Finnish Possessive Suffixes

Learn how to show possession in Finnish

Finnish Flag

These Finnish lessons were written by Josh Pirie.

Need more Finnish? Try the Introductory Finnish Language course at Udemy or the audio-visual lessons at FinnishPod101.com

Learn Finnish with FinnishPod101.com 


Finnish Possessives

Possession in Finnish is expressed using either the genitive pronoun before the noun or the possessive suffix at the end of the noun, or both. They are as follows:

minun        ___-ni                    meidän ___-mme

sinun          ___-si                    teidän  ___-nne

hänen        __V-Vn*               heidän   __V-Vn           (where V = any vowel)

In each use, the suffix is added to the form of the noun, in whichever case it happens to be, unless there is an -n or -t ending, of which there happen to be a lot in Finnish. In such cases, the -n or -t drops before the suffix is added. When adding to a nominative or genitive (or accusative that looks like a genitive), strong grade is present or re-inserted. If in the third person, there are already two vowels, then a different ending is added: -nsa/-nsä. "Come to our house!" would then be expressed Tule taloomme! where nominative talo > genitive talon > illative taloon + -mme > taloomme. One could also say Tule meidän taloomme!

*Vowel prolongation is never used in the nominative singular. Use the -nsa/-nsä ending, to avoid making the nominative sound like the illative.

 


 

Finnish Vocabulary and Grammar



Buy ielanguages.com language tutorials

If you enjoy the tutorials, then please consider buying French, Informal French, Italian, Spanish, German, Swedish, or Dutch Language Tutorials as a PDF e-book with free mp3s and free lifetime updates.

Buy French Tutorial

Buy Informal French

Both French e-books

Buy Italian Tutorial

Buy Spanish Tutorial

Buy German Tutorial

Buy Swedish Tutorial

Buy Dutch Tutorial





Please consider sending a donation of any amount to help support ielanguages.com. Thank you!

Donate




Return to top of page






Learn languages with videos and subtitles at FluentU

FluentU offers authentic videos in French, Spanish, German, English, Chinese and Japanese. Learn from captions and translations and enjoy access to ALL languages!

Learn languages with videos and subtitles at Yabla

Learn Spanish, French, German, Italian, Mandarin Chinese and English with authentic videos by Yabla that include subtitles and translations.



Learn languages by reading Interlinear Books

Learn to read languages with interlinear bilingual books that include the original language and an English translation below in a smaller font.

Udemy Language Learning Courses

Hundreds of free and paid online language learning video courses at Udemy. By native speakers and experts, from Arabic to Zulu.





© Copyright 1997 - 2023 by Dr. Wagner About | Blog | Affiliate Program | Disclaimer | Privacy Policy