_Personal Pronouns._
The personal pronouns are always employed when there is any emphasis on
them in English; otherwise, they are mostly omitted, the termination of
the verb indicating the person with sufficient clearness. Thus one says,
=Minä olen sen tehnyt, et sinä=, _I did it, not you_; but =Tahtoisin
lähteä huomenna, jos ette pane vastaan=, _I should like to leave
to-morrow if you have no objection_.
If the subject of _both_ a principal and subordinate sentence is a
pronoun of the first or second person, it is always omitted in the
subordinate sentence. =Ottakaa mitä tahdotte=, _take what you like_. =Hän
sanoi ettei tunne tätä miestä=, _he said he did not know the man_.
=Sinä= and =Te= are used with much the same distinction as =Du= and =Sie=
in German, that is to say, the plural is used out of politeness when
speaking with anyone but inferiors or intimate friends.
_Possessive Pronouns._
There are no pronominal adjectives in Finnish corresponding to _my_,
_thy_, etc. Their place is supplied (_a_) by the genitive of the personal
pronoun, (_b_) more frequently by the pronominal affixes.
When the possessive pronoun is emphatic, both the genitive and the affix
are used, and in the Bible this construction is frequent, even when
there is no particular emphasis. As a rule, however, the affix alone is
sufficient in the 1st and 2nd persons.
The affix of the 3rd person, however, is used alone only when it refers
to the subject of the principal verb; for instance, =Hän ei nähnyt
vaimoansa=, _he has not seen his wife_; but =Ettekö nähneet hänen
vaimoansa?= _have you not seen his wife?_ Similarly, _He has not seen
his_ (another person’s) _wife_ must be rendered, =Hän ei nähnyt hänen
vaimoansa=.
Such a sentence as _that is mine_ is rendered by =Se on minun=. =Ei minun
oppini ole minun=, _my doctrine is not mine_.
_It is I_ is rendered by =minä olen=.
The affixes =ni=, =si=, =nsa=, etc. have a simple possessive sense
when added to nouns, but they are added to a variety of other words
under circumstances which render it impossible to translate them by the
possessive pronoun in English. It would appear that they simply denote
that the pronoun which they represent is to be taken in connection with
the word to which they are added. When the two ideas of House and I are
taken together this naturally means ‘my house,’ but other combinations
have to be rendered in a different manner.
I. In old Finnish, particularly in the Bible, they are added to the cases
of the personal pronouns for emphasis. =Tutkikaat raamatuita, sillä
niissä te luulette teillenne ijankaikkisen elämän olevan=, _search the
Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life_ (S. John v. 39).
=Puhukaan itse hänestänsä=, _let him speak for himself_ (S. John ix. 21).
=Että te rakastaisitte teitänne keskenänne=, _that ye might love one
another_ (S. John xiii. 34). This use is found chiefly in the western
dialect of Finnish.
II. They are similarly added to various adjectives. =En minä ole
yksinäni=, _am not alone_. Cf. the use of =hyvänsä= with pronouns.
Similarly in such phrases as =rakastakaa toinen toistanne=, etc. (_vide_
p. 171). =Olkoon sinänsä=, _let it be_; =olla semmoisenansa=, _to be like
it_ or _him_; =jättää työ siksensä=, _to leave one’s work as it is_.
=Hän on suorastansa hullu=, _he is a perfect fool_. Cf. =mieleiseni=,
_agreeable to me_.
III. They are very commonly added to postpositions (_vide_ p. 203 ff.),
or to adverbs (which however are mostly cases of nouns or adjectives).
=Ainoastansa=, =kokonansa=; =yhtenään=, =yleensä=.
IV. They are also added to infinitives and participles in many
constructions (_vide_ pp. 184-200).
_Demonstrative Pronouns._