Questions & Answers about Heidän täytyy ymmärtää sääntö.
Why is 'they' translated as heidän instead of he?
In Finnish, when you use an obligation verb like täytyy (must / have to), the person who has to do the action is put in the genitive case. The genitive form of he (they) is heidän. You can think of it literally as 'of them, it is required...'.
Since the subject is plural, why isn't täytyy conjugated with a plural ending?
Normally, verbs change to match the subject! However, täytyy is a special exception. In these 'must' sentences, täytyy is frozen in this single form and never changes. It is always just täytyy, whether it's 'I must' (minun täytyy) or 'they must' (heidän täytyy).
Does the second verb ymmärtää need to be conjugated?
No, it stays in its basic dictionary form (the infinitive). Whenever you have a verb chain with a modal verb (like täytyy, haluaa, or voi), the second verb just tags along in its basic form. This is exactly like English, where we say 'they must understand' instead of 'they must understands'.
Why doesn't the object sääntö (the rule) have an ending like -n?
This is a quirky rule for 'must' sentences! Normally, when you do an action to a whole object, you add an -n ending to it. But in sentences that use the genitive + täytyy structure, the object drops that ending and stays in its basic dictionary form. Therefore, it is simply sääntö.
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