In grammar, the inessive case (abbreviated ; from "to be in or at") is a locative case grammatical case. This case carries the basic meaning of "in": for example, "in the house" is talo·ssa in Finnish language, maja·s in Estonian, куд·са () in Moksha language, etxea·n in Basque language, nam·e in Lithuanian, sāt·ā in Latgalian and ház·ban in Hungarian.
In Finnish the inessive case is typically formed by adding . Estonian adds -s to the genitive stem. In Moksha -са () is added (in Erzya -со ()). In Hungarian, the Affix ban/ben is most commonly used for inessive case, although many others, such as on/en/ön and others are also used, especially with cities.
In the Finnish language, the inessive case is considered the first (in Estonian the second) of the six locative cases, which correspond to in English. The remaining five cases are:
Finnish
The
Finnish language inessive uses the
suffix -ssa or -ssä (depending on
vowel harmony). It is usually added to
and associated
.
It is used in the following ways:
-
Expressing the static state of being in something.
- :asumme Suome ssa = we live in Finland
-
(with time expressions) stating how long something took to be accomplished or done
- possible English language include in, within
- :kahde ssa vuode ssa = within 2 years, during 2 years
-
when two things are closely connected
- English translations can include on in phrases of this type
- :N.N. puhelime ssa = N.N. on the phone
- :sormus on sorme ssani = the ring is on my finger
-
as an existensial clause with the verb olla (to be), to express possession of objects
- :sanomalehde ssä on 68 sivua = the newspaper has 68 pages
-
with the verb käydä, vierailla
- :minä käyn baari ssa = I visit the bar
-
There are both singular and plural forms
- :Käyn baareissa = I visit the bars
Dialectal variants
In a large part of the southwestern, south Ostrobothnian, southeastern as well as in some Tavastian dialects, the suffix is simply
-s (e.g.
maas,
talos), similarly to Estonian. This is an example of
apocope. When coupled with a
Possessive affix, the result can be like in standard Finnish "
maassani, talossani" or a shorter "
maasani, talosani" depending on the dialect: the former is more common in Tavastian and southeastern dialects while the latter is more common in southwestern dialects.
Most central and northern Ostrobothnian dialects as well as some southwestern and Peräpohjola dialects use a shorter suffix -sa/-sä, e.g. maasa, talosa.
Further reading
