Internal/External Locatives with Finnish Place Names

The Finnish language uses many postpositions. With Finnish cities, both internal and external locative cases are used. They can be translated in English as in and on. The internal locative is used for the city of Helsinki, but for the city of Tampere, the external locative is used. Let us illustrate with examples.

The following cities use internal locatives:

in Helsinki Helsingissä

in Lahti Lahdessa

in Lappeenranta Lappeenrannassa

in Joensuu Joensuussa

in Jyväskylä Jyväskylässä

in Kokkola Kokkolassa

Kuopio Kuopiossa

in Oulu Oulussa

in Porvoo Porvoossa

in Turku Turussa

The following cities use external locatives:

in Hyvinkää Hyvinkäällä

in Kouvola Kouvolalla

in Lapua Lapualla

in Mäntsälä Mäntsälällä

in Pieksämäki Pieksämäellä

in Riihimäki Riihimäellä

in Rovaniemi Rovaniemellä

in Seinäjoki Seinäjoella

in Tampere Tampereella

in Vantaa Vantaalla

In contrast to many other languages, Finnish uses postpositions. For cities they can be either internal or external locative cases. In addition to the correct use of the postposition, modifications to the base can also occur.