Possessive suffixes with reflexive meaning

A possessive suffix can refer to the subject of the sentence, e.g. Myin autoni (I sold my car) or Hän myi autonsa (He sold his/her car). In the 3rd person, however, the use of the personal pronomine in the genitive, hänen or heidän, makes a difference in meaning: Hän myi hänen autonsa means that he/she sold someone else’s car. Thus, a 3rd person suffix used alone has a reflexive meaning, whereas when used with hänen or heidän, the meaning is antireflexive.

The principle is the same when the subject is a noun. For example, Pekka myi autonsa means that Pekka sold his own car, whereas Pekka myi hänen autonsa means that Pekka sold the car of someone else, who has been previously mentioned.

Errors in such usage are not uncommon even among native speakers. One reason to this is that spoken language often does not make such a distinction, as the following table illustrates, even though a reflexive possessive suffix (as in Se myi autonsa) is often used in spoken language, too. The last row of the table is there just for completeness; such expressions are rarely used.