Finnish Grammar.pdf

Personal pronouns

Somewhat like in English, the personal pronouns are used to refer to human beings only.

The personal pronouns in Finnish in the nominative case are listed in the following table:

Personal pronouns

Finnish English

Singular

minä

sinä

you

hän

she or he

Plural

you

they

Polite

you

Since Finnish verbs are inflected for person, personal pronouns are not required for sense

and are usually omitted in standard Finnish except where used for emphasis. In spoken

Finnish , all pronouns are generally used. In the third person, the pronoun is needed: "hän

menee" = he goes, "he menevät" = they go. This applies to both colloquial and written

language.

In colloquial Finnish, the pronouns se and ne are very commonly used as the singular and

plural third person pronouns, respectively. Use of hän and he is mostly restricted to

writing and formal speech.

In common with some other languages, the second person plural can be used as a polite

form when addressing one person. This usage is diminishing in Finnish society.

[ edit ]

Demonstrative Pronouns

The demonstratives are used of non-human animate entities and inanimate objects.

However, se and ne are often used to refer to humans in colloquial Finnish. Furthermore,

the demonstratives are used to refer to group nouns and the number of the pronoun must

correlate with the number of its referent.

Demonstrative pronouns

Finnish

English

Singular

tämä

this

tuo

that

it/that

Plural

nämä

these

nuo

those

Interrogative pronouns

Finnish

English

kuka

who, which (of many)

mikä

what, which (of many)

ken

who, which (of many) - (old or dialectal word)

kumpi

which (of two)

kumpainen which (of two) - (old or dialectal word)

"Ken" is now archaic, but its inflected forms are used instead of those of "kuka": "ketä"

instead of "kuta" ("whom"). "Ketä rakastat?" = "Whom do you love?"

Relative pronouns

Pronoun

Example

English

joka (refers to preceding word)

"hän on ainoa, jonka

muistan"

"s/he is the only one who

(I) remember"

mikä (refers to preceding clause/

sentence or to a pronoun or a

superlative that refers to a thing)

"se on ainoa asia,

minkä muistan"

"it is the only thing that

(I) remember"

Reciprocal pronouns

Pronoun

Example

English

"he rakastavat toisiaan "

"they love each other " (plural)

toinen

"he rakastavat toinen toistaan " "they love one another " (double singular)

Reflexive pronouns

Pronoun

Suffix

Example

English

itse

plus corresponding possessive

suffix

"keitin itselleni

teetä"

"(I) made myself some

tea"

Indefinite pronouns

A large group that entails all of the pronouns that do not fall into any of the categories

above. Notice that there are no negative pronouns, such as "nobody", but the positive

pronoun has to be negated with the negative verb "ei". No double negatives are possible.

Indefinite pronouns

Finnish

English

joka (uninflected)

every, each

jokainen

every, everyone

joku

some, someone (person)

jompikumpi

either one

jokin

some, something (animal, thing)

kukin

each one

kumpainenkin

both (old or dialectal)

kumpikin

both

mikin

each thing (dialectal)

kenkään

anyone (old or dialectal)

kukaan (nom.), kene+..+kään

(oblique)

anyone

-> ei kukaan

not anyone

kumpikaan

either one

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