Finnish Prepositions and Postpositions

Learn some prepositions and postpositions in Finnish

These Finnish lessons were written by Josh Pirie.

Need more Finnish? Try the Introductory Finnish Language course at Udemy or the audio-visual lessons at FinnishPod101.com

 

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Finnish Prepositions and Postpositions

Certain common prepositions include ilman ("without"), ennen ("before"), keskellä ("in the middle of"), lähellä ("near"), pitkin ("alongside") and vasten ("against"). These all require the partitive case: ilman rakkautta ("without love"), etc. Prepositions that take the genitive case include alle ("under"), kautta ("throughout"), läpi ("though"), etc.

There are many postpositions that require the partitive case, including kohtaan ("up towards"), kohti ("over towards"), pitkin ("alongside"), vastaan ("against"), varten ("for the benefit of"), vastapäätä ("across from"), etc. Postpositions, however, are far more common with the genitive case: aikana ("during"), alla/alta/alle ("under" in the tri-partite location scheme), ansiosta ("thanks to"), jälkeen ("after"), kanssa ("together with"), luona ("near"), mukaan ("according to"), edessä ("in front of"), takana ("behind"), vieressä ("next to"), vuoksi/takia/tähden ("because of"), yli ("over"), etc. The sentence "After dinner, let's go for a walk" would be translated as Päivällisen jälkeen mennään kavelylle. "Come with us!" is Tulkaa meidän kanssa!

 

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