Everyday spoken Finnish (puhekieli) wears the pronouns down. The tidy textbook forms minä, sinä, hän, tämä come out of Finnish mouths as mä, sä, se, tää. The crucial thing to grasp is that this is phonological reduction, not a new vocabulary: mä is minä, worn smooth by centuries of fast speech, exactly the way English I am becomes I'm. Because it is the same word underneath, it still carries every case ending — you just add them to the shorter stem. This page maps the reductions and their inflected forms, and flags the two spelling traps that trip learners up. (The special job of se and ne standing in for people gets its own page, se and ne for people.)
The personal pronouns
| Standard (written) | Spoken (puhekieli) | English |
|---|---|---|
| minä | mä (also mää) | I |
| sinä | sä (also sää) | you (sg.) |
| hän | se | he / she |
| me | me | we (unchanged) |
| te | te | you (pl.) (unchanged) |
| he | ne | they |
The first and second person shrink most (minä→mä, sinä→sä); the long variants mää, sää are common in western dialects (Turku, Tampere), while mä, sä dominate around Helsinki. Me and te usually keep their shape in the nominative, though their genitive loses a d (meidän→meiän, teidän→teiän). And hän/he give way to se/ne — see the note above.
Mä ja sä mennään yhdessä.
You and I will go together. (spoken; standard: Minä ja sinä menemme yhdessä — minä→mä, sinä→sä)
The demonstratives
The demonstratives reduce too. tämä ("this") becomes tää, and tuo ("that, over there") becomes toi. In the plural, nämä ("these") becomes nää and nuo ("those") becomes noi. Only se ("it / that") and ne ("they / those") are already short enough to stay put.
| Standard | Spoken | English |
|---|---|---|
| tämä | tää | this |
| tuo | toi | that (over there) |
| se | se | it / that (unchanged) |
| nämä | nää | these |
| nuo | noi | those |
| ne | ne | they / those (unchanged) |
Onks toi sun vai onks se mun?
Is that one yours or is it mine? (spoken; standard: Onko tuo sinun vai onko se minun? — toi = tuo)
Nää on kaikki mun.
These are all mine. (spoken; standard: Nämä ovat kaikki minun — nää + singular verb on, typical of speech)
They still inflect — the case forms
This is the point learners most often miss: a reduced pronoun is not frozen. It takes the same cases as the full form, just built on the shorter stem. The everyday case forms of mä and sä are among the highest-frequency words in spoken Finnish:
| Case | minä → | sinä → | Rough meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | mä | sä | I / you |
| Genitive | mun | sun | my / your |
| Partitive | mua | sua | me / you (object) |
| Adessive | mulla | sulla | I have / you have |
| Allative | mulle | sulle | to me / to you |
| Elative | musta | susta | about / of me, you |
The demonstratives inflect on the same principle: tää has genitive tän and partitive tätä; toi has genitive ton and partitive tota.
Mun täytyy soittaa sulle illalla.
I have to call you in the evening. (spoken; standard: Minun täytyy soittaa sinulle illalla — minun→mun, sinulle→sulle)
Anna se mulle.
Give it to me. (spoken; standard: Anna se minulle — minulle→mulle)
Se ei tiiä musta mitään.
He/She knows nothing about me. (spoken; standard: Hän ei tiedä minusta mitään — minusta→musta)
Mitä sä tost tykkäät?
What do you think of that? (spoken; standard: Mitä sinä tuosta tykkäät? — tuosta→tost)
The required contrast
Put the reductions together and compare the two registers side by side — same sentence, two gears:
Minä annan sinulle tämän.
I'll give you this. (standard / written yleiskieli)
Mä annan sulle tän.
I'll give you this. (spoken puhekieli — minä→mä, sinulle→sulle, tämän→tän)
The two spelling traps
Because these forms differ by a single letter, learners get two of them wrong constantly:
- It is sä, never sa. The pronoun sinä is a front-vowel word, so it reduces to sä with ä — the long-vowel dialect variant is sää, never anything with plain a. Writing *sa or *saa is simply wrong.
- tää keeps its long ää. The reduction of tämä is tää with a long front vowel, not a short *tä. A single tä is not a word; the demonstrative is always tää.
Missä sä oot?
Where are you? (spoken; standard: Missä sinä olet? — never *sa oot)
Onks tää sun?
Is this yours? (spoken; standard: Onko tämä sinun? — tää, never *tä)
Common Mistakes
❌ (in an email) Mä haluaisin varata ajan ensi viikolle.
Wrong register — spoken mä doesn't belong in formal writing.
✅ Haluaisin varata ajan ensi viikolle.
I'd like to book an appointment for next week. (standard form in writing)
❌ Anna se mä.
Incorrect — mä is minä and still needs a case ending; the recipient is allative: mulle.
✅ Anna se mulle.
Give it to me.
❌ Missä sa oot?
Incorrect — sinä is a front-vowel word, so it reduces to sä, never sa.
✅ Missä sä oot?
Where are you?
❌ Onks tä sun?
Incorrect — the reduction of tämä keeps its long vowel: tää, not a short tä.
✅ Onks tää sun?
Is this yours?
The one idea to carry away: reduced pronouns are the same words worn down, and they behave like it — they inflect, they harmonize, they slot into sentences exactly where their full forms would. Learn mun/sun, mua/sua, mulle/sulle as fluently as you learned minun/sinun, keep them out of formal writing, and mind the two vowels (sä not sa, tää not tä). For the whole spoken pronoun paradigm at a glance, see spoken pronouns.
Key Takeaways
- Spoken Finnish reduces the pronouns: minä→mä, sinä→sä, hän→se, he→ne; me and te mostly stay (but genitive meiän, teiän).
- Demonstratives reduce too: tämä→tää, tuo→toi, nämä→nää, nuo→noi; se and ne are already short.
- The reduced forms still inflect: mun, sun; mua, sua; mulla, sulla; mulle, sulle; musta, susta; and tän, tätä for tää.
- Spelling traps: it is sä (front vowel), never sa; and tää keeps its long ää, never a short tä.
- These are spoken-only — write the standard minä, sinä, hän, he, tämä in formal Finnish.
Now practice Finnish
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Start learning Finnish→Related Topics
- se and ne for PeopleA2 — In everyday speech se and ne are the normal pronouns for people — se = 'he/she', ne = 'they' — and ne takes a singular verb (ne on, ne tulee). Neutral in speech, but hän/he are required in writing.
- Spoken Finnish (puhekieli): An OverviewA2 — Everyday spoken Finnish (puhekieli) differs systematically from the written standard (yleiskieli): reduced pronouns, se/ne for people, the passive as 'we', verb contractions and a clipped conditional — a rule-governed register, not sloppy speech.
- Spoken Pronouns: mä, sä, se, me, te, neA2 — Everyday spoken Finnish reduces the pronouns — minä→mä, sinä→sä, hän→se, he→ne — and uses se and ne for people. A colloquial guide.
- Personal PronounsA1 — The six Finnish personal pronouns — minä, sinä, hän, me, te, he — with the genderless hän and why the subject pronoun is usually dropped.