vaimonsa

Vaimonsa is a Finnish noun phrase that denotes the wife of someone who is in the third-person singular possessive relation. It literally consists of vaimo (wife) plus the third-person possessive suffix -nsä, yielding a form that can be translated as “his wife” or, in contexts of female possessors, “her wife.” The suffix appears in two phonological variants, -nsä and -nsa, chosen to agree with vowel harmony and surrounding sounds.

In use, vaimonsa normally appears with an explicit possessor, such as a pronoun or noun phrase, to indicate whose wife is being spoken of. For example, in muodikkaan kontekstin lauseet: Hän sai kuulla hänen vaimonsa tarinan (He/She heard his/her wife’s story). Another common construction is Mäen vaimo, meaning “the wife of Mäe” when the possessor is a proper noun. The form can also be integrated into phrases like Miehen vaimonsa nimi, “the name of the man’s wife,” where the relationship is clear from context.

Nuances and style: Finnish often uses the explicit possessive possessive noun phrase to express ownership rather than a standalone possessive noun. Vaimonsa, like other third-person possessive forms, relies on context to identify the possessor, and in many cases the possessive pronoun häntä/hänen (his/her) may be used for clarity.

See also: Finnish grammar, possessive suffixes, genitive construction, noun phrases.