# "Away from" in Finnish



## binary_death

Hi all!

I'd like to know how do you say "away from a place" in Finnish.
"Kaukana" means "far", but I guess if that's the right word, it must go with its respective case.

Thanks for helping


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## Hakro

Some more context would be not only useful but absolutely necessary.

I would guess that the word you are looking for is "poissa".

For example:
- _Olen poissa kotoa._ I'm away from home / I'm not at home.
- _Olen ollut poissa Suomesta jo kymmenen vuotta._ I've been away from Finland already for ten years.

Please give some more context.


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## binary_death

Well, for example:

"I lived in Finland some years ago, but now I'm away from that land."
"I wish to go away from this place."

In these contexts above, could you tell me which structure do I have to use, please?


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## Hakro

binary_death said:


> "I lived in Finland some years ago, but now I'm away from that land." _Asuin Suomessa joitakin vuosia sitten mutta nyt olen poissa siitä maasta_ -- This is a direct translation, grammatically correct but sounds strange. I'd prefer for example _Olen asunut Suomessa mutta nyt olen ollut poissa sieltä jo joitakin vuosia._
> 
> "I wish to go away from this place." _Haluaisin päästä pois tästä paikasta._


Note that when you are away you should use _poissa_ and when you go away you should use _pois_, although in colloquial language people very often say _olla pois jostakin._


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## binary_death

I think I undertand it.
By the way, in fact poissa is the inesive of pois, right? Is there any reason for that?

Finnish is a very beautiful language, but it's difficult as well =)


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## Hakro

binary_death said:


> By the way, in fact poissa is the inesive of pois, right? Is there any reason for that?


I don't think it's inessive but I didn't find an explication. Maybe someone else here has a large grammar or etymology book.


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## Finland

Hello!



Hakro said:


> I don't think it's inessive but I didn't find an explication. Maybe someone else here has a large grammar or etymology book.



I have a (vague) recollection that "poissa" is the inessive of "poikki" (more or less in the meaning broken, thus separated). I'm not quite sure though and I don't have any of my reference books at hand. Maybe someone else finds more information with the help of this clue.

HTH
S


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## Hakro

Somewhere I found an extremely vague idea that _poissa_ might be an example of the locative case that has disappeared from modern Finnish, it only exists in adverbs. The locative ending is usually _-na_ _(kotona, huomenna, ulkona)_ but in some cases it has changed, for example _toissa päivänä (~ toisena päivänä)_. At least _poissa_ rhymes with _toissa_.

According to ISK (iso suomen kielioppi) _poissa_ is just an adverb and its etymology is not explained.

Grammar and etymology experts, please help us!


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## binary_death

I'm sorry, I was absent for a while.
Look at this page: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/poissa
There's a table below with its declension.
According to that, pois is the lative of poikki and poissa the inessive.

Do you think it is trustable?


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## DrWatson

Well, _pois_ and _poissa_ have earlier been **poiɣes* and **poi**ɣessa* respectively (_*ɣ*_ is a voiced velar fricative and used to be the "weaker" counterpart of *k* in consonant gradation). So maybe the _poik-_ part is common for both _poikki_ and _poissa_. The -_i_ in the end of _poikk*i*_ is a lative suffix also found in adverbs like _oh*i* _'past, over', _koht*i*_ 'towards', _katk*i*_ 'broken', _halk*i*_ '(cut) in half' and _läp*i*_ 'through'.


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