isö

Isää isää is the partitive singular form of the Finnish noun isä, meaning "father." In Finnish, isä is used for a male parent, and the partitive form is ää of the root in certain grammatical contexts. The orthography is isää, with the -ää ending indicating the partitive singular.

In usage, isää is most often seen as the direct object of a verb in sentences where the action is incomplete, indefinite, or negative, or in some fixed expressions. Common examples include rakastan isää (I love my father) and en näe isää (I don’t see my father). The partitive helps mark objects that are not treated as definite or wholly realized within the action. The word is also found in phrases that express general or indefinite references to a father, as well as in literary or colloquial speech.

Etymology and related forms: isä is a native Finnish word with cognates in other Finnic languages, notably Estonian isa. The partitive singular isää arises from Finnish noun inflection patterns, where the same lexical item can appear in multiple grammatical cases to indicate different functions in a sentence. The basic dictionary form remains isä, while isää is used in inflected contexts.

See also: isä, Finnish grammar, Finnish noun inflection.