The default rule for Finnish postpositions is simple: the noun in front of them stands in the genitive — talon edessä ("in front of the house"), työn jälkeen ("after work"). But a small, high-frequency group breaks that rule and demands the partitive instead. There is no way to predict which words these are from their meaning; the case a postposition governs is a fixed, lexical fact you learn word by word. The good news is that the partitive group is short. Master these six and you have covered almost all of it.
The core partitive set
| Word | Meaning | Example (partitive) |
|---|---|---|
| ennen | before | ennen joulua |
| ilman | without | ilman rahaa |
| kohti | toward / per | kohti keskustaa |
| vastaan | against (opposing) | virtaa vastaan |
| vasten | against (leaning on) | seinää vasten |
| pitkin | along | pitkin rantaa |
Soita minulle ennen kahdeksaa, muuten olen jo lähtenyt.
Call me before eight, otherwise I'll have already left.
Lähdin ulos ilman takkia ja palelin heti.
I went out without a coat and froze immediately.
Kävelimme hitaasti kohti keskustaa.
We walked slowly toward the centre.
Notice that ennen and ilman stand before their noun here, like English prepositions. That is a genuine clue: several partitive-takers double as true prepositions and sit in front of the noun. When a relational word comes before its noun, suspect the partitive.
The partitive ending harmonizes
The partitive ending is -a or -ä, and the choice follows vowel harmony: back-vowel stems take -a, front-vowel stems take -ä. So the same postposition triggers different-looking endings depending on the noun:
Ehdin kotiin ennen kesää.
I'll get home before summer.
Hän tulee toimeen ilman työtä.
He manages without work.
Here kesä ("summer") and työ ("work") are front-vowel words, so the partitive is kesää and työtä with -ä; but joulu and raha are back-vowel words, giving joulua and rahaa with -a. The postposition never changes — the harmony lives entirely on the noun.
Two "against": vastaan and vasten
English lumps two ideas under "against"; Finnish keeps them apart. Vastaan is opposition or resistance — swimming against a current, playing against a team, being against a plan. Vasten is physical contact — leaning something against a surface.
Uimme virtaa vastaan, ja se oli raskasta.
We swam against the current, and it was hard work.
Pelaamme lauantaina Ruotsia vastaan.
On Saturday we're playing against Sweden.
Nojasin polkupyörän seinää vasten.
I leaned the bicycle against the wall.
Both take the partitive, so at least the case never changes — you only have to pick the right word for the meaning.
kohti also means "per"
Besides "toward", kohti has a distributive sense, "per / each", again with the partitive:
Liput maksavat kymmenen euroa henkeä kohti.
The tickets cost ten euros per person.
Pitkin rantaa käveli ihmisiä auringonlaskun aikaan.
People were walking along the beach around sunset.
Position varies, but the case does not
Some of these words come before their noun like a preposition (ennen joulua, kohti keskustaa), and others come after it like a true postposition (virtaa vastaan, seinää vasten). Word order is not a reliable predictor of which slot a given word prefers — but it does not matter for the case, because every word in this group takes the partitive regardless of where it sits. So whether you say ilman rahaa or meet the marked, literary rahaa ilman, the noun is partitive both times.
Juoksin bussia kohti, mutta se lähti nenäni edestä.
I ran toward the bus, but it left right in front of me.
Tuuli puhalsi meitä vastaan koko matkan.
The wind blew against us the whole way.
Why this matters: government is lexical
There is no semantic rule connecting these words. "Before" (ennen) takes the partitive, but "after" (jälkeen) takes the genitive — even though they are opposites describing the same time relation. You cannot reason your way to the case; you memorize it. Contrast a genitive-governing postposition directly:
Auto on talon edessä.
The car is in front of the house.
Edessä forces talo → talon (genitive), while ennen forces joulu → joulua (partitive). Same grammatical slot, opposite case — because the two postpositions simply carry different lexical requirements. For the wider default, see the postpositions overview; the genitive/partitive split for time words is on the time postpositions page.
Common Mistakes
❌ Soita ennen kahdeksan.
Incorrect — ennen governs the partitive, not the genitive: ennen kahdeksaa.
✅ Soita ennen kahdeksaa.
Call before eight.
❌ Lähdin ilman raha.
Incorrect — a single vowel; the partitive of raha is rahaa: ilman rahaa.
✅ Lähdin ilman rahaa.
I left without money.
❌ Kävelemme kohti keskustan.
Incorrect — kohti takes the partitive, not the genitive: kohti keskustaa.
✅ Kävelemme kohti keskustaa.
We're walking toward the centre.
❌ Nojasin pyörän seinän vasten.
Incorrect — vasten takes the partitive: seinää vasten.
✅ Nojasin pyörän seinää vasten.
I leaned the bike against the wall.
Key Takeaways
- Most postpositions take the genitive, but a short set takes the partitive: ennen, ilman, kohti, vastaan, vasten, pitkin.
- The case is lexical — "before" (ennen, partitive) versus "after" (jälkeen, genitive) proves you can't derive it from meaning.
- The partitive ending harmonizes: -a after back stems (joulua, rahaa), -ä after front stems (kesää, työtä).
- Single-vowel stems double the vowel: raha → rahaa, virta → virtaa.
- Several of these also work as prepositions, standing before the noun.
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Start learning Finnish→Related Topics
- True Prepositions: ennen, ilman, keskelläB1 — Finnish is mostly postpositional, but a closed set — ennen, ilman, keskellä, pitkin, lähellä, kesken — comes before the noun, each taking partitive or genitive.
- 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 Partitive: Finland's Most Important CaseA1 — The partitive marks unbounded quantity and unfinished events — after numbers, under negation, with mass nouns, and as a partial object; the hub for the whole partitive.
- Time Postpositions: jälkeen, aikana, kuluttuaA2 — Finnish time postpositions mostly take the genitive — työn jälkeen, sodan aikana, tunnin kuluttua — while ennen ('before') takes the partitive: ennen joulua.