Word
Minä soitan heidän sedälleen.
Meaning
I am calling their uncle.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Minä soitan heidän sedälleen.
Why is "uncle" in the form sedälleen with an -lle ending?
The verb soittaa (to call) requires the person you are calling to be in the allative case, which uses the -lle ending. You can think of it as calling "onto" their uncle.
How does the possessive suffix work in the word sedälleen?
The word first takes the allative ending -lle, making it sedälle. To add the third-person possessive suffix, instead of using -nsä, standard Finnish often lengthens the final short vowel of the case ending and adds an -n. So, sedälle + e + n becomes sedälleen.
Why do we need the word heidän? Couldn't the suffix alone mean "their"?
In standard Finnish, the third-person genitive pronouns like hänen (his/her) and heidän (their) are mandatory. Unlike the words for "my" or "your", you cannot drop them. You must use both heidän and the possessive suffix on the noun.
Why does the t in setä change to a d in sedälleen?