Etymology
From Proto-Finnic *kevät, from Proto-Uralic *keŋä.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈkeʋæt/, [ˈk̟e̞ʋæt̪]
- Rhymes: -eʋæt
- Hyphenation(key): ke‧vät
Noun
season
Previous: talvi
Next: kesä
kevät
- spring, springtime (season of the year)
Usage notes
As with all four seasons in Finnish, the adessive case (keväällä) is normally used when talking about events that will take place or took place in (the) spring. The essive case (keväänä) is used instead, however, if there is a determiner like tämä (“this”), viime (“last”) or ensi (“next”); this does not apply when e.g. specifying the year (adessive case is used). As usual, other uses, e.g. when postponing events (allative) or with asti (“until”) (illative), may use other locative cases.
…tapahtui keväällä ―
…happened in the spring
…tapahtui vuoden 2017 keväällä ―
…happened in the spring of (the year) 2017,
…happened in spring 2017
…tapahtui viime keväänä ―
…happened last spring