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Finnish

### Genitive Compound Adjectives

When describing physical traits like appearance, size, or age in Finnish, use the adjectives **-näköinen** (looking like), **-kokoinen** (the size of), and **-ikäinen** (the age of).

These words function as the second half of a descriptive pair. The first word—which provides the specific description—must be in the **genitive case** (ending in **-n**).

### Asking Questions: Minkä...?

To ask about someone's age or the size of an object, use the genitive form of the question word *mikä* (**minkä**).

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### Using Nouns as Modifiers

You can use a noun or noun phrase in the genitive case to compare a subject's size, age, or appearance to a specific object or person. For example, *passi* (passport) becomes *passin*.

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### Describing Traits with Adjectives

To describe an appearance directly (e.g., "strange-looking" or "real-looking"), pair a descriptive adjective in the genitive case with **-näköinen**.

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### Declining the Compound Structure

Because *-näköinen*, *-kokoinen*, and *-ikäinen* are adjectives, they must agree in case and number with the noun they describe.

Here is the vital rule for these structures: **the first word is locked into the genitive case**, but **the second word declines to match the noun**.

Notice in the examples below how the first word (*oudon*, *vaarallisen*) remains in the genitive case, while the second word declines into the adessive case (*-llä*) or the accusative/genitive case (*-n*) to match the suspect (*epäilty*).

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Genitive compound adjectives (-näköinen, -kokoinen, -ikäinen)

adjective

adposition

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

postposition

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Demonstrative pronouns (tämä, tuo, se)

Singular personal pronouns (minä, sinä, hän)

Plural personal pronouns (me, te, he)

Plural demonstratives (nämä, nuo, ne)

Coordinating conjunctions (ja, mutta, tai)

Yes/no questions (-ko / -kö)

Basic question words (kuka, mikä, missä)

Negation of to be (en ole, ei ole)

The inessive case (-ssa / -ssä)

Double consonant gradation (kk, pp, tt)

Consonant gradation (-ssa/-ssä)

Verb Type 1 (puhun, puhut, puhuu)

Verb Type 1 with consonant gradation

Negative verbs (en puhu, et lue)

External location (-lla/-llä)

There is / there are (kaupungissa on)

Possession (minulla on)

Numbers 1 to 10 (yksi, kaksi, kolme)

The partitive singular (-a/-ä, -ta/-tä)

Quantities with numbers (kaksi autoa)

Negative possession (ei ole)

Numbers 11 to 100 and 1000

Partitive verbs

Partitive personal pronouns (minua, sinua)

Verb Type 2 (-da/-dä)

Partitive for mass nouns (-a/-ä, -ta/-tä)

Partitive for negative objects

Adjective agreement

Verb Type 3

The elative case (-sta/-stä)

Negative possession (minulla ei ole…)

The illative case (-Vn, -hVn, -seen)

Numbers 21 to 99

Static vs. movement verbs

Verb Type 4 (-Vta / -Vtä)

Verb Type 5 (-ita / -itä)

Genitive singular for possession (-n)

Total object (-n)

Accusative personal pronouns (-t)

Obligation (täytyy)

Into places (-Vn, -hVn, -seen)

Postpositions with the genitive

My and your (-ni, -si)

Onto and to someone (-lle)

From someone or somewhere (-lta, -ltä)

Telling time (kello on...)

Months of the year (-ssa, -ssä)

Days of the week (-na, -nä)

When and why (milloin, miksi)

The illative case (mihin, -Vn, -hVn, -seen)

Past tense of to be (olin, olit, oli)

The seasons (kevät, kesä, syksy, talvi)

The imperative mood (lue!, syö!, mene!)

The past tense of to be (olin, oli)

The illative case (-hVn, -seen)

Greetings and goodbyes (hei, näkemiin)

Thank you and sorry (kiitos, anteeksi)

Liking things (pitää / tykätä + -sta/-stä)

Temporary states and roles (-na/-nä)

Change of state (-ksi)

Ongoing actions (-massa/-mässä)

Going to do an action (-maan/-mään)

Returning from an action (-masta/-mästä)

Third-person possessives (-nsa/-nsä or -Vn)

Plural possessives (-mme, -nne)

Indefinite pronouns (joku, jokin, kaikki)

Negative indefinite pronouns (ei kukaan, ei mikään)

Commands for verb types 4 and 5

Adverb formation (-sti)

Past tense for verb type 1 (-i-)

Past tense vowel changes for verb type 1 (-o- / -i-)

Past tense for verb type 2 (-i-)

Past tense for verb type 3 (-i-)

Past tense for verb type 4 (-si-)

Past tense for verb type 5 (-itsi-)

Past tense consonant gradation

Past participles for verb types 1 and 2 (-nut / -nyt)

Past participle singular for verb types 3-5 (-nnut, -llut)

Active past participle plural (-neet)

Past tense negative (en mennyt, emme olleet)

The perfect tense (olen ollut)

The perfect tense negative (en ole nähnyt)

Total plural objects (-t)

Partitive plural (-ia / -iä)

Partitive plural (-ja / -jä)

Question	Answer
-sized / size of	kokoinen
suspect	epäilty
What size is the suspect?	Minkä kokoinen epäilty on?
-looking / looking like	näköinen
The police are looking for a strange-looking suspect.	Poliisi etsii oudon näköistä epäiltyä.
forged / fake	väärennetty
The forged document seems to be the size of a passport.	Väärennetty asiakirja taitaa olla passin kokoinen.
-aged / age of	ikäinen
Do you know what age the suspect is?	Tiedätkö, minkä ikäinen epäilty on?
beard	parta
Does the strange-looking suspect have a beard?	Onko oudon näköisellä epäillyllä parta?
mustache	viikset
scar	arpi
The suspect has a mustache and a terrible-looking scar.	Epäillyllä on viikset ja kauhean näköinen arpi.
border control / border check	rajatarkastus
At border control, the police check what size the suitcase is.	Rajatarkastuksessa poliisi tarkistaa, minkä kokoinen matkalaukku on.
The suspect is the age of a young boy.	Epäilty on nuoren pojan ikäinen.
Do the forged mustaches look real?	Ovatko väärennetyt viikset todellisen näköiset?
identifying mark / feature (for identification)	tuntomerkki
The suspect's identifying mark was a scar the size of a coin.	Epäillyn tuntomerkki oli kolikon kokoinen arpi.
At border control, we wanted to check the dangerous-looking suspect.	Rajatarkastuksessa halusimme tarkistaa vaarallisen näköisen epäillyn.
I do not know if the forged passport is the same size.	En tiedä, onko väärennetty passi saman kokoinen.
The strange-looking suspect had a forged passport.	Oudon näköisellä epäillyllä oli väärennetty passi.
The suspect's beard is an important identifying mark, because he looks exactly like this picture.	Epäillyn parta on tärkeä tuntomerkki, koska hän on aivan tämän kuvan näköinen.