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Hän on amerikkalainen opiskelija.

Hän on amerikkalainen opiskelija.
He is an American student.
From Lesson 420:Compound property adjectives (-inen)·Finnish

Breakdown of Hän on amerikkalainen opiskelija.

olla
to be
hän
he / she
opiskelija
student
amerikkalainen
American

Questions & Answers about Hän on amerikkalainen opiskelija.

Since this lesson is about compound adjectives ending in '-inen', how does amerikkalainen fit in?
While amerikkalainen is a nationality formed with the suffix -lainen rather than a compound property adjective, it behaves exactly the same grammatically. Just like sinisilmäinen becomes sinisilmäisen, amerikkalainen changes its -nen to -se- to form its stem, making the genitive amerikkalaisen.
Why isn't amerikkalainen capitalized like 'American' is in English?
In Finnish, adjectives and nouns derived from proper names are always written with a lowercase letter. This applies to nationalities, languages, and residents of a city. You only capitalize the name of the place itself, such as Amerikka.
As a quick refresher, why use opiskelija instead of oppilas here?
Opiskelija specifically refers to a student in higher education, such as a university, college, or adult education program. Oppilas refers to a pupil in primary or secondary school. The use of opiskelija tells us he is likely an adult at a university.
How would this sentence typically change in everyday spoken Finnish?
In spoken Finnish (puhekieli), the personal pronoun hän is almost always replaced by se, making the sentence Se on amerikkalainen opiskelija. You might also hear the colloquial word jenkki used for an American, which could be combined into the compound noun jenkkiopiskelija.

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