Breakdown of Heidän puhelimensa on pöydällä.
olla
to be
pöytä
the table
puhelin
the phone
-llä
on
heidän
their
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Questions & Answers about Heidän puhelimensa on pöydällä.
What does the -nsa suffix in puhelimensa signify, and why is it used here?
The -nsa ending is the third-person possessive suffix in Finnish. When you attach it to a noun, it means “his/her/their ….” In puhelimensa, puhelin (phone) + -nsa gives “their phone.” This suffix is obligatory on the noun whenever you show possession with a third-person possessor.
Why do we have both heidän and the -nsa suffix in heidän puhelimensa? Isn’t one marker of possession enough?
Finnish requires the possessive suffix on the noun itself to mark possession. The independent pronoun heidän (their) is there to clarify whose phone it is—without it, puhelimensa would be ambiguous (it could mean his, her or their phone). So:
- -nsa = obligatory possessive suffix (“… belongs to someone”)
- heidän = specifies that “someone” is “them”
What case is heidän, and why is it in that case?
heidän is the genitive form of he (they). The genitive case marks possession for independent pronouns. You put heidän before the noun and still attach the possessive suffix to the noun.
Why is the verb on in third-person singular, even though heidän refers to multiple people?
Finnish verbs agree with the grammatical subject—not with the possessor. Here the subject is puhelimensa (“their phone”), which is grammatically singular, so you use on (“is”). The plurality of the people who own the phone does not change the verb form.
What case is pöydällä, and what does the -llä ending express?
pöydällä is the adessive case, formed by adding -llä to the noun stem. In locative expressions it means “on (the surface of) …”, so pöydällä = “on the table.”
Could we omit heidän and simply say Puhelimensa on pöydällä? What would that mean?
Yes—you can drop the independent pronoun, leaving just Puhelimensa on pöydällä, but then the sentence means “his/her/their phone is on the table.” The possessor is marked by the suffix -nsa, but without heidän you don’t know whether it’s his, her or their phone.
How would you ask “Where is their phone?” in Finnish?
You invert verb and subject in a question:
Missä heidän puhelimensa on?
Literally “Where their phone is?”
How would the sentence change if you meant “their phones” (plural) are on the table?
You need a plural subject and verb. First make puhelin plural, then add the same possessive suffix, and use the third-person plural verb ovat:
Heidän puhelimensa ovat pöydällä.
Breakdown: puhelimet (phones) + -nsa → puhelimensa, verb → ovat (“are”).
Why is it -nsa and not -nsä in this example?
Finnish follows vowel harmony. If a word has back vowels (a, o, u), the suffix uses a; if it has only front vowels (ä, ö, y), the suffix uses ä. Since puhelin contains the back vowel u, the possessive suffix is -nsa, not -nsä.