Some Finnish verbs come welded to a case. You cannot use them correctly without also knowing which ending their object must wear, and no amount of guessing from the English translation will save you — the pairing is a lexical fact you memorize with the verb. This page collects the verbs that govern the elative -sta/-stä. A few of them make intuitive sense (talking about a topic feels like words coming out of you), but the most important ones — above all pitää "to like" — are simply arbitrary, and English speakers get them wrong every single day.
The liking verbs: pitää and tykätä
The single most useful elative verb is pitää + elative = "to like." This is the everyday word for liking anything — food, people, music, weather. What trips up English speakers is that "like X" has no preposition in English, so learners reach for a plain object and produce nonsense. In Finnish the thing you like is always in the elative.
Pidän kahvista, mutta en juo sitä illalla.
I like coffee, but I don't drink it in the evening.
Pidätkö sinä tästä kappaleesta?
Do you like this song?
Lapset eivät pitäneet uudesta opettajasta yhtään.
The kids didn't like the new teacher at all.
The colloquial synonym is tykätä + elative (tykkään), a notch more casual and extremely common in speech. It behaves identically — same case, same logic — and even carries the "to fancy / be into someone" romantic shade that pitää also has.
Mä tykkään sinusta tosi paljon.
I like you a lot. (informal)
Tykkäätkö sä enemmän teestä vai kahvista?
Do you like tea or coffee better? (informal)
Enjoying: nauttia
Nauttia + elative = "to enjoy," and it, too, wants the source ending — you draw pleasure out of the thing.
Nautin lomasta joka hetki, koska sää oli täydellinen.
I enjoyed every moment of the holiday because the weather was perfect.
Hän nauttii selvästi työstään.
She clearly enjoys her work.
Note a subtlety of register: nauttia jotakin (partitive) exists too, but it means "to consume / partake of" — nauttia lääkettä "to take medicine" (formal). So nautin kahvista = "I enjoy the coffee," while nautin kahvia = "I partake of coffee," a stiff, almost bureaucratic phrasing. For "enjoy," keep the elative.
Speaking, telling, asking about a topic
Here the elative earns its keep with real logic. When you speak, tell, read, ask, or think about a subject, the topic goes in the elative — the words come out of the speaker. This group is large and productive, so learn one frame, puhua jostakin "to talk about something," and it carries across the whole family.
Puhuimme koko illan politiikasta ja ilmastosta.
We talked about politics and the climate all evening.
Kerro minulle matkastasi — millaista siellä oli?
Tell me about your trip — what was it like there?
Äiti kysyi minulta töistä heti ovella.
Mom asked me about work the moment I got to the door.
The same elative-of-topic covers kertoa jostakin (tell about), kysyä jostakin (ask about), keskustella jostakin (discuss), lukea jostakin (read about), and unelmoida jostakin (dream of). Beware that kertoa and kysyä route two different things through two different cases: the topic is elative, but the person you tell or ask goes elsewhere — the addressee of kertoa is allative (kerron sinulle matkasta, "I tell you about the trip") and the person you ask is ablative (kysyn sinulta).
Caring, depending, resulting: the everyday remainder
A cluster of common verbs governs the elative with no guessable logic — you simply learn them.
| Verb + elative | Meaning | Example phrase |
|---|---|---|
| huolehtia jostakin | take care of | huolehdin lapsista |
| riippua jostakin | depend on | se riippuu säästä |
| johtua jostakin | be due to / result from | viive johtui lakosta |
| innostua jostakin | get excited about | innostuin ideasta |
| välittää jostakin | care about | en välitä rahasta |
Huolehdin iäkkäistä vanhemmistani, kun he eivät enää pärjää yksin.
I take care of my elderly parents now that they can't manage alone.
Menemmekö uimaan? — Se riippuu täysin säästä.
Shall we go swimming? — It depends entirely on the weather.
Myöhästyminen johtui siitä, että juna oli myöhässä.
The delay was because the train was late.
Notice that riippua and johtua naturally sit in the third person here (riippuu, johtui) — it is events and outcomes, not people, that depend or result. The complements — säästä, lakosta, rahasta — are all elative, all arbitrary.
The trap: harmony and gradation on the ending
The elative ending itself is not free. It harmonizes (back -sta vs front -stä) and it closes the syllable, which forces the weak grade on any stem that gradates.
- Back-vowel stems: kahvi → kahvista, loma → lomasta, auto → autosta.
- Front/neutral stems: metsä → metsästä, työ → työstä, Helsinki → Helsingistä (neutral vowels, so front ending).
- Gradation: pöytä → pöydästä (t → d), kauppa → kaupasta (pp → p), tyttö → tytöstä (tt → t).
Get the verb's rection right and then get the ending's shape right — both have to land. The full case-formation detail lives on the elative case page.
Common Mistakes
❌ Pidän kahvia.
Incorrect — pitää 'to like' governs the elative, not a partitive object: kahvista.
✅ Pidän kahvista.
I like coffee.
❌ Tykkään sinua tosi paljon.
Incorrect — tykätä also takes the elative: sinusta.
✅ Tykkään sinusta tosi paljon.
I like you a lot. (informal)
❌ Puhumme politiikka.
Incorrect — the topic you talk about is elative: politiikasta.
✅ Puhumme politiikasta.
We're talking about politics.
❌ Se riippuu sää.
Incorrect — riippua governs the elative: säästä.
✅ Se riippuu säästä.
It depends on the weather.
❌ Pidän uudesta opettaja.
Incorrect — the whole phrase must be elative, including the noun: uudesta opettajasta.
✅ Pidän uudesta opettajasta.
I like the new teacher.
Key Takeaways
- The flagship elative verb is pitää + elative = "to like" (pidän kahvista) — English has no preposition here, so learners drop the case. Its casual twin is tykätä (tykkään sinusta).
- nauttia "enjoy" also takes the elative (nautin lomasta); the partitive nauttia jotakin means "consume" (formal).
- Verbs of speaking, telling, asking about a topic put the topic in the elative: puhua, kertoa, kysyä, keskustella jostakin.
- A grab-bag of everyday verbs governs it arbitrarily: huolehtia, riippua, johtua, innostua, välittää jostakin.
- Once you pick the elative, still get its harmony and weak grade right: pöytä → pöydästä, kauppa → kaupasta.
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Start learning Finnish→Related Topics
- Elative -sta/-stä: 'out of, from, about'A1 — The elative -sta/-stä means 'out of, from inside' (talosta) and 'about' a topic (puhun Suomesta); it governs many verbs and takes the weak grade.
- pitää: 'must', 'like' or 'hold'?B1 — One verb, three unrelated meanings sorted out by the construction around it: genitive subject + infinitive = must, pitää + elative = like, pitää + object = hold or keep.
- Liking: pitää + Elative, tykätäA2 — Expressing liking in Finnish — pitää and its everyday synonym tykätä both govern the elative (pidän kahvista), while rakastaa 'love' governs the partitive (rakastan kahvia). Three verbs, three different cases you must not copy from English.
- Verb + Case: RectionB1 — Finnish verbs lexically fix the case of their complement — rakastan sinua, pidän kahvista, uskon Jumalaan — and it rarely matches the English preposition. Learn the case with the verb.
- pitää ('to like / must / hold')A2 — Full conjugation of pitää (Type 1, t↔d gradation) plus its three constructions: like (elative), must (necessive), and hold/keep (object).