Course grammar - Kurssin kielioppi

1.1. Personal pronouns

BASIC FORM

minä      I

sinä       you (singular)
hän        he, she                            
se          it

me         we
te           you (plural and formal)
he          they                                 
ne          they (inanimate objects)

It is very common in Finland to address people informally, using sinä-form especially between young people, even when they have not met before.

In everyday spoken Finnish the basic forms of the personal pronouns are:

mä
sä
hän (se)
me
te
he (ne)

GENITIVE FORM	spoken language
minun     my, mine sinun      your, yours hänen     her, hers, his meidän   our, ours teidän     your, yours heidän    their, theirs	mun sun hänen (sen) mei(d)än tei(d)än hei(d)än (niiden)

 
Note
There are no possessive pronouns in Finnish, so e.g. minun means both my and mine.

Possessive suffixes
In the standard written Finnish possessive suffixes are used with or without the genitive form of the personal pronouns.
Each person has its own personal suffix except for the 3rd person singular and plural which have the same suffix.

(minun) kirjani          my book
(sinun) kirjasi           your book
hänen kirjansa         her/his book
(meidän) kirjamme   our book
(teidän) kirjanne      your book
heidän kirjansa       their book

In everyday spoken Finnish possessive suffixes are dropped.
mun kirja              my book

PARTITIVE FORM
basic form     partitive form minä              minua sinä               sinua hän               häntä me                meitä te                  teitä   he                 heitä	spoken language version mua sua häntä (sitä) meitä teitä heitä (niitä)

Note
The partitive case has no direct equivalent in English language. Check the partitive section to find out when to use the partitive forms of the personal pronouns.