The External Cases—Adessive, Ablative, and Allative.
The external cases correspond in their general significance and employment to the internal cases already described, only while these latter denote rest within and motion to or from the interior of an object, the former in their strict meaning imply rest on and motion to or from the surface of an object. But as may be seen by the examples this distinction is not always very strictly observed. The external cases have a tendency to denote animate objects.
Adessive.
I. The adessive primarily denotes the place on which an action takes place. Poika istuu lattialla, the boy sits on the floor. Tuskin voin olla jaloillani, I can hardly stand on my legs. Hän asuu tällä kadulla, he lives in this street. Millä paikoilla? whereabouts? Saksan maalla kasvaa hyviä viinirypäleitä, in Germany good grapes grow. Kivet laikkui lainehilla, Somerot vesillä souti (Kal. xliv. 261, 2).
II. The adessive is also used to mark time, when the period is not definitely specified by a cardinal number or otherwise. Päivällä, in the day, by day; yöllä, by night; keväällä, in spring; kesällä, in summer; syksyllä, in autumn; talvella, in winter; (but viime kesänä, last spring, because the time is determined by the adjective).
Kalat tärpäävät kesällä, fish bite in spring. Aamulla ani varahin, very early in the morning (Kal. iv. 303). Kysyi työtä iltaisella, he asked for the work in the evening (Kal. xxxii. 6).
III. Like the inessive the adessive is used in a loose or metaphorical sense to denote the external circumstances under which anything takes place. Thus it is used of the weather. Kuivalla säällä, in dry weather; tuulella, in windy weather. Minä palasin kotiin sateella, I returned home in the rain. Joka tyynellä makaa, se tuulella soutaa (proverb), he who sleeps in a calm, rows in a wind.
Olla hereellä or valveella, to be awake. On tulolla sade, it is going to rain. Olen menolla, I am going.
And in some cases where according to our ideas the circumstances denoted are distinctly internal, e.g. olla hyvällä tai pahalla mielellä, to be in a good or bad humour. Olla hyvällä päällä, to feel courageous. Cf. Kal. xliv. 269, 270. Nuoret naiset naurusuulla, Emännät ilolla mielin.
In particular it is thus used with verbal nouns to express that an action is being undertaken. Kirjan käännös on tekeellä (or tekeilla), the translation of the book is being made. Kangas on kuteella, the cloth is being woven.