-na (viikonpäivät)

Days with -na

Level 1

Day + -na = 'on [day]'. For example, maanantaina (on Monday).

How It Works

To express when something happens on a specific day of the week, Finnish uses the essive case ending -na.

1. Formation:
The ending is added to the singular stem of the day. Because all Finnish days of the week contain back vowels (a, o, u), the ending is always -na (never -nä) due to vowel harmony.

  • maanantai + na = maanantaina (on Monday)
  • tiistai + na = tiistaina (on Tuesday)
  • perjantai + na = perjantaina (on Friday)

This same rule applies to other time periods like the weekend:

  • viikonloppu + na = viikonloppuna (at the weekend)

2. Consonant Gradation:
The essive case requires the strong grade. This is particularly important for keskiviikko (Wednesday), which keeps its double 'kk'.

  • keskiviikko + na = keskiviikkona (Correct)
  • keskiviikona (Incorrect)

3. Usage:
This form usually refers to a specific instance (the most recent or the upcoming one). You can add modifiers like ensi (next) or viime (last) to be more specific. Note that days of the week are not capitalized in Finnish unless they start a sentence.

4. Specific vs. Habitual:
Be careful not to confuse -na with the -sin ending. While maanantaina means "on Monday" (a specific day), maanantaisin means "on Mondays" or "every Monday" (a habit or repeating action).

Examples (4)

  1. Nähdään perjantaina!

    See you on Friday!

    Word by Word: Let's be seen on Friday!

    Perjantaina indicates the specific Friday coming up.

  2. Mitä sinä teet ensi lauantaina?

    What are you doing next Saturday?

    Word by Word: What you do next Saturday-on?

    Ensi (next) is used with the essive form to specify the following week.

  3. Viime tiistaina satoi lunta.

    Last Tuesday it snowed.

    Word by Word: Last Tuesday-on rained snow.

    Viime (last) combined with the essive refers to a past day.

  4. Kurssi alkaa maanantaina.

    The course starts on Monday.

    Word by Word: Course starts Monday-on.

    Standard usage for a scheduled event.

Common Mistakes

  • Using a preposition like 'on' or 'in'.

    Minä menen kauppaan on maanantai.
    Minä menen kauppaan maanantaina.

    Finnish does not use prepositions for days; the case ending -na does all the work.

  • Using the weak grade for Wednesday.

    Nähdään keskiviikona.
    Nähdään keskiviikkona.

    The essive case requires the strong grade, so 'keskiviikko' keeps its double 'kk'.

  • Capitalizing the day of the week.

    Olen kotona Sunnuntaina.
    Olen kotona sunnuntaina.

    In Finnish, days of the week are common nouns and are not capitalized.

How It Connects

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-na (viikonpäivät)Level 1Days with -na

Learn This First

To use days of the week in the 'on [day]' sense, you need to understand how Finnish case endings work and how vowel harmony affects the suffix -na/-nä. It is also helpful to know the question word 'milloin' (when), as this pattern provides the standard way to answer it.

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Words in This Pattern

-na