-nsä

See also: nsa, NSA, and -nsa

Finnish

Pronunciation
  • Hyphenation: -n‧sä (the N is in the last syllable of the actual word, e.g. yh·ti·ön·sä)
  • IPA(key): /-nsæˣ/
  • Pronounced as written. The first syllables of Finnish words are always stressed, so no emphasis on this. If this is followed by another enclitic particle or a separate word, the first consonant of that word is doubled.

Suffix

-nsä (appended to a word that includes ä, ö or y or i or e alone and to the (strong) vowel stem; the final -n of the genitive and illative singular and plural or the -t of the nominative plural is omitted)

  1. (possessive) suffix used with hänen (the genitive of the personal pronoun hän) or heidän (the genitive of the personal pronoun he), corresponds to the English possessive pronouns his, her; their (only of people); in some cases its (see the usage notes below):
    • hänen yhtiönsä (yhtiö > + -nsä, not -nsa)
      • his/her company (meaning a corporation)
    • hänen äänensä: (ääni > + -nsä)
      • his/her voice
    • hänen kirjeensä: (kirje > + -nsä)
      • his/her letter (meaning a written message)
    • heidän kirjeensä
      • their letter
  2. (possessive) appended to a genitive-requiring postposition that includes front vowels and that is after hänen (the genitive of the personal pronoun hän), him, her; them (only of people):
  3. (possessive) used in a participle structure replacing an "että" clause, preceded by a verb expressing e.g. telling, claiming, asserting, confirming, thinking, wish, desire, seeming, when the clauses have the same subject "he", "she" or "they" (only of people); appended to the active present participle in genitive singular (that includes front vowels) when the action is concurrent with the main clause:
    • Hän sanoi tekevänsä läksyjänsä. (having front vowels (here Äs), the verb tehdä, turned into tekevän, requires -nsä)
      • He said that he was doing his homework. (similar to the Latin structure accusativus cum infinitivo, e.g. "se dicit facere")
  4. (possessive) used in a participle structure replacing an "että" clause, preceded by a verb expressing e.g. telling, claiming, asserting, confirming, thinking, wish, desire, seeming, when the clauses have the same subject "he", "she" or "they" (only of people); appended to the active past participle in genitive singular (that includes front vowels) when the said/alleged (etc.) action antedates the main clause:
  5. (possessive) used in a shortened sentence expressing concurrent actions when the clauses have the same subject "he", "she" or "they" (only of people), appended to the inessive of the active second infinitive (that includes front vowels).
    • Tehdessänsä läksyjänsä hän kuuli laukauksen ulkoa. (also the shorter form Tehdessään accepted — see the usage notes below)
      • (While) doing her homework, she heard a shot from outside.
  6. (possessive) used in a shortened sentence expressing subsequent actions when the clauses have the same subject "he", "she" or "they" (only of people), appended to the partitive of the passive past participle singular (that includes front vowels).
    • Tehtyänsä läksynsä he kuulivat laukauksen ulkoa. (also the shorter form Tehtyään accepted — see the usage notes below)
      • (After) having done / After doing their homework, they heard a shot from outside.
  7. (possessive) used in a final shortened sentence expressing "in order to do" when the clauses have the same subject "he", "she" or "they" (only of people), appended to the long first infinitive (that includes front vowels).
    • Tehdäksensä läksynsä hyvin hän meni hiljaiseen huoneeseen. (also the shorter form Tehdäkseen accepted — see the usage notes below)
      • (In order) to do his homework well, he went into a quiet room.
  8. (possessive) Used in some adverbs that include front vowels, when the clause has the subject "he", "she" or "they" (only of people).
  9. (possessive) Always appended to a noun in the comitative case (that includes front vowels) when the clause has the subject "he", "she" or "they" (only of people).

Usage notes
Usage notes
  • The possessive suffix -nsä is used in standard Finnish. In standard Finnish, the genitive forms of the corresponding personal pronouns "hän" and "he" before the main word can never be omitted, in order to clarify whether there is one owner or more. In colloquial Finnish, the suffix -nsa is very rare and only the genitive forms "hänen" and "heidän" (or their colloquial or dialectal variants) are used before the main word.
  • When appended to nouns that are in singular and plural inessive, elative, allative, adessive, ablative, translative, essive and abessive, plural partitive and comitative and singular partitive ending with -tä, the S and Ä are very often omitted from the suffix and the last Äs or Es of the case suffixes preceding the remaining N are doubled. In standard Finnish, both the "full" form and the shortened form are acceptable (cf. -nsa). This same omission takes very often place also in the nominal verb forms used in shortened sentences (above) and the adverbs requiring this suffix:
Singular
(parti.) kirjettänsä -> kirjettään
(iness.) kirjeessänsä -> kirjeessään
(elati.) kirjeestänsä -> kirjeestään
(adess.) kirjeellänsä -> kirjeellään
(allat.) kirjeellensä -> kirjeelleen
(ablat.) kirjeeltänsä -> kirjeeltään
(trans.) kirjeeksensä -> kirjeekseen
(essive) kirjeenänsä -> kirjeenään
(abess.) kirjeettänsä -> kirjeettään
Plural
(parti.) kirjeitänsä -> kirjeitään
(iness.) kirjeissänsä -> kirjeissään
(elati.) kirjeistänsä -> kirjeistään
(adess.) kirjeillänsä -> kirjeillään
(allat.) kirjeillensä -> kirjeilleen
(ablat.) kirjeiltänsä -> kirjeiltään
(trans.) kirjeiksensä -> kirjeikseen
(essive) kirjeinänsä -> kirjeinään
(abess.) kirjeittänsä -> kirjeittään
(comit.) kirjeinensä -> kirjeineen
  • The combination of the personal pronoun genitive hänen or heidän and -nsä can be both the subject and the object of the clause,...:
  • ...but if the word preceding the main word is any other than "hänen" or "heidän", the suffix -nsä cannot be appended if the main word is the subject of the clause:
  • Tuolla on koira. Sen häntä on lyhyt. (no suffix appended to the subject häntä because the owner is not hän or he)
    • There's a dog there. Its tail is short.
  • Koira heiluttaa häntäänsä. (the suffix appended because häntä is an object)
    • The dog is wagging its tail.
  • The shortened sentences — except for the participle structures — pertain mainly to standard Finnish, not to spoken Finnish. It is also to be noticed that the shortened clauses are never separated from the main clauses with a comma.

Derived terms

See also
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