ryhmässään

Ryhmässään is a Finnish grammatical form that expresses “in its group” or “in their group.” The word is formed by combining ryhmä (group) with the inessive case suffix -ssä to indicate location inside the group, and then adding the third-person possessive suffix -nsä to indicate ownership by the group’s possessor. The result, ryhmässään, literally communicates that something occurs within the group belonging to someone or something referenced in context. The exact possessor can be singular or plural, depending on the discourse, making ryhmässään a form that can mean “in its group” or “in their group.”

Morphology and formation are typical examples of Finnish agglutinative grammar. The base ryhmälle (group) takes the inessive -ssä, then the possessive suffix attaches to the entire word, yielding the composite ryhmässään. Vowel harmony and suffix concatenation govern the phonology and spelling, with the combination of -ssä and -sä forming to -ssään.

Usage and nuance: ryhmässään is used when describing actions, states, or characteristics that are internal to a group owned by a specified agent. It is common in both spoken and written Finnish, especially in narrative or descriptive passages about groups.

Examples include: Jokainen ryhmä esitteli ratkaisut ryhmässään. Osallistujat keskustelivat ryhmässään. See also: Finnish grammar, inessive case, possessive suffixes.