kriteerinsä

Kriteerinsä is the third-person possessive form of the Finnish noun kriteeri, meaning criterion or standard. It is used to indicate ownership by someone or something, and can translate roughly to its criterion or their criteria depending on context. The form is commonly found in written Finnish when discussing which standards are applied or required by a speaker, an organization, or another entity.

In usage, kriteerinsä appears in constructions that emphasize the criteria that govern evaluation, selection, or decision-making. Common collocations include phrases such as kriteerinsä mukaan or kriteerinsä perusteella, meaning according to its own criteria or on the basis of its criteria. The exact referent (singular or plural ownership) is determined by context, as Finnish possessive forms integrate the owner into the noun.

Etymology: kriteeri is a Finnish loanword derived from the French critère, typically via Swedish kriterium. The possessive suffix -nsä attaches to form kriteerinsä, aligning with standard Finnish morphology for third-person possession. The term is widely used in academic, legal, and evaluative writing to discuss the standards applied by a person, group, institution, or system.

See also: kriteeri, criterion, criteria.