Learn Finnish: Vaikka kilpailija on nälkäinen, hän ei tyydy huonoon ruokaan. - Although the competitor is hungry, he does not settle for bad food.

The verb tyytyä (to settle for / to be satisfied with) belongs to the group of adapting verbs that require the illative case. Just like suostua (to consent to) and sopeutua (to adapt to), you use the illative case for the thing you are adapting or settling into. Both the adjective and the noun must take the illative ending.

What is the infinitive form of tyydy?

The infinitive is tyytyä. In the present negative, the main verb takes its weak stem form. The consonant t undergoes gradation and softens to d, which gives us the form tyydy (the same stem seen in the first-person affirmative minä tyydyn).

After the vaikka clause, why is the word order hän ei tyydy instead of starting with the verb?

Learners who have studied languages like German or Swedish might expect the verb to come immediately after a subordinate clause. Finnish does not use this rule. The main clause retains its standard subject-verb order, so the subject hän comes before the verb phrase ei tyydy.

How is the noun kilpailija constructed?

It is derived from the verb kilpailla (to compete). The suffix -ja or -jä is added to a verb's stem to create a noun for the person doing the action, identical in function to the '-er' suffix in English.