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в Хельсинки

OR

в Хельсинках?

1
  • 3
    Second examle sounds like a name of a one of Moscow suborbs.
    – Artemix
    Oct 2, 2013 at 12:37

2 Answers 2

7

According to paragraph 184 (non-declining nouns) of the Short Russian Grammar (direct link - in Russian), foreign-language toponyms that end in vowels other than and do not decline.

Hence, you'll get:

Где?
В Хельсинки

but

Где?
В Каннах

You do often hear в Хельсинках, however this usage is colloquial and is not grammatically correct. This is just an analogue of the declension of Russian toponyms with similar ending. Compare the above with:

Где?
В Лужниках

1
  • Whoever downvoted, an explanation would be nice
    – Aleks G
    Oct 4, 2013 at 8:00
6

Toponyms which calque plural from the language of origin do decline as plurals in Russian: в Афинах / Кумах / Каннах / Сиракузах, just the same as native Russian toponyms in plural: в Мытищах / Химках / Чебоксарах

However, Хельсинки is not plural in Finnish and hence not plural in Russian.

So it's a singular noun, and as any singular Russian noun ending in , is not declinable.

Correct form would be в Хельсинки.

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