Word
Hänen isoisänsä lukee kirjaa.
Meaning
Her grandfather is reading a book.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Hänen isoisänsä lukee kirjaa.
Why do we use both hänen and the ending -nsä on isoisänsä?
In Finnish, for the third person (his, her, or their), you generally must use both the genitive pronoun like hänen AND the possessive suffix on the noun. So her grandfather is hänen isoisänsä. While you can drop the pronoun for my or your (isoisäni, isoisäsi), the third person always requires the pronoun.
Why is the possessive suffix -nsä instead of -nsa?
This is because of vowel harmony. The noun isä (father) has the front vowels i and ä. Because it contains ä and no back vowels (a, o, u), any ending added to it must also use front vowels. Therefore, the suffix becomes -nsä.
How is the word isoisä formed?
It is a compound word made up of iso (big or great) and isä (father). When you add a possessive suffix to a compound word, it always goes at the very end of the entire word, which is why it is isoisänsä.
Why is the word for book, kirja, in the partitive form kirjaa?
The verb lukea (to read) takes a partitive object when the action is ongoing or incomplete. Because the grandfather is in the process of reading the book right now and hasn't finished it, kirja takes the partitive ending -a to become kirjaa.