silmäsiin

Silmäsiin is a Finnish grammatical form meaning “into your eyes.” It is not a standalone lexical item but a derived form created from the noun silmä (eye) with the second-person possessive suffix -si (your) and the illative case suffix -in, yielding silmäsiin. The result expresses movement toward the inside of the eyes belonging to the person addressed.

Morphology and usage

The form shows how Finnish builds directional phrases by attaching case endings to noun phrases that include possessive suffixes. The illative indicates motion into a location, here the location being “your eyes.” The presence of the possessive suffix specifies whose eyes are involved. The final result is a single word, silmäsiin, used where the verb governs an illative object, such as look or move toward the eyes.

Common usage

Silmäsiin appears most often in literary or poetic contexts, where the speaker emphasizes immediacy or emotional intensity—e.g., looking into someone’s eyes. In everyday Finnish, more general phrases like silmiin or katsoa silmiin are common, but silmäsiin is perfectly grammatical when the sense requires “into your eyes.”

Related forms

- silmä (eye)

- silmäsi (your eye/eyes)

- silmiin (into the eyes, without possessive)

- silmäsiin (into your eyes, with possessive)

See also

Finnish grammar, illative case, possessive suffixes.