-n

Table of contents

1 Finnish 1.1 -n (1) 1.1.1 Etymology 1.1.2 Case suffix 1.1.3 Usage 1.2 -n (2) 1.2.1 Etymology 1.2.2 Case suffix 1.2.3 Notes 1.3 -n (3) 1.3.1 Case suffix 1.4 -n (4) 1.4.1 Etymology 1.4.2 Personal suffix 1.4.3 See also 1.5 External links 2 Esperanto 2.1 Ending 3 Swedish 3.1 Suffix

Finnish

-n (1)

Etymology

From the Uralic genitive suffix *-n.

Case suffix

-n

1. used to form the genitive case.

   tytön takki "girl's coat"

   poikani takki "the coat of my son"

Usage

When possessive suffixes are used, the genitive hasn't got its suffix -n. The possessive suffixes are appended to a vowel stem instead, thus often rendering the nominative and genitive singular identical.

-n (2)

Etymology

From Fenno-Volgaic accusative suffix *-m.

Case suffix

-n

1. used to form the accusative case.

   näin tytön "I saw a/the girl"

   tapasin poikani eilen "I met my son yesterday"

Notes

The genitive singular and accusative singular look identical in Finnish. The object of an transitive verb may look also like the nominative but it's still called the accusative in traditional grammars. There's also the partial object, which uses the partitive case. For the accusative forms of personal pronouns, see -t.

-n (3)

Case suffix

-n (not used with possessive suffixes)

1. Used to form the instructive case, usually only in the plural.

   Pääsin ojan yli kuivin jaloin "I could cross the ditch with dry feet."

-n (4)

Etymology

From the Uralic first person singular suffix *-mV, probably connected with the first person pronoun *mV; see eg. Finnish minä.

Personal suffix

1. The first person singular suffix for verbs

   lukea -> luen "I read/am reading"

   kadottaa -> kadotin "I lost (an item)"

   tulla -> en tule "I won't come/I'm not coming"

See also

• -t
• -mme
• -tte
• -vat

External links

• Wikipedia article on Finnish grammar

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Esperanto

Ending

1. accusative ending, also marks direction.

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Swedish

Suffix

1. Suffix for singular definite form of common nouns, especially those ending with a vowel. See also -en, -an