-aan/ -nsa

[raskarhu]

"Heidän raportissaan sanotaan, että tulvat ja kuivuus pienentävät viljasatoja"

What's with the -aan? Is it the same as the -nsa possessive or is there a connection with the plural?

[jahasjahas]

Iso suomen kielioppi: § 95 Mitä ja millaisia possessiivisuffiksit ovat?

-Vn and -nsA are alternative forms of the third person possessive suffix, but they are not used equally. Look at the "Asetelma 46: 3. persoonan possessiivisuffiksien vaihtelu" table at the end of the page. It shows the third person possessive suffixes in different cases, both singular and plural, using "lippu" (which has a stem that doesn't end in a/ä) and "kukka" (which has a stem that does end in a/ä) as example words.

If the form is in cursive, it is the only choice. If it is in non-cursive, it is the preferred choice. If it is inside parentheses, it is the non-preferred choice and will sound a bit old-fashinoed.

The most complicated part is the partitive singular, where words without an a/ä stem prefer the -Vn ending ("lippuaan"), but words with an a/ä stem have to use the -nsA ending ("kukkaansa"), because "*kukkaaan" with three a's wouldn't work.

[raskarhu]

Thanks. And now I will go and hang myself. FSOL: why is Finnish so hard to learn. Is it an option to always stick with the -nsa, option in the sense of "everybody will be able to understand me" if I choose it.

[jahasjahas]

Yes, you will be understood perfectly if you always use -nsa. If you can live with uttering a few sounds that wouldn't strictly be necessary, there's no problem.

[raskarhu]

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