The Elative Case (-sta/-stä)
The elative case expresses movement out of or from a place. You form it by attaching the suffix -sta or -stä to a word.
Follow standard vowel harmony: use -stä if the word contains front vowels (ä, ö, y), and -sta if it contains back vowels (a, o, u). Words with only neutral vowels (e, i) take -stä.
Asking "Where from?"
To ask where someone is coming from or where they are from, use the question word mistä (where from), which itself has the elative -stä ending.
You can combine mistä with a noun in the elative case to ask "from what...?" or "what... from?"
Leaving and Finding
Use the elative case with verbs of movement away from a place, such as lähteä (to leave) or tulla (to come).
Interestingly, Finnish also uses the elative case with the verb löytää (to find). While in English you find something in a place, in Finnish you discover it out of a place!
Liking Things
The verb pitää (to like) requires the thing you like to be in the elative case.
Any adjectives or pronouns modifying the noun must also take the -sta/-stä ending. For example, tämä (this) becomes tästä, and tuo (that) becomes tuosta.
