Where English puts a little word in front of a noun — "in front of the house", "under the table", "with me" — Finnish puts it behind the noun and, crucially, forces that noun into a particular case. These trailing words are postpositions (from Latin post, "after"), and the single fact that governs almost all of them is this: the noun they attach to stands in the genitive. Master that one rule and a whole layer of Finnish spatial and relational vocabulary opens up. This page also covers the small, stubborn minority that demand the partitive instead.
Postpositions follow their noun — and demand a case
Compare the two languages directly. English "in front of the house" is a preposition (in front of) before its noun, and the noun house carries no special ending. Finnish reverses both facts:
Auto on talon edessä.
The car is in front of the house.
Literally this is "the car is the-house's in-front" — talo becomes the genitive talon, and edessä trails after it. The relationship word comes second, and the noun in front of it is inflected. English speakers, whose prepositions take no case, routinely drop the genitive and write talo edessä. That is the single most common structural mistake here, and it is always wrong.
Kissa nukkuu pöydän alla koko iltapäivän.
The cat sleeps under the table all afternoon.
Kauppa on aseman vieressä, aivan lähellä.
The shop is next to the station, very close by.
Notice the gradation surfacing in the genitive: pöytä → pöydän (t → d), and later katu → kadun. The postposition itself never changes for the noun; all the grammatical work happens on the genitive in front of it.
The default case: the genitive
The overwhelming majority of postpositions govern the genitive. Here is a working set — learn these and you cover most of everyday speech:
| Postposition | Meaning | Example (genitive + postposition) |
|---|---|---|
| edessä | in front of | talon edessä |
| takana | behind | talon takana |
| alla | under | pöydän alla |
| päällä | on top of | pöydän päällä |
| vieressä | beside, next to | aseman vieressä |
| keskellä | in the middle of | huoneen keskellä |
| ympärillä | around | talon ympärillä |
| lähellä | near | keskustan lähellä |
| yli | over, across | tien yli |
| läpi | through | metsän läpi |
| kanssa | with | ystävän kanssa |
| jälkeen | after | työn jälkeen |
| aikana | during | loman aikana |
| mukaan | according to | uutisten mukaan |
| takia / vuoksi | because of | sateen takia |
Menemme kahville työn jälkeen.
We're going for coffee after work.
Uutisten mukaan huomenna sataa lunta.
According to the news, it will snow tomorrow.
Juhlat peruttiin sateen takia.
The party was cancelled because of the rain.
Postpositions inflect for the three-way motion
Many spatial postpositions come in a set of three, matching Finnish's obsession with distinguishing being at, moving to, and moving from a place — the same three-way split you see in the interior and exterior local cases. The genitive in front stays constant; the postposition's own ending shifts:
| At (where?) | To (where to?) | From (where from?) |
|---|---|---|
| talon edessä (in front of) | talon eteen | talon edestä |
| talon takana (behind) | talon taakse | talon takaa |
| pöydän alla (under) | pöydän alle | pöydän alta |
| pöydän päällä (on) | pöydän päälle | pöydän päältä |
Pallo vieri pöydän alle, joten kurotin sen pöydän alta.
The ball rolled under the table, so I reached for it from under the table.
Aja auto talon taakse, ettei se ole tiellä.
Drive the car behind the house so it's not in the way.
With a pronoun: genitive pronoun plus a possessive suffix
When the complement is a personal pronoun rather than a full noun, two things happen: the pronoun appears in the genitive (minun, sinun, hänen), and the postposition takes a matching possessive suffix. This double marking is obligatory — dropping the suffix is a real error.
| Person | "with" | "beside" |
|---|---|---|
| minä | minun kanssani | minun vieressäni |
| sinä | sinun kanssasi | sinun vieressäsi |
| hän | hänen kanssaan | hänen vieressään |
| me | meidän kanssamme | meidän vieressämme |
Tuletko minun kanssani kauppaan?
Are you coming to the shop with me?
Hän istui koko illan minun vieressäni eikä sanonut sanaakaan.
He sat beside me all evening and didn't say a word.
The possessive owner is often dropped in speech — tuletko kanssani is perfectly natural — but the suffix on the postposition never is. Tule minun kanssa is wrong; it must be minun kanssani.
The partitive minority
A handful of common relational words take the partitive, not the genitive. Several of them also behave like prepositions — sitting before their noun — which is a strong signal you are dealing with this smaller group:
| Word | Meaning | Example (partitive) |
|---|---|---|
| ennen | before | ennen joulua |
| ilman | without | ilman rahaa |
| pitkin | along | pitkin rantaa |
| kohti | toward | kohti keskustaa |
| vasten | against | seinää vasten |
| vastaan | against | virtaa vastaan |
Soita minulle ennen kahdeksaa.
Call me before eight.
Lähdin ulos ilman takkia ja palelin heti.
I went out without a coat and froze immediately.
Nojasin polkupyörän seinää vasten.
I leaned the bicycle against the wall.
There is no logic that predicts which relational words fall into this partitive group — it is a short list you memorize. The good news is that it is short: ennen, ilman, pitkin, kohti, vasten, vastaan cover almost all of it. Everything else you meet defaults to the genitive.
Common Mistakes
❌ Auto on talo edessä.
Incorrect — the postposition demands the genitive on the noun before it: talon edessä.
✅ Auto on talon edessä.
The car is in front of the house.
❌ Tule minun kanssa.
Incorrect — with a pronoun, the postposition needs a possessive suffix too: minun kanssani.
✅ Tule minun kanssani.
Come with me.
❌ Soita minulle ennen kahdeksan.
Incorrect — ennen governs the partitive, not the genitive: ennen kahdeksaa.
✅ Soita minulle ennen kahdeksaa.
Call me before eight.
❌ Lähdin ilman raha.
Incorrect — ilman takes the partitive: ilman rahaa.
✅ Lähdin ilman rahaa.
I left without money.
Key Takeaways
- Finnish relational words are mostly postpositions: they follow their noun (talon edessä), the reverse of English prepositions.
- Almost all of them govern the genitive — so the noun in front takes -n with weak gradation: pöytä → pöydän alla.
- Many spatial postpositions inflect for the three-way motion: alla / alle / alta, eteen / edessä / edestä.
- With a pronoun, use the genitive pronoun plus a possessive suffix: minun kanssani, never minun kanssa.
- A short set takes the partitive instead — ennen, ilman, pitkin, kohti, vasten, vastaan — and these often precede their noun.
- For the full rection picture across verbs and postpositions, see the case-government summary.
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Start learning Finnish→Related Topics
- Postpositions Govern the GenitiveA1 — Most Finnish adpositions come AFTER the noun and demand it in the genitive: talon edessä, pöydän alla. The genitive -n is obligatory — and it triggers consonant gradation.
- The Genitive Trap for English SpeakersA2 — Almost every Finnish postposition demands the genitive -n on the noun before it — talon edessä, not talo edessä — and forgetting it is the single most common postposition error.
- Postpositions Taking the Partitive: ennen, ilman, kohtiA2 — Most Finnish postpositions take the genitive, but a short set — ennen, ilman, kohti, vastaan, pitkin, vasten — demands the partitive: ennen joulua, ilman rahaa.
- Genitive -n: Possession and MoreA1 — The genitive -n (talon, käden, Helsingin) marks possession, the singular total object, and the case every postposition demands — attached with weak gradation.
- Case Government: A SummaryC1 — A reference table of Finnish rection: which case each common verb, adjective and postposition demands — pidän kahvista, uskon sinuun, kysyn sinulta.