vuonna
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Finnish
[edit]Etymology
[edit]An old essive singular (originally locative singular) form of vuosi (“year”). Originally, essive forms with consonant stems went through a greater degree of assimilation (vuonna < *voonna < *vootna < *vootë-na), but were later made more regular again by analogy.
Pronunciation
[edit]Adverb
[edit]vuonna
- in the year
- Synnyin vuonna 1950.
- I was born in the year 1950.
Usage notes
[edit]- vuonna is treated as if it were an essive form, so any determiner or adjective used with it will be inflected in the essive case as well (e.g. tänä vuonna). Nevertheless, vuosi also has a regular essive form, vuotena. This is also used in certain contexts.
- In particular, vuonna is used in expressions when talking about a year during which something takes or took place, while the other, more general uses of the essive case (see appendix), including essive-governed verb phrases, are relegated to vuotena.
- However, outside of specific uses (when followed by a numeral or preceded by one of a few common words), vuotena may be used in place of vuonna. There is no clear pattern for which form is used in these cases, and it often depends on the speaker.
- A traditional rule states that vuonna can never take a possessive suffix, and thus in cases where one is needed, vuotena must be used. However, in practice, vuonna can be seen in many texts with a possessive suffix.
| Personal/possessive forms of vuonna | ||
|---|---|---|
| no possessor | vuonna | |
| possessor | singular | plural |
| 1st person | vuonnani | vuonnamme |
| 2nd person | vuonnasi | vuonnanne |
| 3rd person | vuonnaan vuonnansa | |
Derived terms
[edit]compounds
See also
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- “vuonna”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja[1] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-04