What is the difference between -l and -s with geographical or place names?
Greetings!

If I'm not mistaken, we use these case endings to indicate place: maal - in a village, Tallinns - in Tallin etc. So, the question is what's the difference between these endings? Is there any rule for that?

I just don't quite get it. Why Moskvas or Kiievis, but Kohta-Järvel? Eestis, but Venemaal?

Thanks in advance :)

Question

What is the difference between  -l and -s with geographical or place names?
Greetings!

If I'm not mistaken, we use these case endings to indicate place: maal - in a village, Tallinns - in Tallin etc. So, the question is what's the difference between these endings? Is there any rule for that?

I just don't quite get it. Why Moskvas or Kiievis, but Kohta-Järvel? Eestis, but Venemaal?

Thanks in advance :)

Answer

Hey Eugeny! Im also a beginner but from what I remember from my classes we use -l when we want to say that something is on something else. For example maal (on the land) and -s when something is in something else eg. Eestis (In Estonia) hopefully I helped somehow 😬

Answer

maa - land/ground
järv - lake

I've never actually thought about this but it seems to be that if the place or country name has a geographic word like "maa" in the end then it ends with "-l" because it would sound weird if you said in the ground (maas). (Maas can also mean on the ground but not in this context). Same with Kohtla-Järve, it would sound weird if you said järves (in the lake).