Finnish has a system of possessive suffixes. There are five distinct suffixes, depending on the person that is acting as the possessor (note that the third-person singular and third-person plural are not distinguished):
possessor | singular | plural |
---|---|---|
1st person | -ni (“my”) | -mme (“our”) |
2nd person | -si (“your (sg)”) | -nne (“your (pl)”)* |
3rd person | -nsa, -nsä (“his, her, their”) (-an, -än, -en) | |
*) Also the polite form |
The suffix attaches to the end of the word, but assimilates a final -n in the genitive and illative forms.
The first-person and second-person suffixes can be used not just alongside, but in place of the pronoun, which can be omitted if a possessive suffix is present; thus taloni and minun taloni are synonymous. The case for the third-person suffix is different: if used on its own, it has a reflexive meaning, and because of this, the third-person pronoun cannot be left out in the same way as the first- and second-person ones can:
There are no separate nominative forms for inflected words; both the nominative singular and plural have identical forms to the genitive singular, if a possessive suffix is present. The suffixes themselves make no distinction for the number of the possessed, but can be attached to inflected forms; that is, words can be inflected even if they have a possessive suffix.
The third-person possessive suffix also has a short form -Vn (V represents the previous vowel that is made long), which can only be used after the short vowels a, ä, e, and may not be used in the nominative or genitive cases.
Can the nominal form take the short third-person possessive suffix? | ||
---|---|---|
case | singular | plural |
nominative | No | No |
genitive | No | No |
partitive | Possibly* | Yes |
accusative | No | No |
inessive | Yes | Yes |
elative | Yes | Yes |
illative | No | No |
adessive | Yes | Yes |
ablative | Yes | Yes |
allative | Yes | Yes |
essive | Yes | Yes |
translative | Yes | Yes |
abessive | Yes | Yes |
instructive | — | No |
comitative | — | Yes |
*) If the partitive form does not end in -aa or -ää. |
When the short suffix can be used, it usually is.
The first-person singular possessive suffix has an alternative version, -in, which is poetic and thus chiefly used in poetry and music (however, its use is restricted; see the entry for more).
In colloquial language, possessive suffixes are usually not used, and the possessive structure instead uses the personal pronoun in the genitive case (which is subsequently never omitted). The same applies to e.g. postpositions. The comitative suffix, which requires a possessive suffix, is rarely used in colloquial speech anyway.
Possessive suffixes are not used (except for the reflexive usage of the third-person possessive suffix above) if the complement in the genitive case is not a pronoun (such as if it is a name).
Most nouns can receive a possessive suffix.
In addition, the comitative case requires a possessive suffix for nouns (but not adjectives).
Adjectives usually do not receive a possessive suffix, even when used with a noun that has a possessive suffix. Thus, as an example, ×keltaiseni autoni is wrong, and should instead be keltainen autoni.
However, if the adjective is used being substantively, i.e. without a modifying noun, it may receive a possessive suffix.
In addition, adjectives used for comparisons of equality (such as ikäinen (“of ... age, as old as”), pituinen (“of ... length, as long as”) etc.) can receive a possessive suffix (such as ikäiseni (“of my age, the same age as me, as old as me”)). In this case, the modified noun does not automatically receive a possessive suffix.
Some adverbs receive a possessive suffix, and out of those most require it. The adverbs that require a possessive suffix are referred to as predicative adverbials (list).
In some verb phrases, the object or some other word may receive a possessive suffix. There are two main types:
Agent participles require either a possessive suffix or a subject in the genitive case. For other types of participles, possessive suffixes are used as for adjectives.
Some verb forms, including participles, have special uses for possessive suffixes:
Certain postpositions, such as kanssa or luona, can also receive a possessive suffix.
With many of them, such as mielestä, it is required when the complement is a personal pronoun:
yet henkilön mielestä and jonkun mielestä.
(Cardinal) numerals cannot receive a possessive suffix.