minä

Minä is the first-person singular personal pronoun in Finnish and functions as the subject of a sentence, often used for emphasis or when contrast is needed. Finnish is a language with rich case inflection, so personal pronouns like minä can take many forms beyond the basic nominative. In ordinary speech the verb ending often marks the subject, so the pronoun can be omitted, but minä is still the standard form in formal writing and in emphatic or disambiguating contexts.

Etymology and related forms: minä originates from Proto-Finnic and is cognate with Estonian mina and Karelian minä. The pronoun forms decline across Finnish cases, with a set of commonly encountered forms in addition to the nominative.

Some representative forms include: genitive minun meaning “my,” partitive minua (also used as a direct object in some constructions), and accusative minut for a definite direct object. In spatial and能 relational cases the forms extend to minussa (in me), minusta (from me), minulle (to me), minulla (at me), minulta (from me). The illative form minuun means “into me”; translative minuksi corresponds to “as me”; essive minuna means “as me” in a temporary or descriptive sense; abessive minuta or minutta expresses “without me.”

Usage notes: Finnish pronouns do not encode gender, and subject pronouns are often optional because verb conjugation conveys person. minä is commonly used for emphasis, contrast, or to avoid ambiguity, and is often replaced in speech by Mä/Mä, a colloquial form. In formal or written Finnish, minä appears standardly when the speaker needs to signal identity or stance.

See also: Finnish pronouns, Finnish grammar, personal pronouns.