--- title: "sä" book_form: "sinä" translation: "You (singular)." type: "word" category: "puhekieli" url: "https://finnishirl.com/words/sa" canonical: "https://finnishirl.com/words/sa" published: "2026-10-01" updated: "2026-10-01" author: "Andrey the Nomad" site: "Finnish IRL" license: "https://finnishirl.com/terms#ip" --- # sä URL: https://finnishirl.com/words/sa Book form (kirjakieli): sinä Translation: You (singular). Pronunciation: /sæ/ Category: puhekieli Archetypes: spoken Region: Finland Register: neutral spoken Finnish Literal meaning: The second person singular pronoun, in the form speech actually uses. Tone and safety: Safe with almost everyone, including strangers and people much older than you. Published: 2026-10-01 Quick answer: - Sä is the spoken form of sinä, "you". Like mä, the grammar describes it as a neutral feature of speech rather than slang. - Finnish does have a formal address - teitittely, using te, but in speech it is rare. Where it survives in writing is narrower than people assume: banks, insurers and some legal correspondence. The tax office and Kela address you as sä as a matter of policy. - Coming from Spanish, German or French, the instinct to reach for a polite form is the thing to unlearn. Sä to a stranger is normal. What it means: - Sä is you, singular, to one person. It is the counterpart of mä and behaves identically: unstressed, short, and glued onto the verb in fast speech. Book form vs spoken form: - Sinä is written; sä is spoken. The comprehensive grammar lists both, along with the regional sie and sää, and calls the short mä ~ sä pair a neutral feature of spoken language. - The related forms follow: sun for sinun (your), sulla for sinulla (you have), sut for sinut (you, object). - The bigger point is what is not there. Finnish has te for formal address, and the grammar covers it, but in practice teitittely is confined to very formal service situations, some official correspondence, and speaking to people of considerable age. There is no everyday polite pronoun to get wrong. How Finns use it: - It attaches to verbs and disappears. Ootsä valmis, tuutsä, meetsä, oonks mä - the pronoun becomes part of the verb, which is why a question comes at you as one word. - Finnish also uses sinä generically, the way English uses "you" for people in general: sä et voi tietää etukäteen, "you can't know in advance". More characteristically it drops the pronoun altogether - ei voi tietää etukäteen, which is the zero person, and it is everywhere. - Where you will still meet teitittely: letters from a bank or an insurer, some legal correspondence, and speech directed at someone considerably older. Not from the state - Vero and Kela sinuttelevat by policy. Being teititelty yourself usually means someone has decided you are older than you are. - The more useful thing is that Finnish often avoids the choice entirely. Service language runs on impersonal and passive formulas with no pronoun in them at all: Mitä saisi olla? - what would you like. Otetaanko tästä? - shall we take this one. Onko kanta-asiakaskorttia? - do you have a loyalty card. You can be completely polite without ever picking between sä and te, and this is what a learner from Spanish or French actually needs. Tone and safety: - Using sä with a stranger, a colleague's parent, or your landlord is normal and not disrespectful. The Finnish register axis runs spoken-versus-written, not familiar-versus-formal. - The genuine error is the other direction: teitittely used enthusiastically by a learner sounds stiff and can read as distancing rather than respectful. - The one clear case for te is addressing someone quite elderly you do not know, where it reads as courtesy rather than performance. Common mistake: - Importing a tú/usted axis. Learners from those languages often assume sä is impolite and sinä is the polite version. They are the same word in different registers; neither is the polite form. - Failing to hear sä once it has fused. Tiiätsä is tiedätkö sinä. If the sentence sounds like one long word, the pronoun is in there. Examples: - Ootsä valmis? - Are you ready? (written: Oletko sinä valmis?) - Onks sulla hetki? - Do you have a moment? (written: Onko sinulla hetki?) - Mä soitan sulle huomenna. - I'll call you tomorrow. (written: Minä soitan sinulle huomenna.) Mini dialogue: A: Tuutsä mukaan? B: Joo, mä tuun. Monelt? A: Seittemält. B: Sopii. FAQ: Q: What does sä mean in Finnish? A: You, singular. It is the spoken form of sinä. Q: Is sä rude or too casual? A: Neither. The grammar treats mä and sä as neutral features of spoken Finnish. It is what people say to strangers, colleagues and shop staff. Q: Does Finnish have a polite form of you? A: Yes - teitittely, using te - but it is rare and mostly ceremonial. There is no everyday polite pronoun the way Spanish has usted or French vous. Q: When should I use te in Finnish? A: With someone considerably older whom you don't know, and in letters from banks, insurers or lawyers. Not from the state: Vero and Kela use sä. In casual speech it sounds stiff, and the better move is usually to sidestep the pronoun entirely - Mitä saisi olla? Q: What is sun? A: The spoken form of sinun, "your". Sulla is sinulla, "you have", and sut is sinut. Related words: ma, oon, onks, mun, ei-oo, meen, mennaan, mulla-on Sources: - VISK § 716 - minä, sinä, hän, me, te, he (Iso suomen kielioppi, Kotimaisten kielten keskus): https://kaino.kotus.fi/visk/sisallys.php?p=716 - VISK § 144 - osaatsä, emmä, kuulittekste (Iso suomen kielioppi, Kotimaisten kielten keskus): https://kaino.kotus.fi/visk/sisallys.php?p=144 - VISK § 1273 - te in formal address (Iso suomen kielioppi, Kotimaisten kielten keskus): https://kaino.kotus.fi/visk/sisallys.php?p=1273 - VISK § 717 - grammatical properties vs. reference to people (Iso suomen kielioppi, Kotimaisten kielten keskus): https://kaino.kotus.fi/visk/sisallys.php?p=717 - Kielitoimiston sanakirja: sinä, te (Kotimaisten kielten keskus): https://www.kielitoimistonsanakirja.fi/#/sinä