Learn Hardcore Finnish: Tytär ottaa lempilelunsa mukaan mummon luo. - The daughter takes her favourite toy with her to grandma’s place.

Tytär ottaa lempilelunsa mukaan mummon luo.
= A/the daughter takes her favourite toy with her to grandma’s.
Tyttö ottaa lempilelunsa mukaan mummon luo.
= A/the girl takes her favourite toy with her to grandma’s.
(We don’t know if she’s someone’s daughter in the context.)

You choose tytär when you want to highlight that the person is a daughter (usually of some parent previously mentioned or understood).

Where is the word her in this Finnish sentence?

The idea of her is hidden inside lempilelunsa.

lempilelu = favourite toy
-nsa / -nsä = 3rd person possessive suffix (his/her/their)

So:

lempilelunsa = his/her/their favourite toy

Finnish doesn’t need a separate word for her here; the possessive suffix on the noun does the job.

Because the subject is tytär (daughter), we understand from context that lempilelunsa means her favourite toy.

How is lempilelunsa built, and what exactly does it mean?

Lempilelunsa is made of three parts:

lempi – favourite (as a noun root)
lelu – toy
→ lempilelu = favourite toy (a compound noun)
-nsa – 3rd person possessive suffix (his/her/their)

So:

lempi + lelu + nsa → lempilelunsa
literally: (his/her/their) favourite toy

Grammatically, in this sentence lempilelunsa is a singular, total object (she takes the whole toy), but its form with -nsa looks the same as its dictionary form plus the suffix.

Can I also say hänen lempilelunsa? Is that the same as lempilelunsa?

Yes, you can. Both are grammatically correct:

hänen lempilelunsa
lempilelunsa

In standard Finnish:

The possessive suffix (-nsa) is normally required on the noun.
The pronoun hänen is optional and is often left out if the possessor is obvious from context (for example, it’s the subject of the sentence).

So the full, explicit version would be:

Tytär ottaa hänen lempilelunsa mukaan mummon luo.

But that often sounds a bit heavy or even contrastive, like her favourite toy (as opposed to someone else’s).

Most natural here is simply:

Tytär ottaa lempilelunsa mukaan mummon luo.

What does ottaa mean here, and why not use tuo or vie?

ottaa = to take (pick up, take along)
tuoda = to bring (to here / to the speaker’s location)
viedä = to take (to there / away from the speaker’s location)

In this sentence:

Tytär ottaa lempilelunsa mukaan mummon luo.
focuses on the act of taking (picking up and taking along) the toy when she goes.

If you change the verb:

Tytär vie lempilelunsa mummon luo.
= The daughter takes (carries it away, delivers) her favourite toy to grandma’s.
Tytär tuo lempilelunsa mummon luo.
would sound odd unless mummon luo is also the current “here” of the speaker (or you’re describing it from grandma’s point of view).

So ottaa … mukaan is the standard way to express to take something along (with you).

What does mukaan mean, and how is it different from kanssa?

Mukaan literally means along or with (along) in the sense of taking something along when you go somewhere.

Typical patterns:

ottaa X mukaan – to take X along
tulla mukaan – to come along
ottaa sinut mukaan – to take you along / include you

Kanssa means with (together with), focusing on togetherness / company, not so much the idea of “along for the trip”.

Compare:

Tytär ottaa lempilelunsa mukaan mummon luo.
= She takes her favourite toy along (when she goes) to grandma’s.
Tytär menee mummon luo lempilelunsa kanssa.
= She goes to grandma’s together with her favourite toy.
(Grammatically fine, but sounds a bit funny because a toy is not a normal “companion”.)

So ottaa … mukaan is the natural phrase to use when you pack or pick something up to take it with you.

What does mummon luo literally mean? What are mummon and luo?

Breakdown:

mummo – grandma, granny (informal)
mummon – genitive (grandma’s)
luo – postposition meaning to(wards) someone’s place / to someone

Together:

mummon luo = literally to grandma’s (place)

So the sentence says:
The daughter takes her favourite toy along to grandma’s (home/place).

The postposition luo always requires its complement in the genitive:

ystävän luo – to (a) friend’s (place)
lääkärin luo – to the doctor’s (office)
äitini luo – to my mother’s (place)

What’s the difference between mummon luo, mummon luokse, and mummille?

All three can express movement to grandma, but with slightly different flavours.

mummon luo
- Literally: to grandma’s (place)
- Very common and natural. Slightly on the neutral–literary side.
mummon luokse
- luokse is a slightly longer variant of luo.
- Meaning is basically the same: to grandma’s (place).
- Many speakers use luo and luokse almost interchangeably:
  - mummon luo ≈ mummon luokse
mummille
- mummo (grandma) + -lle (allative = onto / to someone)
- Literally: to grandma
- Can mean going to where grandma is, but less explicitly about “her home” as a location.
- Often used also in the sense of going to grandma (as a person), e.g. to give her something.

In everyday speech, mummon luo / mummon luokse and mummille can overlap a lot. Here, mummon luo emphasizes going to grandma’s place.

Why is mummon in the -n form? What case is that?

Mummon is the genitive singular of mummo.

mummo (nominative) – grandma
mummon (genitive) – grandma’s

The postposition luo always takes its complement in the genitive:

kenen luo? – to whose place?
- mummon luo – to grandma’s
- ystävän luo – to a friend’s
- naapurin luo – to the neighbour’s

So the -n on mummon is required by luo and expresses that “grandma” is the owner of the place you’re going to.

What case is lempilelunsa in, and how does object case work here?

Formally, lempilelunsa is in nominative singular with a 3rd person possessive suffix.

However, in Finnish object grammar, this form is functioning as a total object (the whole toy is taken).

For singular nouns, the total object often looks like the nominative:

Tytär ottaa lempilelunsa. – The daughter takes her favourite toy.
Tytär syö omenan. – The daughter eats the apple.
Poika avaa oven. – The boy opens the door.

So in:

Tytär ottaa lempilelunsa mukaan mummon luo.

lempilelunsa is the direct object of ottaa,

morphologically: nominative singular + -nsa
functionally: total object (= the whole toy, one discrete thing)

With other types of words (especially pronouns), the total object looks different (e.g. hänet, meidät, sen), but with a possessed singular noun you just see the nominative-like form.

Can I change the word order? For example, is Tytär ottaa mukaan lempilelunsa mummon luo OK?

Yes, Finnish word order is relatively flexible, and your example is grammatical:

Tytär ottaa lempilelunsa mukaan mummon luo.
Tytär ottaa mukaan lempilelunsa mummon luo.

Both are fine. Subtle differences:

ottaa lempilelunsa mukaan (object before mukaan) is the most neutral, typical phrase.
ottaa mukaan lempilelunsa can put a tiny bit more focus on mukaan (the act of taking along) or on the object at the end.

Less natural would be:

?Tytär ottaa lempilelunsa mummon luo mukaan.

Putting mukaan after the destination sounds odd in this simple sentence.

Some other natural variants:

Tytär ottaa mummon luo lempilelunsa mukaan. (a bit marked, but possible)
Mummon luo tytär ottaa lempilelunsa mukaan. (emphasis on the destination)

But for clear, neutral Finnish, the original word order is ideal.

Why is there no word for the or a (article) before tytär or lempilelu?

Finnish has no articles like a/an or the.

Definiteness and indefiniteness are expressed by:

context
word order
sometimes pronouns or other words, if needed

So tytär can mean:

a daughter
the daughter

and lempilelunsa can mean:

her favourite toy (one specific toy)

In this sentence, context (and common sense) tells us that we are talking about a specific daughter and a specific favourite toy, so English uses the / her, but Finnish does not mark that with a separate word.

Could we say Tyttö ottaa lempilelunsa mukaan mummon luo instead? How would that change the meaning?

Yes, the sentence:

Tyttö ottaa lempilelunsa mukaan mummon luo.

is perfectly grammatical.

The change in meaning is:

tytär = daughter (emphasizes family relationship)
tyttö = girl (age/gender, but no explicit family relation)

So:

With tytär, you’re specifically talking about someone’s daughter.
With tyttö, you’re talking about a girl; she might be the speaker’s daughter, but that’s not stated by the word itself.

Both are possible; you choose based on what you want to highlight.