Jäsentensä

Jäsentensä is a Finnish grammatical form used to express possession by a group of people. It is the genitive plural possessive of the noun jäsen (member) and is used to mean “their members” or “the members of them” when describing something belonging to or associated with a group, organization, or collective.

Form and function: The form is built from jäsen plus the third-person plural possessive suffix -sä/-nsä, yielding jäsentensä. The exact suffix may vary with vowel harmony and surrounding sounds, but jäsentensä is the common standard written form. It typically appears in noun phrases where a governing noun (such as yhdistys, hallitus, kunta, seura) is followed by jäsentensä to indicate the members belonging to that entity.

Usage examples: Esimerkkejä include Yhdistyksen jäsentensä edut ovat tärkeitä, Kokouksessa kuultiin jäsentensä mielipiteet, and Hallituksen jäsentensä näkemykset erosivat viimeisimmästä päätöksestä. These constructions convey possession by a group, such as the membership of an organization or the collective opinions or rights of its members.

Notes: Jäsentensä is part of Finnish possessive morphology and illustrates how ownership or association is expressed through suffixes rather than separate possessive pronouns. It is commonly used with nouns referring to groups or bodies, such as yhdistys, seura, tai hallitus, to describe what belongs to the members of that entity.