Breakdown of Vaikka hän ansaitsee hyvän palkan, hänellä on iso velka.
olla
to be
hän
he / she
iso
big
hyvä
good
vaikka
although / even though
palkka
salary
velka
debt
ansaita
to earn
Questions & Answers about Vaikka hän ansaitsee hyvän palkan, hänellä on iso velka.
Why is the object hyvän palkan and not hyvää palkkaa?
The verb ansaita (to earn) takes a total object here, which uses the genitive-like -n ending. This shows that the action is complete: he earns a full, defined "good salary". If it were describing an ongoing, incomplete process without a specific amount, you would use the partitive form hyvää palkkaa.
In hänellä on iso velka, why is iso velka in the basic form instead of taking an -n ending like hyvän palkan?
In the Finnish "to have" structure (someone in the -llä / -lla case + on), the thing being possessed is actually the grammatical subject of the sentence. Because it acts as the subject, iso velka stays in the basic nominative form.
What is the dictionary form of the verb ansaitsee?
The base form is ansaita (to earn). This is a Type 4 verb. In this verb type, the -ita ending changes to a -itse- stem before the personal endings are added. For the "he/she" form, we double the last vowel, giving us ansaitsee.
Does the word vaikka (even though) change the word order in the sentence?
No, Finnish keeps it simple here! Both the first clause (hän ansaitsee...) and the second clause (hänellä on...) keep their standard, normal word order. Vaikka just links them together at the start.
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