Quote Originally Posted by basurero
Doesn't Finnish have something like 14 cases? Argh, nightmare!


I want to go on an exchange to Finland, but the language is too hard.

The nouns, adjectives, pronouns, numerals, infinitives, and participles do have 15 cases, yes.

For example, let's take the word "auto" (a car):
(I'll use the Finnish names for the cases, because I have no idea of their names in English)


nominatiivi auto, autot (a car, cars)

akkusatiivi auton, autot (a car, cars; машину )

genetiivi auton, autojen (car's, cars')

nominatiivi auto, autot (a car, cars)

partitiivi autoa, autoja (a car, cars... this is hard to translate. It is usually connected to a verb's aspect)

essiivi autona, autoina (as a car, as cars)

translatiivi autoksi, autoiksi (into car, into cars -- as in "transform into a car" etc.)

inessiivi autossa, autoissa (in a car, in cars)

elatiivi autosta, autoista (out of / from a car, out of / from cars)

illatiivi autoon, autoihin (into a car, into cars)

adessiivi autolla, autoilla (this can be used to describe ownership: у машины есть)

ablatiivi autolta, autoilta (from a car, from cars -- assuming one was not inside the car, but somewhere near it)

allatiivi autolle, autoille (to a car, to cars -- once again, not inside the car, but near it)

abessiivi autotta, autoitta (without a car, without cars)

komitatiivi autoineen (with his/her/their car/cars)

instruktiivi autoin (ugh, this is hard... the most common usage of this is jalan -- by foot )






Though this might sound hard, you can get along without knowing many of these. We get many exchange students to my school every year, and after a year's stay they usually speak Finnish very well already. So don't be afraid!


Vincent Tailors:

I had no idea what you were talking about, but found out. The words are just gibberish sounding like Finnish.