Breakdown of Hänkään ei nukkunut tarpeeksi, mutta hän ei ole väsynyt.
olla
to be
hän
he / she
väsynyt
tired
mutta
but
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
nukkua
to sleep
-kaan
neither / not either (also -kään)
tarpeeksi
enough
Questions & Answers about Hänkään ei nukkunut tarpeeksi, mutta hän ei ole väsynyt.
Why does hän have the -kään ending instead of -kin?
The ending -kään means 'not either' or 'neither'. You use it instead of -kin ('also' or 'too') because the sentence is negative (ei nukkunut). Added directly to hän, it means 'He did not either'.
Why is the verb form ei nukkunut and not ei nukkui?
In Finnish, the negative past tense is formed using the negative verb (ei) plus the past participle form of the main verb, which ends in -nut or -nyt. You drop the regular past tense marker -i completely.
Where does the word tarpeeksi come from?
It means 'enough'. It is technically the word tarve ('need') in the translative case, which ends in -ksi. However, it is used as a fixed adverb in everyday Finnish, so you can simply memorize tarpeeksi as the vocabulary word for 'enough'.
Is väsynyt a verb or an adjective here?
It works as an adjective meaning 'tired', but it is formed from the past participle of the verb väsyä ('to get tired'). Using -nut or -nyt verb forms as normal adjectives to describe a state is very common in Finnish.
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