The Genitive Plural: -jen, -ien, -ten, -den

The singular genitive is one of the tidiest endings in the language: always -n. The plural genitive is one of the messiest. Where you might expect a single "plural version" of -n, Finnish offers four common endings — -jen, -ien, -ten, -den (with -tten as a variant of the last) — and several words accept two of them side by side. This page explains why the mess exists, ties each ending to a stem type, and gives you a workable way to choose. It assumes you already know the singular genitive; if not, start there.

Why there is more than one ending

The plural genitive is built on the plural stem, and the plural stem is formed by inserting the plural marker -i- into the word. That -i- collides with the final vowel of the stem, and how it collides decides which ending you end up with. So the "four endings" are really one old genitive suffix landing on four different shapes of plural stem. Watch the -i- first, and the endings stop looking random.

The four endings, by stem type

-jen: the -i- turns into -j-

When the plural stem ends in a vowel + i, that i sits between two vowels and hardens to j. Talo → plural stem taloi- → taloi + en → talojen. The same happens to a-stems and ä-stems, whose final vowel shifts to o/ö before the plural i: kissa → kissoi- → kissojen.

-ien: the plural -i- survives as a vowel

In many words ending in -i (and their relatives), the plural i simply stays and the genitive adds -en: käsi → käsien, ovi → ovien, kaupunki → kaupunkien, nimi → nimien.

-ten: it attaches to the CONSONANT stem

This is the ending competitors skip, and the one that looks alien until you see the trick: -ten attaches not to the vowel stem but to the consonant stem. Lapsi has consonant stem las-, giving lasten; mies gives miesten; nainen → nais- → naisten; kieli → kiel- → kielten. That is why lasten looks nothing like the vowel-stem -jen forms — it is built on a different stem entirely.

-den (-tten): after a long vowel or diphthong

When the plural stem ends in a long vowel or diphthong, the ending is -den, with the older, more emphatic -tten as an accepted variant. Maa → mai- → maiden ~ maitten; työ → töiden ~ töitten; huone → huoneiden ~ huoneitten.

Two accepted forms for many words

Here is the honesty this topic demands: for a large group of words, two forms are both standard, and you will hear educated Finns use either. The -ten type and the -ien type in particular compete:

There is no rule that will hand you the "correct" one, because both are correct. In modern prose the -ten and -den forms sound a touch more neutral, while -tten leans slightly literary or emphatic. Pick one, be consistent within a sentence, and recognize the other when you read it.

The stem changes before any ending appears

Notice that the real difficulty is rarely the ending itself — it is the stem reshaping that the plural -i- forces first. Talo becomes taloi-, kissa becomes kissoi-, lapsi drops to las-. Once the plural stem is right, the ending is almost mechanical. So when a genitive plural feels impossible, work in two steps: build the plural stem first, then attach the ending. The stem side is developed on the plural stem changes page.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• The plural genitive has four common endings: -jen (talojen), -ien (käsien), -ten (lasten), -den/-tten (maiden).
• The ending you get depends on the plural stem, formed by inserting -i-; build the stem first, attach the ending second.
• -ten is special: it attaches to the consonant stem (lapsi → lasten, mies → miesten), which is why it looks so different.
• Many words accept two standard forms (kielten ~ kielien, maiden ~ maitten); neither is wrong.
• Words with no consonant stem (like talo) have only the -jen option.