Katsomani

Katsomani is a Finnish grammatical form that functions as an attributive participle meaning “the one I watched” or “the movie I watched.” It uses the past active participle of the verb katsoa (to watch) with the first-person possessive suffix -ni, and it directly modifies a noun to create a relative clause without a separate pronoun.

In use, katsomani forms attach to the noun they describe, so phrases like katsomani elokuva mean “the movie I watched.” The construction expresses the action as belonging to the speaker and is equivalent in sense to the relative clause elokuva, jonka katsoin. Other forms of the same participle exist for different persons, such as katsomasi (you watched) and katsomamme (we watched), and they similarly modify a following noun.

Katsomani is common in Nordic languages’ literary and spoken Finnish, especially when a succinct, descriptive style is desired. It is part of a broader Finnish pattern of participial relative clauses, which can replace longer structures that use joka or jonka. The choice between using a participial form like katsomani and a lopen use of the relative pronoun often hinges on tone, emphasis, and rhythm; participial forms tend to compress information and foreground the speaker’s relation to the action.

Notes: The form agrees with the head noun in number and case, and its use is most straightforward with nouns referring to concrete, recognizable items such as elokuva (movie) or kirja (book) that the speaker has interacted with. See also Finnish grammar, participial clauses, and relative clauses.