Help with making words plural.

[Bwuk im pb]

Well i started trying to learn Finnish on my own a few weeks ago.
Increased my vocabulary pretty fast i think, learned tons of basic phrases by flash cards.

but now i really need to learn how to make words plural,
there's so many ways in doing it in the Finnish language i don't know where to start studying!
Can someone post me the rules on making words plural?


Thanks for any help

[Rob A.]

I can think of three basic ways....the simplest is "-t" at the end of a word...this occurs in the nominative and accusative forms.

Then there is the suffix "-i-"... this appears between the word stem and another suffix...it's never at the end of a word.

The third way is the partitive case following numerals...eg. viisi koiraa.

Those are the basics....but there are other much more complicated forms which you can leave for later....satoja koiria..."hundreds of dogs"...

[Bwuk im pb]

When you say,
"-t"

what does the "-" sign mean?

same with "-i"

and can you explain a little more on third methed

[Rob A.]

When you say,
"-t"

what does the "-" sign mean?

same with "-i"

and can you explain a little more on third methed

The "-" signifies the word stem.... eg...talo...talot, koira...koirat, poika...pojat....

The third "method" isn't so much a method as a grammatical requirement. With numerals greater than one...kaksi, kolme, neljä... the noun following is in the singular partitive.... It is as though you were saying " two from the set known as dog".....and koira would be partitive because it is a portion of the entire set. Yksi....doesn't follow this pattern, because "one" is already conceptually complete...so it remains in the nominative or if the grammar requires it, in the accusative...yksi koira/yhden koiran...

[Upphew]

The "-" signifies the word stem.... eg...talo...talot, koira...koirat, poika...pojat....

The third "method" isn't so much a method as a grammatical requirement. With numerals greater than one...kaksi, kolme, neljä... the noun following is in the singular partitive.... It is as though you were saying " two from the set known as dog".....and koira would be partitive because it is a portion of the entire set. Yksi....doesn't follow this pattern, because "one" is already conceptually complete...so it remains in the nominative or if the grammar requires it, in the accusative...yksi koira/yhden koiran...

I think the op is about to learn the learning curve of Finnish...