Learn Finnish: Uhri pakeni metsästä paljain jaloin ilman takkia. - The victim escaped from the forest barefoot, without a jacket.

It is the instructive plural, which is the focus of this lesson! It expresses "how" or "by what means" an action is done. It is formed by taking the plural stem of the words and adding -n. Here, paljas (bare) becomes paljain and jalka (foot) becomes jaloin, literally meaning "with bare feet".

Why are both paljain and jaloin in the instructive case?

In Finnish, adjectives must agree with the noun they describe. Because the noun jalka is in the instructive case, the adjective paljas modifying it must also take the instructive ending.

Is the instructive case always plural?

Almost always, yes. Even when referring to a singular method, the instructive case is typically built on the plural stem. However, idioms involving body parts like paljain jaloin naturally make sense in the plural anyway, since you have two feet.

Why is takkia in the partitive case?

The word ilman (without) is a preposition that always requires the noun following it to be in the partitive case. Since the basic word is takki, the partitive form is takkia.

How do we get pakeni from the dictionary verb ?