Motivaatiotaan

Motivaatiotaan is a Finnish grammatical form that translates to “their motivation” in English. It is the third-person plural possessive form used to indicate that the motivation belongs to a group, such as a team, organization, or community, rather than to an individual.

In Finnish, possession is expressed by attaching possessive endings to a noun. Motivaatiotaan shows that the possessor is a plural subject, and it is commonly found in contexts where a group’s motivational state or drive is discussed. The form fits within the broader pattern of Finnish possessive constructions, where the possessed noun takes a suffix that marks ownership by the relevant subject.

Usage and context often appear in discussions of organizational culture, workplace motivation, education, and psychology, where speakers describe how a group’s motivation influences goals, performance, or behavior. Because Finnish grammar relies on case endings and possessive suffixes rather than prepositional phrases for ownership, motivaatiotaan can appear with different sentence endings depending on its syntactic role.

Translation and nuance: motivaatiotaan conveys that the motivation in question belongs to a group rather than to a single person. It emphasizes collective motivation and is one of several related forms that express possession in Finnish. Related terms include motivaatio (motivation) and other plural possessive constructions used for different subjects.

See also: motivaatio, Finnish grammar, possessive constructions.