Finnish grammar: accusative
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The accusative case in Finnish unique to the others in which it doesn't have a uniform morphological case. Instead, the object of a sentence will either take on the partitive ending if the partitive is used (as it is a stronger object case), or if the partitive conditions are not met, then it will take on an ending from one of three cases:
- Nominative singular, which has no ending
- Nominative plural -t
- Genitive singular, with the ending -n
The accusative usually expresses telicity, or in other words, something already done, completed, resolved, or a resultative action; in contrast the the partitive, which cannot be a definable.
Accusative and Partitive
Remember, if a condition in a sentence is met for being partitive (that is, if it is a negated sentence, when the action expressed is undefinable, or when the object is expressed with indefinite quantity), then that case will take precedence over the accusative.
Here are some examples:
- En tunne tuo/ta mies/tä
- I don't know that man.
- Petri lukee hyvä/ä kirja/a
- Petri is reading a good book
- Ostatko maito/a?
- Will you buy some milk?
Accusative with no Partitive
As mentioned above, when the object is not met for a partitive condition, then it will take on an accusative ending of either no ending, -n, or -t. Also mentioned above, the accusative usually indicates an action done, or an affirmative definite quantity. Compare the examples given for a better understanding. The first sentence will contain an accusative context, and the second will contain a partitive.
- Anni kirjoittaa kirjee/n
- Anni writes a/the letter.
- Anni kirjoittaa kirje/ttä
- Anni is writing a/the letter (implies she can write more)
- Suurensin valokuva/n
- I enlarged a/the photo (e.g. to a given size)
- Suurensin valokuva/a
- I was enlarging a/the photo. OR: I enlarged a/the photo (a bit, but I could have made it bigger).
- Syötkö jäätelö/n?
- Will you eat a/the ice cream?
- Syötkö jäätelö/ä?
- Do you eat ice cream?
Personal Pronouns
The accusative ending -t doesn't always mean it's in the nominative plural. The personal pronouns in Finnish also end with -t. They are as follows:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | minu/t | meidä/t |
| 2nd person | sinu/t | teidä/t |
| 3rd person | häne/t | heidä/t |
Here's some examples of the personal pronouns that indicate the accusative being utilized.
- Minä näen sinut
- I see you
- Hän löysi minut
- He/she found me
- Tuo heidät takaisin
- Bring them back
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