Postpositions with Genitive — Finnish Grammar

English puts its position words in front of the noun: under the table, with a friend. Finnish puts most of them behind it, and marks the noun in front with -n — the same ending that marks an owner. The literal order is "the table's under", "the friend's with", and once you expect it the pattern is easy to spot.

The Pattern: Noun with -n, Then the Position Word

pöydän alla
under the table (literally "the table's under")

pöydä-n the table, with the ending — alla then says where

oven edessä
in front of the door
talon takana
behind the house
kaupan vieressä
next to the shop

Common Position Words

- with
- after
- in front of
- next to
- between
- behind

Menen kaupungille ystävän kanssa.
I'm going to town with a friend.
Kahvin jälkeen menemme ulos.
After coffee we'll go out.
Kauppa on aseman ja koulun välillä.
The shop is between the station and the school.

With Pronouns

When a pronoun comes first, the position word takes an owner ending of its own, so "with me" collapses into one packed word.

minun kanssani
with me
Tule meidän kanssamme.
Come with us.

A Few Work in Front Instead

A small number of these words can also precede the noun, like an English preposition. The most common is ("before"), and it takes -a/-ä rather than -n.

ennen lounasta
before lunch

In the course

Sentences from Lingora’s Finnish course

19 of the course's 500 sentences use this, the first in lesson 25. A few of them, with the words “Postpositions with Genitive” is about in bold:

Käyn kylvyssä ennen nukkumaanmenoa.
I'll take a bath before going to bed.
Lesson 481
Avain on pöytäni alla.
The key is below my desk.
Lesson 483

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