eteen

Finnish

The illative singular of esi- (“fore-, front”). Related to Estonian ette, Livvi edeh, Votic ette.^[1]

eteen [with genitive and/or possessive form]

(of motion) (to) in front of, to the front of
Antonym: taakse

Mene talon eteen!
Go in front of the house!

Katso eteesi!
Watch where you're going!
(literally, “Look ahead of you!”)
for (the good, benefit or sake of)
Synonym: eduksi

Tekisitpä joskus jotain yhteiskunnan eteen!
I wish you would do something for the society once!
into the way (of) (also independently as an adverb)
Synonym: tielle

Älä tule eteeni!
Don't get in my way!
(figurative) across, in the way of (also independently as an adverb)
Synonym: vastaan

Nyt tuli ongelma eteen.
We came across a problem.

eteen

Declension of esi- (type 27*F/käsi)

noun case	singular	plural	adverbial form	singular	plural
nominative	esi-	–	superessive	–	–
genitive	–	–	delative	–	–
partitive	–	–	sublative	–	–
accusative	–	–	lative	edes	–
inessive	edessä	–	temporal	–	–
elative	edestä	–	causative	–	–
illative	eteen	esiin	multiplicative	–	–
adessive	edellä	esillä	distributive	–	–
ablative	edeltä	esiltä	temp. dist.	–	–
allative	edelle	esille	prolative	editse	–
essive	–	–	situative	–	–
translative	–	–	oppositive	–	–
abessive	–	–
instructive	etenkin etenkään	–
comitative	–	–

Personal/possessive forms of eteen
no possessor	eteen
possessor	singular	plural
1st person	eteeni	eteemme
2nd person	eteesi	eteenne
3rd person	eteensä

compounds

See the inflection table above and the derived terms under esi-.

^ Häkkinen, Kaisa (2004), “eteen”, in Nykysuomen etymologinen sanakirja [Modern Finnish Etymological Dictionary] (in Finnish), Juva: WSOY, →ISBN