For beginners: an introduction to the Finnish personal pronouns
Learning the Finnish personal pronouns? Get to know some of the most common forms of the Finnish personal pronouns here. Trust me, you will need them.
You may have heard that Finnish personal pronouns have many different forms. In this blog post, you’ll find examples of the most common forms of the Finnish personal pronouns.
I’ve also included a video that will help you get started with the Finnish object cases. You’ll find it at the end of this post!
The nominative
The different personal pronoun forms mentioned in this blog post:
This first part is about the simplest form of the Finnish personal pronouns. You will use these forms when the pronoun is the subject, i.e. the ‘doer’, in the sentence. This case is called the nominative, and it’s the most basic form of a word, the form that you find in dictionary entries. I’ve also included the verb olla, ‘to be’. Learn these examples and you’re off to a good start!
I’ve also included the spoken language versions (‘puhekieli‘). However, I figured including too many different spoken dialects would only confuse you, so I only used the dialect spoken in Helsinki area (other areas, too, but particularly in Helsinki).
If you’d like to learn more about the Finnish personal pronouns in the nominative, check out this blog post.
Standard Finnish:
The Finnish personal pronouns in standard Finnish, with the verb olla, ‘to be’
minä olen
sinä olet
hän on
me olemme
te olette
he ovat
Minä olen iloinen.
Sinä olet kiva.
Hän on ystäväni.
Me olemme ystäviä.
Te olette opiskelijoita.
He ovat täällä.
Spoken language:
The Finnish personal pronouns in spoken Finnish (just one of the dialects!), with the verb olla, ‘to be’
mä oon
sä oot
se on
me ollaan
te ootte
ne on
Mä oon iloinen.
Sä oot kiva.
Se on ystäväni. (also common: se on mun ystävä)
Te ootte opiskelijoita.
Ne on täällä.
Personal pronouns as objects - the partitive and the accusative
The partitive
Standard Finnish:
(Learn more about this in my online courses inside the Finking Cap Club.)
Now, let’s talk about another form the personal pronouns will often appear in. The image below is about the personal pronouns in the partitive, which you often need to use when the pronoun is the object of the verb. For example. in the sentence Hän rakastaa minua ‘hän‘ is the subject, i.e. the person who loves. The object of the verb, i.e. the person who is loved, is ‘minua‘.
Finnish personal pronouns in the partitive (standard Finnish)
minua
sinua
häntä
meitä
teitä
heitä
Hän rakastaa minua.
Minä rakastan sinua.
Minä rakastan häntä.
Hän rakastaa meitä.
Minä rakastan teitä.
Minä rakastan heitä.
Spoken Finnish:
Finnish personal pronouns in the partitive (spoken Finnish)
mua
sua
sitä
meitä
teitä
niitä
Se rakastaa mua.
Mä rakastan sua.
Mä rakastan sitä.
Se rakastaa meitä.
Mä rakastan teitä.
Mä rakastan niitä.
The accusative
Finally, we have the accusative. Sometimes, when the personal pronoun is the object in the sentence, you may choose the accusative instead of the partitive (or the nominative).
You’ll have to gradually learn which verbs prefer the partitive object and which verbs are likely to require the accusative or the nominative, and there are also a lot of verbs that are possible to pair with any of those cases – but there are some rules for that because the meaning may slightly change. I chose the example verbs ‘rakastaa‘ and ‘muistaa‘ for this blog because ‘rakastaa‘ requires the partitive 99% of the time, and ‘muistaa‘ is usually used with the accusative unless it’s a negative sentence.
Without going into too much detail, here are some example sentences:
Standard Finnish:
Finnish personal pronouns in the accusative (standard Finnish)
minut
sinut
hänet
meidät
teidät
heidät
Hän muistaa minut.
Minä muistan sinut.
Minä muistan hänet.
Hän muistaa meidät.
Minä muistan teidät.
Minä muistan heidät.
Spoken Finnish:
Finnish personal pronouns in the accusative (standard Finnish)
mut
sut
sen
meijät
teijät
ne
Se muistaa mut.
Mä muistan sut.
Mä muistan sen. (also accusative: se)
Se muistaa meijät.
Mä muistan teijät.
Mä muistan ne.
Video: Personal pronouns as objects
Learn more Finnish with me
Get access to my Finnish language courses online and learn Finnish at your own pace, wherever you are. Tervetuloa!