Breakdown of He haluavat mennä naimisiin kirkossa.
he
they
kirkko
church
mennä
to go
haluta
to want
naimisiin
into marriage (as in "to get married")
Questions & Answers about He haluavat mennä naimisiin kirkossa.
Why is the illative case used in naimisiin?
This is a core feature of how Finnish handles abstract changes of state. Just like physical movement to a destination uses the illative (the "into" case), entering a new condition or state often uses it too. The phrase mennä naimisiin literally translates to something like "to go into marriages", functioning as a fixed idiom for "to get married".
What kind of word is naimisiin originally?
It is the illative plural form of the noun naiminen (the act of marrying), which derives from the verb naida (to marry). While you won't see naiminen used as a regular noun very often today, its illative plural form got completely frozen into this everyday idiom.
Why doesn't the verb mennä make the church take the illative case (kirkkoon)?
Because in this sentence, mennä is not expressing physical travel; it's entirely tied up in the idiom mennä naimisiin (to get married). The church is simply the static location where the wedding event happens, so it takes the inessive case (kirkossa, "in the church"). If you said He haluavat mennä kirkkoon naimisiin, it would mean they are currently elsewhere and want to travel to the church in order to get married there.
Could I just use the single verb naida instead of mennä naimisiin here?
No, it wouldn't work here. Mennä naimisiin is an intransitive phrase used when talking about the general act of getting married. Naida is transitive, meaning it requires an object (e.g., "She marries him"). Furthermore, in modern colloquial Finnish, naida is highly commonly used as slang for having sex, so learners are usually advised to stick to mennä naimisiin or the more formal verb avioitua.
Learn He haluavat mennä naimisiin kirkossa and more in Finnish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free