Talking about prices and quantities is where the abstract counting rule of Finnish becomes a survival skill: you cannot buy a coffee, read a price tag, or ask how much something weighs without it. The whole system rests on a single fact that runs against English instinct — a number does not pluralize the unit after it. Five euros is viisi euroa, singular in shape; two kilos is kaksi kiloa. This page applies that rule to money, weights and volumes, and shows the small extra step a measure word like litra adds.
Money: euro and sentti
The two units are euro and sentti ("cent"). After a number above one, both go into the partitive singular — the same form you would use after any counted noun. The number itself does the work of "many," so the unit stays singular:
Kahvi maksaa kaksi euroa.
The coffee costs two euros.
Bussilippu maksaa kolme euroa kuusikymmentä.
A bus ticket costs three euros sixty.
Vaihtorahaa jäi viisikymmentä senttiä.
There was fifty cents left in change.
Look closely at the two partitive endings: euroa takes a back vowel ending (-a) because euro contains back vowels, while sentti takes a front ending (-ä) because its only vowels are e and i, which force front harmony — hence senttiä, never *senttia. This is the vowel-harmony split doing its ordinary job; the number never overrides it.
The number one is the sole exception. Like English, it takes the plain nominative singular: yksi euro, yksi sentti. Everything from two upward is partitive.
Minulla on vain yksi euro taskussa.
I have only one euro in my pocket.
The unit stays singular — even at a hundred euros
This is where learners' confidence wobbles: surely a big amount must be plural? It is not. No matter how large the number, the unit stays partitive singular. A hundred euros is sata euroa, a thousand euros is tuhat euroa — never the plural euroja.
| Amount | Finnish | Unit form |
|---|---|---|
| 1 € | yksi euro | nominative singular |
| 2 € | kaksi euroa | partitive singular |
| 10 € | kymmenen euroa | partitive singular |
| 100 € | sata euroa | partitive singular |
| 1000 € | tuhat euroa | partitive singular |
Tämä puhelin maksaa yli tuhat euroa.
This phone costs over a thousand euros.
"Costs": the verb maksaa
The verb for "to cost" is maksaa. The thing that costs is the ordinary nominative subject; only the price amount takes the partitive. The verb agrees with the subject, so plural goods take a plural verb:
Paljonko tämä paita maksaa?
How much does this shirt cost?
Omenat maksavat kaksi euroa kilo.
The apples cost two euros a kilo.
Notice maksavat (plural, agreeing with the plural subject omenat) versus maksaa (singular, agreeing with paita). The price stays partitive singular in both. To ask the total, Finns often say Paljonko tämä tekee yhteensä? ("How much does this come to in total?") — with tehdä ("make") used the way English uses "come to."
Se tekee yhteensä kaksikymmentäviisi euroa viisikymmentä.
That comes to twenty-five euros fifty in total.
Weights and volumes
The everyday units of weight and volume follow the identical rule — number + partitive singular:
| Unit | Partitive | Example |
|---|---|---|
| gramma (gram) | grammaa | sata grammaa (100 g) |
| kilo (kilo) | kiloa | kaksi kiloa (2 kg) |
| litra (litre) | litraa | kolme litraa (3 l) |
| metri (metre) | metriä | viisi metriä (5 m) |
| kilometri (km) | kilometriä | kymmenen kilometriä (10 km) |
Osta kaksi kiloa perunoita ja kolme litraa maitoa.
Buy two kilos of potatoes and three litres of milk.
Two harmony points to watch here. Kiloa and litraa take the back ending; metriä takes the front ending because metri has only e/i. And kilometriä is front too — a compound harmonizes to its last part (metri), so kilo- being back is irrelevant: it is kilometriä, never *kilometria.
Measure phrases: a litre OF milk
A measure word introduces one extra move. To say "a litre of milk," put the measure word first and the substance after it in the partitive — singular for a mass, plural for countable things. There is no separate word for "of"; the partitive carries it.
| Measure + substance | Meaning |
|---|---|
| litra maitoa | a litre of milk (mass → partitive sg) |
| kilo omenoita | a kilo of apples (countable → partitive pl) |
| kuppi kahvia | a cup of coffee |
| pala kakkua | a piece of cake |
Saisinko kupin kahvia ja palan suklaakakkua?
Could I have a cup of coffee and a piece of chocolate cake?
When the whole phrase becomes a completed object, the measure word takes the object ending while the substance stays partitive: ostin kilon omenoita ("I bought a kilo of apples") — kilon inflects, omenoita does not. The measure word carries the grammar; the substance stays partitive throughout. The full case machinery for these phrases lives on the cases for measure and price page.
Common Mistakes
❌ Se maksaa viisi eurot.
Incorrect — a number takes the partitive singular, not a plural: viisi euroa.
✅ Se maksaa viisi euroa.
It costs five euros.
❌ Ostin kaksi kilot perunoita.
Incorrect — the unit is partitive singular after a number: kaksi kiloa.
✅ Ostin kaksi kiloa perunoita.
I bought two kilos of potatoes.
❌ Kahvi maksaa kaksi senttia.
Incorrect — sentti has front vowels, so the partitive ending is -ä: senttiä.
✅ Kahvi maksaa kaksikymmentä senttiä.
The coffee costs twenty cents.
❌ Ostin litra maito.
Incorrect — a measure word is followed by the partitive substance, and the measure word inflects as the object: litran maitoa.
✅ Ostin litran maitoa.
I bought a litre of milk.
❌ Se maksaa sata euroja.
Incorrect — the unit stays singular even at a hundred: sata euroa, never the plural euroja.
✅ Se maksaa sata euroa.
It costs a hundred euros.
Key Takeaways
- After a number above one, the unit is partitive singular: viisi euroa, kaksi kiloa, kolme litraa — never a plural.
- The unit stays singular no matter how large: sata euroa, tuhat euroa. Only yksi takes the nominative (yksi euro).
- Watch harmony: euroa/kiloa/litraa (back) vs senttiä/metriä/kilometriä (front) — and a compound follows its last part.
- A measure word takes the substance in the partitive (litra maitoa, kilo omenoita) and itself carries any case ending (litran maitoa).
- Finnish writes the sign after the number (10 €) and uses a comma decimal (2,50 €).
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Start learning Finnish→Related Topics
- Numbers Take the Partitive Singular: kaksi kissaaA2 — The signature Finnish counting rule — every cardinal above one governs the partitive singular of the counted noun, which stays singular: kaksi kissaa, sata euroa.
- Cases for Measure, Price and DistanceB2 — How Finnish marks price, quantity, distance and rate: number + partitive singular (viisi euroa), measure phrases (litra maitoa), and 'per' with the inessive.
- Fractions and DecimalsB1 — Finnish fractions built on ordinal + osa, the lexical puoli, and the decimal comma read as pilkku — plus the partitive that measured amounts demand.
- Numbers 11–100A1 — Build the teens with -toista and the tens with -kymmentä — yksitoista (11), kaksikymmentä (20), kaksikymmentäyksi (21) — all written as single words.