Locative Cases

The Estonian language has two groups of locative cases – the internal and external locative cases.
The internal locative cases are the illative, inessive, and elative.
The external locative cases are the allative, adessive and ablative.

Illative
into whom? into what? where to?

1. The illative is formed from the genitive stem by adding the case ending -sse.
teater, teatri, teatrit > teatrisse /into the theatre/          hammas, hamba, hammast > hambasse /into the tooth/

2. The short form of the illative has no ending. The short illative can be formed if the word has two syllables in the genitive, and in the case of some one-syllable words.

The short illative often coincides with the partitive.
kapp, kapi, kappi > kappi /into the closet/                    kool, kooli, kooli > kooli /into the school/
aed, aia, aeda > aeda /into the garden/

The short illative of words composed of two short syllables is sometimes formed by doubling a stem sound.
maja, maja, maja > majja /into the house/                   tuba, toa, tuba > tuppa /into the room/
kino, kino, kino > kinno /into the cinema/                     lagi, lae, lage > lakke /into the ceiling/

The short illative ending -de occurs in the words uus, keel and suur (and other analogous words).
uus, uue, uut > uude /into the new/                              keel, keele, keelt > keelde /into the language/
suur, suure, suurt > suurde /into the big/

The short illative of one-syllable words with a long vowel sometimes ends with -he, -hu, -ha.
suu, suu, suud > suhu /into the mouth/                        maa, maa, maad > maha /down, to the ground/
pea, pea, pead > pähe /into the head/
The illative is used to denote movement into something, e.g. Läheme tuppa! 'Lets go in (to the room)!'

Inessive
in(side) whom? in(side) what? where?
The inessive is formed from the genitive stem and ends with -s.
tuba, toa, tuba > toas /in the room/                             esik, esiku, esikut > esikus /in the hall/
The inessive is used to denote location inside something, e.g. Koer magab tugitoolis. 'The dog sleeps in the armchair.'

Elative
(out) of whom? (out) of what? where from?
The elative is formed from the genitive stem by adding the case ending -st.
maja, maja, maja > majast /from the house/              tuba, toa, tuba > toast /from the room/
The elative is used:
1) to denote movement out of something, e.g. Ema tuleb aiast. 'Mother comes from the garden.'
2) to indicate the object talked or thought about, e.g. Jutusta mulle oma perest. 'Tell me about your family.'

The allative, adessive and ablative are the external locative cases.
Allative
on(to) whom? on(to) what?
The allative is formed from the genitive stem by adding the case ending -le.
laud, laua, lauda > lauale /to the table/                     tänav, tänava, tänavat > tänavale /to the street/
The allative is used to denote movement on(to) a surface, e.g. Ma panen raamatu lauale. 'I will put the book on the table.'

Adessive
on whom? on what?
The adessive is formed from the genitive stem by adding the case ending -l.
diivan, diivani, diivanit > diivanil /on the sofa/           staadion, staadioni, staadionit > staadionil /on the stadium/
The adessive is used to denote location on a surface, e.g. Ema istub diivanil. 'Mother is sitting on the sofa.'

Ablative
off / away from whom? off / away from what?
The ablative is formed from the genitive stem by adding the case ending -lt.
laud, laua, lauda > laualt /from the table/                 riiul, riiuli, riiulit > riiulilt /from the shelf/
The ablative is used to denote movement off a surface, away from a situation,
e.g. Ta võttis riiulilt sõnaraamatu. 'He/She took the dictionary from the shelf.'

Summary of Internal Locative Cases

External Locative Cases