Pronouns
The pronouns are inflected in the Finnish language much in the same way that their referent nouns are.
Personal pronouns
Somewhat like in English, the personal pronouns are used to refer to human beings only. The personal pronouns in Finnish in the nominative case are listed in the following table:
| Personal pronouns | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| Singular | |
| minä | I |
| sinä | you |
| hän | she or he |
| Plural | |
| me | we |
| te | you |
| he | they |
| Polite | |
| Te | you |
Since Finnish verbs are inflected for person, personal pronouns are not required for sense and are usually omitted in standard Finnish except where used for emphasis. In spoken Finnish, all pronouns are generally used. In the third person, the pronoun is needed: "hän menee" = he goes, "he menevät" = they go. This applies to both colloquial and written language.
In colloquial Finnish, the pronouns se and ne are very commonly used as the singular and plural third person pronouns, respectively. Use of hän and he is mostly restricted to writing and formal speech. Similarly, mä and sä are used colloquially to replace minä and sinä. Te, being formal, is never reduced. Some of the most common verbs, such as olen and tulla exhibit similar reduced colloquial forms:
| Personal pronouns | |
|---|---|
| Written/Formal | Spoken/Colloquial |
| Singular | |
| minä olen/tulen | mä oon/tuun |
| sinä olet/tulet | sä oot/tuut |
| hän/se on/tulee | se on/tulee |
| Plural | |
| me olemme/tulemme | me ollaan/tullaan |
| te olette/tulette | te ootte/tuutte |
| he/ne ovat/tulevat | ne on/tulee |
| Polite | |
| Te olette/tulette | you |
In common with some other languages, the second person plural can be used as a polite form when addressing one person. This usage is diminishing in Finnish society.
Demonstrative pronouns
The demonstratives are used of non-human animate entities and inanimate objects. However, se and ne are often used to refer to humans in colloquial Finnish. Furthermore, the demonstratives are used to refer to group nouns and the number of the pronoun must correlate with the number of its referent.
| Demonstrative pronouns | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| Singular | |
| tämä | this |
| tuo | that |
| se | it/that |
| Plural | |
| nämä | these |
| nuo | those |
| ne | they/those |
Interrogative pronouns
| Interrogative pronouns | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| kuka | who, which (of many) |
| mikä | what, which (of many) |
| ken | who, which (of many) - (old or dialectal word) |
| kumpi | which (of two) |
| kumpainen | which (of two) - (old or dialectal word) |
"Ken" is now archaic, but its inflected forms are used instead of those of "kuka": "ketä" instead of "kuta" ("whom"). "Ketä rakastat?" = "Whom do you love?"
Relative pronouns
| Relative pronouns | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pronoun | Example | English |
| jonka (refers to preceding word) | "hän on ainoa, jonka muistan" | "[s]he is the only one whom (I) remember" |
| minkä (refers to preceding clause/ sentence or to a pronoun or a superlative that refers to a thing) |
"se on ainoa asia, minkä muistan" | "it is the only thing that (I) remember" |
Reciprocal pronouns
| Reciprocal pronouns | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pronoun | Example | English |
| toinen | "he rakastavat toisiaan" | "they love each other" (plural) |
| "he rakastavat toinen toistaan" | "they love one another" (double singular) | |
Reflexive pronouns
| Reflexive pronouns | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pronoun | Suffix | Example | English |
| itse | plus corresponding possessive suffix | "keitin itselleni teetä" | "(I) made myself some tea" |
Indefinite pronouns
A large group that entails all of the pronouns that do not fall into any of the categories above. Notice that there are no negative pronouns, such as "nobody", but the positive pronoun has to be negated with the negative verb "ei". No double negatives are possible.
| Indefinite pronouns | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| joka (uninflected) | every, each |
| jokainen | every, everyone |
| joku | some, someone (person) |
| jompikumpi | either one |
| jokin | some, something (animal, thing) |
| kukin | each one |
| kumpainenkin | both (old or dialectal) |
| kumpikin | both |
| mikin | each thing (dialectal) |
| kenkään | anyone (old or dialectal) |
| kukaan (nom.), kene+..+kään (oblique) | anyone |
| -> ei kukaan | no one |
| kumpikaan | either one |
| -> ei kumpikaan | neither one |
| mikään | anything -> ei mikään = nothing |
| mones (nom.), monente- (oblique) | the ordinal pronoun (representing first, second, etc.) |
Each pronoun declines. However, the endings -kAAn and -kin are clitics, and case endings are placed before them, e.g. mikään "any", miltäkään "from any". It should be noted that there are irregular nominatives. As indicated, kukaan is an irregular nominative; the regular root is kene- with -kään, e.g. kukaan "(not) anyone", keneltäkään "from (not) anyone".
English lacks a direct equivalent to the pronoun mones; it would be "that-th", or "which-th" for questions. For examples, Palkkio riippuu siitä monentenako maaliin tulee "The reward depends on as-which-th one comes to the finish", or explicitly "The reward depends on in which position one comes to the finish". It would be difficult to translate the question Monesko?, but, while far from proper English, the question How manyeth may give an English-speaking person an idea of the meaning.
Some indefinite adjectives are often perceived as indefinite pronouns. These include:
| Indefinite adjectives | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| ainoa | only |
| eräs | some, certain, one |
| harva | few |
| itse (non-reflexive) | self |
| kaikki | all, everyone, everything |
| molemmat | both |
| moni | many |
| muu | other |
| muutama | some, a few |
| sama | same |
| toinen (non-reciprocal, non-numeral use) | another |