Breakdown of Mä näin sen äsken, ku mä olin ulkona.
olla
to be
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
minä
I
ulkona
outside
nähdä
to see
kun
when (conjunction)
äsken
just now
Questions & Answers about Mä näin sen äsken, ku mä olin ulkona.
Why does the sentence use sen for "him" instead of hänet?
In spoken Finnish, people almost always use the pronoun se (it) to refer to people instead of hän (he/she). Because the verb nähdä (to see) requires a total object here, we use the accusative form sen instead of the standard written language's hänet.
Is ku just a shortened version of kun?
Exactly. In everyday speech, the conjunction kun (when) is very commonly reduced to ku. It means exactly the same thing but allows the sentence to flow faster in casual conversation.
Since minä is shortened to mä, can I shorten the verb endings too?
No, the verb endings remain the same. Even though the pronoun is reduced to mä, you still need the standard first-person -n ending on the verbs, which gives us mä näin (I saw) and mä olin (I was).
Why is "outside" translated as ulkona rather than just a basic root word?
Ulkona specifically means being statically located outdoors. It uses the essive case ending -na to show a state of being, which fits perfectly with the verb olin (I was). If you were moving to the outside, you would use the directional word ulos instead.
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