Keskusteluissaan

Keskusteluissaan is a Finnish grammatical form that translates roughly to “in his/her/its/their conversations” depending on context. It is created by attaching the inessive case marker -ssa/-ssä to the noun keskustelu (conversation) and adding the third-person possessive suffix -nsa/-nsä, yielding a single word whose exact referent is determined by the surrounding text.

Usage and meaning. The form is used when a speaker or narrator wants to attribute content, remarks, or actions to the subject’s own conversations. It is common in literary prose, journalism, and reported speech to indicate what someone has said or discussed in their conversations. For example, a sentence like Keskusteluissaan hän kertoi kokemuksistaan can be translated as “In his conversations, he told about his experiences,” though the precise pronoun (his/her/their) is inferred from context.

Ambiguity and clarity. Because the possessive ending encodes person rather than number, Keskusteluissaan can refer to his, her, or their conversations depending on context. When needed, the possessor can be explicit, for example käyttämällä hänen keskusteluissaan (“in her conversations”) vs. heidän keskusteluissaan (“in their conversations”). This construction illustrates Finnish agglutination, where multiple grammatical meanings are packed into a single word through case marking and possession.

See also. Related forms include other -issaan constructions such as keskusteluissaan, mielipiteissaan, and vastaavat; they show how possession and location are combined in Finnish to indicate what someone has said or discussed.