How to say 'without' in Finnish

Here's a post about different ways to express withoutness in Finnish. It can be done with a preposition ilman, a derivational ending -ton, or an adessive ending -tta added to a noun stem or to a MA infinitive of a verb.

1. Ilman is the prepositon without. It is used with a partitive.

• En voi elää ilman sinua! - I can't live without you!
• Älä mene ulos ilman takkia.  -  Don't go outside without a jacket. 

2. To make an adjective, add the derivational suffix -ton or -tön to a noun stem or to the agent participle stem.

• sokeri > sokeriton - sugar > sugar-free
• työ > työtön - job, work > unemployed
• uskoa > uskomaton - to believe > unbelievable
• kirjoittaa > kirjoittamaton - to write > unwritten

Notice how the -ton  changes to -ttoma- when you add other case endings than partitive:

• Onko tähän rasvattomaan maitoon lisätty D-vitamiinia? - Have they added  vitamin D into this fat free milk?
• Sokerittomissa juomissa on muita makeutusaineta. - There are other sweeteners in sugar-free drinks.
• Asiattomilta pääsy kielletty. - No trespassing. Stay out, if you don't have a good reason to be here. (Asia is a thing. Asiaton is a person who has no reason to be somewhere.) 
• Onko sinulla paljon tekemättömiä töitä? - Do you have a lot of undone tasks?
• Tämä on uskomatonta! - This is unbelievable!

Kuva: Motonet

3. To make an adverb, add the abessive ending -tta or -ttä to a noun stem.

• Älä mene ulos takitta.  - Don't go out without a jacket. (However, it's more common to say ilman takkia.)
• Kokous sujui ongelmitta. - The meeting went along without problems. 

4. With verbs, add -matta or -mättä to the strong verb stem. 

• En voinut olla ostamatta tätä laukkua! - I couldn't be without buying this bag!
• En voinut olla kertomatta tätä sinulle. - I couldn't be without telling this to you.
• Hän lähti sanomatta sanaakaan. - He left without saying a word. 
• Ole syömättä kaksitoista tuntia ennen leikkausta. - Be without eating for twelve hours before the operation. 

Read more and listen to songs with ilman:

• MA-infinitiivi
• How to say 'with' in Finnish
• Uusi kielemme: Words ending in -ton / -tön
• Talking about things in Finnish
• Describing things in Finnish
• Kansalaiset: Ilman sua
• Jonne Aaron: Kylmä ilman sua (originally a Kaija Koo song.)
• Zen Café: Piha ilman sadettajaa
• Ezkimo: Ilman sua

About the author of Random Finnish Lesson: 

My name is Hanna Männikkölahti. I am a professional Finnish teacher who gives private online lessons and simplifies books into easy Finnish. Follow this blog, if you want to be the first one to know when I post something new.  If you want to subscribe to my newsletter, you can do it here.