kengänsä

Kengänsä is a Finnish possessive construction that means “his shoe” or “her shoe,” depending on the context. It is formed from kengä, the noun for shoe, together with the genitive singular kengän, and the third‑person possessive suffix -sä (in some contexts realized as -nsa or -nsä). The resulting form kengänsä is used to indicate that the shoe belongs to a third person.

The morphology can be described as: kengä (shoe) → genitive kengän → add the third‑person possessive suffix to yield kengänsä. The possessive suffix marks ownership and does not specify the owner’s gender; the possessor is understood from context or from a surrounding pronoun such as hän.

Usage notes:

- Kengänsä is typically used when the possessor is known or has been previously mentioned. Example: Hän kätki kenkänsä? (Did he hide his shoe?) More natural is: Hän unohti kengänsä. (He forgot his shoe.)

- A common question form is Kenen kengänsä tämä on? (Whose shoe is this?)

- Like other third‑person possessive forms in Finnish, kengänsä can appear without an explicit subject pronoun when the context identifies the owner.

Etymology and relation to related forms:

- kengä is the noun “shoe.”

- The genitive form kengän provides the possessive stem to which the suffix -sä attaches.

- This construction is part of Finnish possessive morphology, which uses a suffixal system to indicate ownership for third persons.

See also: kengkä, genitive, possessive suffix, hän.