Breakdown of Hän ei ole sairas, mutta hän on väsynyt.
olla
to be
hän
he / she
väsynyt
tired
mutta
but
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
sairas
sick
Questions & Answers about Hän ei ole sairas, mutta hän on väsynyt.
Why do we say ei ole instead of ei on to mean "is not"?
In Finnish, you don't just put "not" in front of the regular verb. You must use a negative verb (here, ei for "he/she") followed by a special base form of the main verb, called the connegative. For the verb olla (to be), this form is always ole. You never use the regular "is" form (on) right after a negative verb.
Could hän also mean "she" in this sentence?
Yes! Finnish does not have gendered pronouns. Hän means both "he" and "she". Depending on the context, "She is not sick, but she is tired" is an equally correct translation.
Why do we have to repeat hän in the second half of the sentence?
In Finnish, you can often drop the personal pronouns for "I" and "you" because the verb endings already tell you who is acting. However, you must always include the third-person pronouns hän (he/she) and he (they), even after a conjunction like mutta (but).
Do adjectives like sairas (sick) and väsynyt (tired) change form when the sentence is negative?
No, they don't. Adjectives describing the subject stay in their basic dictionary form whether the sentence is positive or negative, as long as the subject is just one person.
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