rakennuksensa

Rakennuksensa is a Finnish noun form that means “his/her/its building” and, from context, can also express “their building.” It is the third-person possessive form attached to the noun rakennus, which means building. The form illustrates how Finnish expresses possession by a suffix rather than a separate possessive determiner in many cases.

Morphology and orthography: rakennus is the base noun meaning building. To indicate ownership, Finnish uses the possessive suffix -nsa or -nsä. In this case the suffix appears as -nsa, giving rakennuksensa. The choice between -nsa and -nsä follows vowel harmony: -nsa is used after back vowels (a, o, u), while -nsä appears after front vowels (ä, ö, y, i, e). The suffix itself does not mark the possessor’s number; the possessor is specified by a separate word such as hän (“he/she”) or heidän (“they/their”).

Usage: rakennuksensa is common in both spoken and written Finnish to refer to the possessor’s building without repeating the possessor name. It can denote a singular possessor or, with a preceding possessive pronoun, a plural possessor. For example, Hänen rakennuksensa on vanha means “Her/His building is old,” and Heidän rakennuksensa on suuri means “Their building is large.”

See also: Finnish possession, possessive suffixes, rakennus, Finnish grammar.