Reference pronouns (hän / tämä)

Ambiguity in the Royal Court

When telling a story with multiple characters—like nobles plotting against each other—using "he" or "she" for everyone gets confusing quickly. Consider the English sentence: "The duke exposed the count. He had planned treason." Who planned treason?

Finnish solves this ambiguity gracefully by distinguishing between the previous sentence's subject and its object using the pronouns hän and tämä.

Keeping the Focus with Hän

When the new sentence continues talking about the subject of the previous sentence, use the standard third-person pronoun hän (he/she). This signals that the main actor hasn't changed.

Shifting the Focus with Tämä

If you want to refer to the object of the previous sentence (the person who was just acted upon, or the last person mentioned), use the demonstrative pronoun tämä. While tämä normally means "this", in this context it translates perfectly to "the latter".

Interacting Pronouns in Cases

These pronouns often interact in the same sentence to clearly map out betrayals and alliances.

Like any other pronoun, hän and tämä take the appropriate case endings for their grammatical role in the new sentence. For example, hän becomes hänet (him/her as an object), and tämä becomes tämän (the latter as an object).