Finnish

Suffix

-nne

1. (possessive) The possessive suffix for 2nd person plural, used when addressing many persons or one person in a polite or formal manner. The word teidän ‎(“your”) is normally required only in questions where the main focus is in the term defined by teidän, and it must not be used in front of participles or infinitives in participial phrases. In the examples below teidän is in brackets where its use is optional.
   1. Used to indicate possession. The comitative case of a noun requires a possessive suffix, and the genitive of personal pronoun is normally not used with it.

      (Teidän) kirjanne kertoo talvisodasta.

      Your book is about the Winter War.

      Onko tämä Teidän kirjanne?

      Is this Your book?

      Onko (Teidän) kirjanne mielenkiintoinen?

      Is Your book interesting?

      Kävelitte kirjoinenne ovesta ulos.

      You walked out of the door with your book (or books).

   2. Appended to a genitive-requiring postposition, when its main word is te.

      (teidän) edessänne = in front of you

      (teidän) takananne = behind you

   3. Appended in the participle in participial phrases when the main clause and the participial phrase have the same subject "you".

      Sanoitte tekevänne (teidän) läksyjänne.

      You said you were doing your homework. (similar to the Latin structure accusativus cum infinitivo, e.g. "se dicit facere")

      Väitätte tehneenne (teidän) läksyjänne.

      You claim to have been doing your homework.

      Tehdessänne (teidän) läksyjänne kuulitte laukauksen ulkoa.

      While doing your homework, you heard a shot from outside.

      Tehtyänne läksynne kuulitte laukauksen ulkoa.

      After having done your homework, you heard a shot from outside.

      Tehdäksenne (teidän) läksynne hyvin menitte hiljaiseen huoneeseen.

      In order to do your homework well, you went into a quiet room.

   4. Used with adverbs that require a possessive suffix.

      Olitte siitä hyvin pahoillanne.

      You were very sorry about it.

Usage notes

• When a possessive suffix is applied to singular or plural nominative or genitive case it is appended to the so called "strong vowel stem" (all four forms looking the same). Those unfamiliar with the concept may take the essive singular form of the word in question and replace the -na, -nä -ending with -nne, e.g. tieto ‎(“knowledge”) > tietona > tietonne (not tiedonne!). In other cases -nne is simply added to the end of the inflected form, e.g. talossa > talossanne. In illative one "n" is omitted, as there would otherwise be three of them, e.g. taloihin > taloihinne. A possessive suffix may not be applied to the instructive case.
• The rules above apply to standard Finnish. In colloquial language, the possessive suffixes are often omitted and genitive forms of personal pronouns are used instead, e.g. Autosi on väärässä paikassa 'Your (sg.) car is in (the) wrong place' > Sun autos on väärässä paikassa (possessive suffix retained), or Autonne on väärässä paikassa 'Your (pl.) car is in (the) wrong place' > Teidän auto on väärässä paikassa (possessive suffix omitted; Helsinki Region Teiän auto o(n) vääräs paikas, etc.). The structure is thus very different to the rule of standard Finnish.

See also

• -ni
• -si
• -nsa / -nsä
• -mme

Suffix

-nne

1. Forms nouns indicating that some essential element of the meaning of the root word is present in the meaning of the derived term.

   jyrkkä ‎(“steep”) > jyrkänne ‎(“bank, cliff, precipice”)

   tasa ‎(“of the same level”) > tasanne ‎(“deck, landing”)

   tila ‎(“state”) > tilanne ‎(“situation”)

   rakentaa ‎(“to construct”) > rakenne ‎(“structure”)

   ohentaa ‎(“to thin”) > ohenne ‎(“thinner”)