|
Person |
Suffix |
Example |
Translation |
|
1st singular |
ni |
autoni |
my car(s) |
|
2nd singular |
si |
autosi |
your car(s) |
|
3rd singular |
nsAx, *n |
autonsa |
his/her/its car(s) |
|
1st plural |
mme |
automme |
our car(s) |
|
2nd plural |
nne |
autonne |
your car(s) |
|
3rd plural |
nsAx, *n |
autonsa |
their car(s) |
In poetry and in dialects, the suffixes ni and si sometimes appeas as in and is, e.g. sydämein instead of sydämeni (my heart). In spoken language, in poetry, and in dialects the suffix si is often reduced to s, e.g. autos instead of autosi.
The third person is more complicated than the others. Its basic suffix is nsa or nsä, and such forms are always used in the nominative and for forms that end with a consonant. For inflected forms ending with a short vowel, a more common suffix is an, en etc., where the vowel is the same as the preceding vowel. Thus, we write hänen talonsa (his/her house) but hänen talossaan (in his/her house). The word talossaan consists of the base word talo, the inessive suffix ssa, and the possessive suffix an. It is possible to write talossansa, too, but such forms, though formally standard, look outdated, dialectal, or poetic.
As the notation nsAx in the title expresses, the suffixes nsa and nsä have boundary gemination. Thus, for example, Hän myi autonsa minulle (He sold his car to me) is normally pronounced as Hän myi autonsam minulle.