koulussaan
Koulussaan is a Finnish grammatical construction meaning “in his/her school” or “at his/her school.” It is formed by combining the inessive form of koulu, koulussa, with the third-person possessive suffix -nsa/-nsä, producing a fused form that indicates whose school is being referred to. The construction is common in written and spoken Finnish and is used to locate a subject within their own educational environment.
Formation and usage notes: The base is koulu (school). The inessive case -ssa yields koulussa, meaning “in
Function and nuance: Koulussaan foregrounds the subject’s personal relationship to the school, often in narrative or
- Hän jäi koulussaan pitkään, ennen kuin lähti kotiin. (He stayed at his school for a long time
- Koulussaan oppilaat saivat tukea opettajiltaan. (In their school, the students received support from their teachers.)
See also: Finnish grammar, inessive case, possessive suffix.