ostopäivänsä

Ostopäivänsä is a Finnish linguistic term formed from osto- (purchase, shopping) and päivä (day) with the possessive suffix -nsä. The construction denotes the shopping day associated with a specific person or group and is used to refer to that person’s or group’s habitual or designated shopping day. In practice, ostopäivänsä functions as a third-person possessive form; the exact possessor is determined by context, because Finnish possessive suffixes encode person and number.

Etymology and form: osto- plus päivä yields ostopäivä, meaning a day for shopping. The suffix -nsä attaches to indicate “his/her/its/their,” producing ostopäivänsä. This form is primarily a grammatical construction rather than a separate lexical item with a fixed meaning, and it appears in prose and dialogue to reference a specific person’s shopping day.

Usage: Ostopäivänsä is used when the possessor is understood from context. For example, Hänen ostopäivänsä on yleensä tiistaisin means “Her/his/their shopping day is usually on Tuesdays.” The phrase highlights a recurring habit or scheduled day without repeating the possessor’s name.

See also: ostopäivä (shopping day), possessive suffixes in Finnish, Finnish grammar.

In summary, ostopäivänsä illustrates how Finnish forms allow compact references to a person’s habitual activity by combining a base word for a concept (shopping day) with a third-person possessive suffix.