The Logic of Location in Finnish
In English, you usually search "in" a place and find things "in" or "on" a place. Finnish looks at these actions differently. If the end goal of an action is to extract something or take it away, Finnish focuses on the direction of that extraction and requires a "from" case: either the elative (-sta/-stä, out of) or the ablative (-lta/-ltä, from).
Etsiä (to search)
When you search for something, you are trying to pull it out of a location. Because of this, you search from a place using the elative or ablative case.
Additionally, because the act of searching is an ongoing, incomplete process, the object you are looking for must be in the partitive case.
| I am searching for a new apartment in this apartment building. | Etsin uutta asuntoa tästä kerrostalosta. |
| The real estate agent is searching for a terraced house for me in Espoo. | Välittäjä etsii minulle rivitaloa Espoosta. |
Löytää (to find)
The verb löytää follows the same logic. When you find something, it conceptually comes out of its hiding place and into your awareness or possession. Therefore, you always find things from somewhere in Finnish.
| Where did you find that beautiful apartment? | Mistä löysit tuon kauniin asunnon? |
| They found a cheap terraced house on the internet. | He löysivät halvan rivitalon netistä. |
Ostaa (to buy)
Buying is a transfer of ownership away from a seller. When you buy something, you buy it from a person, a company, or a store.
When buying from a person or a business entity (like a real estate agent or an inspection company), use the ablative case (-lta/-ltä).
| I bought my new one-bedroom apartment from a friendly real estate agent. | Ostin uuden kaksioni ystävälliseltä välittäjältä. |
| I bought a condition inspection from a reliable company. | Ostin kuntotarkastuksen luotettavalta yritykseltä. |
