naapurinsa

Naapurinsa is a Finnish possessive construction meaning “the neighbor’s.” It is formed from the noun naapuri (neighbor) plus a third-person possessive suffix (often given as -nsa/-nsä), and it functions as a modifier to indicate that whatever is being referred to belongs to someone’s neighbor. The referent of the possessive is understood from context, and the phrase can stand for the neighbor of the person already mentioned or implied in the discourse.

In use, naapurinsa can modify a wide range of nouns to denote ownership by the referent’s neighbor. For example, naapurinsa auto means “the neighbor’s car,” naapurinsa talo means “the neighbor’s house,” and naapurinsa koira means “the neighbor’s dog.” Because the possessor is not stated explicitly inside the phrase itself, context is essential to determine exactly whose neighbor is being referred to.

The construction is common in everyday speech and writing, especially in narratives or reports where the neighbor of a referenced person is relevant to the topic. It is one of several ways Finnish indicates possession, with the possessed noun carrying the information about the owner rather than the possessor being embedded in a separate noun phrase.

Notes for learners: recognizing naapurinsa helps parse sentences where ownership is attributed to someone else in the surrounding context. To clarify, speakers may add explicit subject pronouns or nouns, such as Hän (he/she) or Hänen (his/her), before naapurinsa talo or other possessives.