Suunnillaan

Suunnillaan is not a standard Finnish word listed in major dictionaries. In practice, it is generally treated as a nonstandard form, often a misspelling or a shortened or mistaken contraction of the correct expressions built from suunnitelma (plan). The most common, grammatically correct alternatives are suunnitelmallaan, meaning “on/with their plan,” and suunnitelmiensa mukaan, meaning “according to their plans.” Because Finnish morphology relies on combining case endings and possessive suffixes, a form like suunnillaan is unusual and not regarded as a normal inflected form of suunnitelma in standard usage.

Morphology and common alternatives

- suunnitelmallaan: built from suunnitelma + the locative suffix -lla + the third-person plural possessive suffix, yielding “on/with their plan.”

- suunnitelmiensa mukaan: a standard way to say “according to their plans,” using the genitive plural suunnitelmien (their plans) and the suffix mukaan (according to/in accordance with).

- For singular reference, forms such as suunnitelmansa or suunnitelmansa mukaan are used to express “his/her/its plan” or “according to his/her/its plan.”

Usage and tone

- If encountered in a text, suunnillaan is most likely a typographical error or a nonstandard variant. In formal writing, stick to suunnitelmallaan or suunnitelmiensa mukaan depending on the intended meaning.

- In everyday speech or regional dialects, speakers may produce nonstandard variants, but they are not part of contemporary Standard Finnish.

See also: Finnish grammar, locative case (lla/llä), possessive suffixes, the phrase suunnitelmiensa mukaan.