II. The accusative is also used to denote duration of time. Viivyn päivän, viikon, muutamat viikkokaudet. Itki illat, itki aamut, yöhyet ennemmin itki, Kal. v. 7, 8. It is also used in answer to the question, how many times, or which time. Minä olen täällä ensimäisen kerran, I am here for the first time. Mina olen ollut Helsingissä muutamat (useat, monet) kerrat, I have been many times at Helsingfors.
But expressions with joka, such as joka kerta, joka päivä, are used in the nominative. Olen joka kerta matkustanut meritse, I have several times travelled by sea. Hän on minun nähnyt harva kerta, he has rarely seen me. Minä ratsastan joka päivä, I ride every day.
Genitive.
I. The genitive in Finnish is used with nouns—
(1) As the subjective genitive. Alqwistin teokset, the works of Alquist; kaupungin kadut, the streets of the town.
(2) As the objective genitive. Vanhempain rakkaus, love for one’s parents; jumalan pelko, fear of God.
(3) As the determinative genitive. Helsingin kaupunki, the town of Helsingfors; kunnon mies, kunnon valkea, a good man, a good fire.
II. Adjectives ending in -inen, which express age, measure, character, etc., take the genitive. Vanha, old, follows the same rule. Sen muotoinen, of this kind; sormen pituinen, of a finger’s length; venäläisen luontoinen, a Russian in character. Pullo on kolmen lasin vetoinen, the bottle holds three glasses. Susi on koiran näköinen, a wolf looks like a dog. Miehen peukalon pituinen, waimon waaksan korkeuinen (Kal. ii. 115). If the word in the genitive is an adjective, numeral, or pronoun, it is written as one word with the word on which it depends. Pahankurinen, ill-behaved; hyväntapainen, well-behaved.
III. The genitive is also used—
(1) With certain impersonal verbs, such as täytyy, pitää, tulee, käskee, sopii, kelpaa, tarvitsee, and with the verb olla, when this latter is used with certain adjectives. Minun pitää lähteä ulkomaalle, I must go abroad. Hänen sopii viipyä täällä. Subjectisanan tulee olla nominativissa tai partitivissa, the subject must be in the nominative or partitive. Parempi minun olisi, parempi olisi ollut, better had it been for me. Ei hänen ollut vaikea päästä ulos, he had no difficulty in getting out.