Breakdown of Minun takanani seisoo mies, ja minä näen hänen olkapäänsä.
minä
I
hän
he / she
ja
and
mies
man
seisoa
to stand
nähdä
to see
takana
behind
minun
my, mine
olkapää
the shoulder
Questions & Answers about Minun takanani seisoo mies, ja minä näen hänen olkapäänsä.
Why does takana have the ending -ni added to it?
This is how postpositions work with personal pronouns! Because the man is behind the speaker, we use the genitive pronoun minun (my) and add the matching first-person possessive suffix -ni to the postposition takana (behind). Together, this makes minun takanani.
Could I drop the word minun and just say Takanani seisoo mies?
Yes! In standard written Finnish, first-person and second-person pronouns like minun can be dropped because the suffix -ni already tells us who it belongs to. However, you must always keep the pronoun for third-person words, like hänen olkapäänsä.
Why does the sentence say Minun takanani seisoo mies instead of Mies seisoo minun takanani?
The shoulder (olkapää) is the object of näen (I see). Shouldn't it have the genitive -n ending?
You are right that it normally would be olkapään to show it is a complete object. However, there is a special rule: when you add a possessive suffix like -nsä (his/her), the genitive -n ending is always dropped. So olkapään + -nsä becomes olkapäänsä.
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