Tilillään

Tilillään is a Finnish grammatical construction meaning “on his/her/its account” or “on their account.” It combines tilillä, the adessive form meaning “on the account,” with the third-person possessive suffix, resulting in tilillään. The form can refer to a singular possessor (his or her) or to a plural possessor (their), depending on context.

Usage of tilillään is common in financial and everyday language when indicating where money or records are kept. It appears in sentences about bank accounts, company ledgers, or personal finances, and it relies on the surrounding subject to specify number and person. For example, Hänen tilillään on rahaa means “There is money in his/her account,” while Heidän tilillään on useita tuhansia euroja means “There are several thousand euros in their account.”

Morphologically, tilillään is formed from tilillä plus the third-person possessive suffix -nsä, a standard Finnish pattern for indicating ownership of the noun phrase. The exact number (singular or plural possessor) is inferred from the broader sentence context rather than from the suffix alone; the form can function for singular possessors like hän, or for plural possessors like he, depending on what is being described.

Notes and related forms: tilillä means “on the account” without indicating ownership, while tililleni, tilillesi, tilillesään, etc., adapt the possessor to first, second, or other persons. Tilillään is a concise, neutral way to attribute ownership of the account in question within Finnish prose. See also Finnish grammar on cases and possessive suffixes.