isään

Isän is the genitive singular form of the Finnish noun isä, meaning father. It translates as “father’s” or “of the father” and is used to express possession in front of a noun. The base isä marks the father, and the suffix -n marks the genitive.

In Finnish, possession is shown by placing the genitive form before the possessed noun, as in isän auto (the father’s car) or isän poika (the father’s son). The form is not gendered, and it follows standard Finnic declension for nouns in the genitive case. The possessive relationship can also appear in compounds and set phrases, such as isänmaa (fatherland) or isänmaan ystävä (a friend of the fatherland).

Pronunciation: isä is pronounced with a long ɑ-like vowel in the first syllable and a short a in the second, roughly [ˈiː.sæ]. The genitive isän adds an -n ending, so isän is typically pronounced as [ˈiː.sæn]. The ending is not a separate word but a grammatical form.

Relation to related forms: isä is the noun for “father”; isän is its genitive form used to indicate possession. The word appears in everyday Finnish as well as literary and historical contexts. In some phrases, broader constructs like isänmaa can carry patriotic or ancestral connotations.

See also: isä, isäntä (lord, master in historical contexts), isänmaa (fatherland). Isän forms may be contrasted with other genitives in Finnish, such as isän lapsi (the father’s child) or isänsä (his/her father) in possessive constructions.