Teidän autonne on iso.

to be

Breakdown of Teidän autonne on iso.

• auto: the car
• iso: big
• teidän: your (plural/formal)

Questions & Answers about Teidän autonne on iso.

Why does the sentence use both teidän and -nne to show possession?

Because standard Finnish often marks possession in two places:

• with a possessive pronoun: teidän = your
• with a possessive suffix on the noun: autonne = your car

So teidän autonne literally looks a bit like your car-your, but this is normal in standard Finnish.

This pattern is especially common in careful written Finnish and in teaching materials. In everyday spoken Finnish, people often simplify it and may leave out the suffix, for example:

• teidän auto on iso

But in standard Finnish, Teidän autonne on iso is a very good model sentence.

What exactly does teidän mean here?

Teidän is the genitive form of te, which means you in the plural.

So teidän means:

• your when talking to more than one person
• also sometimes your when speaking politely/formally to one person

That means Teidän autonne can mean either:

• your car (belonging to several people), or
• your car (belonging to one person addressed formally)

You can only tell which meaning is intended from the situation.

What does autonne mean, and how is it built?