meiän / teiän

In spoken Finnish (puhekieli), the standard genitive pronouns meidän and teidän are shortened by removing the 'd'. Historically, the 'd' was introduced into the written language to represent a sound that existed in Old Finnish. While pronouncing the 'd' is standard and natural in formal spoken contexts (like news broadcasts or professional settings), the reduced variants are also common in casual speech. Dropping the consonant entirely is historically an Eastern dialect feature that has spread to general colloquial speech.

Key Rules:

• meiän = our (standard: meidän)
• teiän = your, plural (standard: teidän). Note that while standard teidän can be used for formal singular address, teiän often refers to several people; respectful address to one person is also possible, depending on context.

Common Variants:
After d is lost, a glide may bridge the vowel sequence; spellings with j represent this pronunciation: meijän and teijän. Both are very natural and common in everyday speech. You may also encounter regional variants like meirän and teirän (Western dialects), or older/regional forms like meitin and teitin.

The Third Person:
Unlike the first and second person, the word heidän (their) is rarely just shortened in general urban speech, though heiän is a feature in Eastern dialects. Instead, many speakers use the demonstrative pronouns niiden or niitten (standard: niiden, from ne) to mean "their". Similarly, for the third person singular, hänen (his/her) is replaced by the spoken demonstrative pronoun sen (from se).

The Suffix Rule:
In standard Finnish, you use a genitive pronoun and a suffix (e.g., meidän automme). For the 1st and 2nd persons, this makes the pronoun optional. For the 3rd person, standard Finnish requires both the pronoun and the suffix when the possessor is not the subject of the sentence (e.g., hänen autonsa), but strictly omits the pronoun when the possessor is the subject (e.g., Pekka luki kirjansa). In spoken Finnish, possessive suffixes are generally dropped, though exceptions exist (like the shortened 2nd person singular sun autos or the 3rd person reflexive). Because the suffix is usually dropped, the pronoun becomes obligatory to indicate possession. You simply place the spoken pronoun before the noun: meiän auto, sen auto, or niitten koti. However, be careful with the 3rd person reflexive: Pekka luki sen kirjan can mean that Pekka read that book; sen can also express possession in context, so this sentence does not unambiguously say whose book it was. To say 'his own' in spoken Finnish, speakers heavily rely on the word oma (own), e.g., Pekka luki oman kirjan or Se ajoi omalla autolla, or they might keep the standard possessive suffix.

Register:
These are common colloquial forms rather than a separate slang vocabulary. They are widespread, but no single form is compulsory in conversations with friends or family. You should avoid them in formal writing, but they are perfect for text messages and daily chat.

Keep the Case Ending
Standard meidän autossamme corresponds to colloquial meiän autossa. Only possessive -mme is absent; inessive -ssa still means in. Similarly, teidän kodistanne → teiän kodista retains elative -sta. Pronoun and possessive-suffix combinations vary in actual speech; a shortened pronoun does not grammatically prohibit a suffix.