case

In many situations, the partitive is simply the grammatical form required by the verb, as in rakastan sinua “I love you”. This does not mean partiality of love but rather reflects the continuous nature of love. In exceptional contexts, such verbs might be used with a “total” object, e.g. Rakastan sinut kuoliaaksi is the Finnish name of the movie “I Love You to Death”. Generally, a verb that expresses some state of mind or attitude has its object in the partitive, e.g. ihailen häntä (I admire him), kunnioitan heitä (I respect them).

Suomen sanojen rektioita.

Many common phrases used as standalone wishes consist of just an adjective and a noun in the partitive, involving an implied verb like toivotan (I wish). Example: Hyvää huomenta (Good morning), often shortened to just Huomenta. The noun huomen (morning) is hardly used in other contexts in modern language; normally morning is aamu.