sääntöjensä

Sääntöjensä is a Finnish noun phrase meaning “their rules” or “the rules of them.” It is the plural possessive form of sääntö (rule) used when the possessor is a group, organization, or several people. The form is built from the stem sääntö, with the third-person plural possessive connector j and the suffix ensä, yielding sääntöjensa or, in orthography that marks the possessive, sääntöjensä. The exact spelling follows Finnish vowel harmony and standard possessive conventions.

Morphology and usage

In Finnish, possession is expressed with suffixes attached to the possessed noun. For third-person plural possessors, the suffix is -jensa/-jensä, which links to the stem with a consonant (the j) to form the form used in plural-possessor contexts. The corresponding singular form is sääntönsä (“his/her/its rule”). In practice, sääntöjensä is most common in phrases such as sääntöjensä mukaan, meaning “according to their rules.” The phrase is typical in formal, legal, or descriptive writing but may appear in journalistic and scholarly Finnish as well.

Examples

- He toimivat sääntöjensä mukaan. (They acted according to their rules.)

- Yrityksen sääntöjensä mukaan on noudatettava tiettyjä menettelytapoja. (According to the company’s rules, certain procedures must be followed.)

- Kirjailija viittasi sääntöjensä mukaan johdettuihin rajoihin. (The author referred to rules as their guidelines.)

See also

Finnish possessive suffixes, Finnish grammar, postpositional phrases.