In grammar, the inessive case (abbreviated ; from  "to be in or at") is a locative grammatical case.
This case carries the basic meaning of "in": for example, "in the house" is  in Finnish,  in Estonian,  () in Moksha,  in Basque,  in Lithuanian,  in Latgalian and  in Hungarian.
In Finnish the inessive case is typically formed by adding .
Estonian adds  to the genitive stem.
In Moksha,  () is added.
In Hungarian, the suffix  is most commonly used for inessive case, although many others, such as  and others are also used, especially with cities.
In the Finnish language, the inessive case is considered the first (in Estonian the second) of the six locative cases, which correspond to locational  prepositions in English.
The remaining five cases are:
Elative case ("out of")
Illative case ("into")
Allative case ("onto")
Adessive case ("on")
Ablative case ("from")
Finnish
The Finnish language inessive uses the suffix  or  (depending on vowel harmony).
It is usually added to nouns and associated adjectives.
It is used in the following ways:
Expressing the static state of being in something.
= we live in Finland
(with time expressions) stating how long something took to be accomplished or done
possible English translations include in, within
= within 2 years, during 2 years
when two things are closely connected
English translations can include on in phrases of this type
= N.N. on the phone
= the ring is on my finger
as an existensial clause with the verb  (to be), to express possession of objects
= the newspaper has 68 pages
with the verb ,
= I visit the bar
There are both singular and plural forms
= I visit the bars
Further reading
