Pääteensa

Pääteensa is a Finnish linguistic term that refers to the third‑person possessive suffix construction attached to noun stems to indicate ownership by he, she, or it (and, by context, by they). The word can be understood as “its ending,” combining pääte (ending or suffix) with the possessive suffix formensa, which in practice appears as -nsä or -nsa depending on vowel harmony.

In its core form, the construction consists of the noun stem followed by the sequence that signals possession by a third person. The common surface forms are talonsa (his/her house), kirjansa (his/her book), and autonsa (his/her car). The exact appearance of the suffix changes with vowel harmony: the two main variants are -nsä and -nsa. The presence of an intervening -n sound is a regular part of the pattern, and the choice betweensä and sa is determined by the phonological environment of the stem.

Usage and function: Pääteensa serves to mark ownership on a noun within a possessive phrase. The owner’s identity is typically established by context or by surrounding elements (such as pronouns or possessive pronouns) rather than by a separate, explicit marker within the suffix itself. The form can be used with singular or plural possessors depending on the surrounding grammar, but the suffix itself encodes the third-person relationship rather than number.

Morphology and variation: The suffix forms are governed by Finnish vowel harmony and consonant rules. The basic concept remains stable across varieties, though spoken language may exhibit slight allophonic differences. The term is primarily used in grammatical descriptions and language descriptions of Finnish morphology.

Historically, possessive suffixes like -nsä/-nsa have been a productive part of Finnish, shaping the way possession is expressed in noun phrases and contributing to the characteristic agglutinative structure of the language.