Breakdown of Hänkään ei myöntänyt virhettä.
hän
he / she
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
virhe
error
-kaan
neither / not either (also -kään)
myöntää
to admit
Questions & Answers about Hänkään ei myöntänyt virhettä.
Why is the '-kään' ending attached to 'hän' instead of the verb?
The ending -kaan/-kään attaches directly to the word it emphasizes. Because the sentence means 'HE didn't admit it either' (implying someone else also didn't), the clitic goes on the pronoun hän to become hänkään.
Why do we use '-kään' here instead of '-kaan'?
This is due to vowel harmony. The word hän contains the front vowel 'ä', so the clitic must also use front vowels, making it -kään.
Why is the word for mistake, 'virhe', in the partitive form 'virhettä'?
In Finnish, the object of a negative sentence is always in the partitive case. Since the sentence is negative, the object virhe takes the partitive ending -ttä to become virhettä.
Why does the verb 'myöntää' look like 'myöntänyt' here?
This is the negative past tense structure. To say someone 'did not admit' something, you use the negative verb ei followed by the past participle of the main verb. For myöntää (to admit), that form is myöntänyt.
Learn Hänkään ei myöntänyt virhettä and more in Finnish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free