Illative plural (-iin, -ihin, -siin)

The Illative Plural (-iin, -ihin, -siin)

The illative case expresses movement into a place. To talk about putting items into multiple places, use the illative plural.

The illative plural ending attaches to the plural stem (which includes the plural marker -i-). Depending on the word, the ending is -iin, -ihin, or -siin:

• -iin when the plural stem ends in -i (e.g., pieni → pieniin, kirjekuori → kirjekuoriin).
• -ihin when the plural -i- forms a diphthong (a vowel combination) with the stem's final vowel (e.g., pussi → pusseihin, kansio → kansioihin).
• -siin for words ending in -e in their dictionary form (e.g., laite → laitteisiin, huone → huoneisiin).

Adjectives and demonstrative pronouns agree with the noun they modify. Note the illative plural forms of these common pronouns:

• tämä (this) becomes näihin (into these)
• tuo (that) becomes noihin (into those)

Leaving, Forgetting, and Hiding "Into"

In English, you leave, hide, or forget things in a location. Finnish views these actions as the transfer of an object to a destination.

Because of this, verbs like jättää (to leave), unohtaa (to forget), and piilottaa (to hide) require the destination to be in the illative case, not the inessive ("in").

Sorting and Storing

You will use the illative plural frequently when packing (pakata), sorting (lajitella), or saving (tallentaa) items into multiple containers or locations.