Questions & Answers about Hän lähettää kirjeen ystävälle.
How does the ending -lle work in ystävälle?
The ending -lle is the allative case, which usually translates to "to" or "onto". Here, you attach it to ystävä (friend) to say that the letter is going to a friend. If you wanted to ask "to whom?", you would use the question word kenelle.
Why is the word for letter kirjeen instead of its basic form kirje?
Kirjeen is the object of the sentence, meaning it is the thing being sent. In Finnish, when an action affects a whole object, the object takes an -n ending. This shows he is sending a complete letter.
The verb lähettää has a double "tt". Does that change if I want to say "I send"?
Yes! Finnish verbs often drop a letter in certain forms, which is a rule called consonant gradation. While "he sends" uses the strong form hän lähettää, "I send" drops a t to become the weak form minä lähetän.
Could hän also mean "she" in this sentence?
Yes, absolutely. The pronoun hän is completely gender-neutral and means both "he" and "she". You just rely on context to know which one makes sense in a real conversation.
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