The inessive is one of the six paikallissijat or location cases. This case is usually used in the same instances when in, at or within would be used in English.

Remember that, with the inessive, the noun is in its weak form, if it requires consonant gradation.
 
 

When is the inessive used?

• To talk about something being in a particular place:

 
• Eilen olin kirkossa.  Yesterday I was in church.  Yesterday I was in the church.
• Eilen kävin kirkossa.  Yesterday I went to church.  Yesterday I attended church. (NB. The verb käydä always takes the inessive, even though it means to go to or to visit.)
• Asun Espoossa.  I live in Espoo.
• Junassa huomasin, että olin jättänyt lompakkoni kotiin.  On the train, I noticed that I had left my wallet at home. (NB. Leaving something somewhere requires the illative in Finnish!)
• Suomen kielessä on viisitoista sijamuotoa.  There are fifteen cases in the Finnish language.
• Mitä luet yliopistossa? What are you studying at the university?
• Luen suomea yliopistossa. I study Finnish in the university.
• Kyltissä lukee "Mee pois!".  The sign says: go away!
• Helsingissä on paljon turisteja kesällä.   In the summertime there are a lot of tourists in Helsinki.
• Naapurini menetti miehensä kolarissa. My neighbour's husband was killed in a car crash.
• Menetät terveytesi lähitulevaisuudessa, jos ryyppäät niin paljon. You're going to ruin your health in the near future if you continue to drink so much.
• Monessa Afrikan maassa naiset ja lapset pakenevat nälkää toiseen maahan. In many African countries women and children flee to other countries because of hunger.

 
• With time expressions, it says how long it took to get something accomplished or done.  Commonly used when the English expression has within or in in it:
 
• Luin tämän päivän sanomalehden parissa tunnissa.  I read today's newspaper in a couple hours.
• Kolmessa vuodessa olen ehtinyt oppia paljon suomea.  I've managed to learn a lot of Finnish in three years.
• kahdessa vuodessa within two years, during two years, in two years
• vajaassa kahdessa vuodessa in less than two years
• kolme kertaa viikossa three times a week

• Although most towns use the inessive, there are quite a few that take the adessive:
 
• Asun Tampereella.  I live in Tampere.
• En asu Imatralla. I don't live in Imatra.
• Juhannuksena käyn joko Puolangalla tai Maaningalla.  At Midsummer's, I either go to Puolanka or Maaninka.
 
For more information on which case the towns take, please see the KKTK site.

• Note differences that may or may not occur if you change the inessive to the adessive:
 
• Tunnilla luimme kirjan (läpi). We read the (whole) book in class.
• Tunnissa luimme kirjan (läpi). We read the (whole) book in an hour.
• Sunnuntaisin käyn kirkolla. On Sundays I visit the center of the village.  (NB. This usage of kirkko comes from the word kirkonkylä, a village with a church in it.  Thus to visit the center of the village is to visit the area of town around the church, and since the church is always near the center, you're visiting the area around it or nearby, the adessive is used!  This type of difference also occurs with the words yliopisto and kaupunki.)
• Sunnuntaisin käyn kirkossa.  On Sundays I go to church.  On Sundays I attend church.

 
• These verbs require a different case than the inessive, which differs thus from the English:
 
• jättää jkn jhk   to leave something someplace
• Jätin avaimeni kotiin. I left my keys at home.
• mennä rikki jstk  to rip someplace
• Minun mekkoni on mennyt rikki saumasta. My dress has ripped at the seam.
• löytää jstk  to find in something, to find somewhere
• Työtehtävääni kuuluu kirjoitusvirheiden löytäminen kirjoista.  It's part of my job to find spelling mistakes in books.
• lukea jstk   to read in something
• Luimme lehdestä, että Neuvostoliitto oli romahtanut.  We read in the newspaper that the Soviet Union had collapsed.

• Words that require the inessive
• Inessive vs. Adessive