Hän ansaitsee hyvän palkan.

Hän can mean either he or she. Finnish does not normally mark gender in third-person singular pronouns, so the same word is used for both.

So:

• Hän ansaitsee hyvän palkan = He earns a good salary / She earns a good salary

If you need plural they, the word is he.

Ansaita is the dictionary form, meaning to earn.

In the sentence, the verb is conjugated for third person singular because the subject is hän:

• minä ansaitsen = I earn
• sinä ansaitset = you earn
• hän ansaitsee = he/she earns

So ansaitsee simply means earns.

Because hyvä palkka is the basic dictionary form: good salary.

In this sentence, palkka is the object of the verb ansaitsee, so it changes form. That is why you get:

• hyvä palkka → basic form
• hyvän palkan → object form used here

The adjective changes too, so both words match:

• hyvä → hyvän
• palkka → palkan

This matching is called agreement.

This is a very common question.

In sentences like this, hyvän palkan is usually described as a total object. In the singular, that object often looks exactly like the genitive form.

So in practice:

• the form looks genitive: palkan
• but its job in the sentence is that of the object

Many learner materials simply say: it has the genitive-looking object form.

You do not need to worry too much at first. The important thing is that after ansaitsee, Finnish often uses this kind of object form when referring to a whole, definite salary.

Yes, that is also possible, but the nuance is a bit different.

• hyvän palkan suggests a good salary as a whole, more like a definite salary level
• hyvää palkkaa uses the partitive and sounds more like good pay in a more general or less bounded sense

So both can be natural, but they are not exactly the same.

A simple way to remember it:

• hyvän palkan = a good salary
• hyvää palkkaa = good pay

Because Finnish has no articles. There is no direct equivalent of a, an, or the.

So hyvän palkan can mean:

• a good salary
• sometimes the good salary

Usually the context tells you which one is meant. In this sentence, English will most naturally translate it as a good salary.

Yes. Finnish word order is more flexible than English word order.

The neutral order here is:

• Hän ansaitsee hyvän palkan.

But other orders are possible for emphasis, for example:

• Hyvän palkan hän ansaitsee.

That puts more focus on hyvän palkan.

Even though the order can change, the basic sentence with no special emphasis is the one you were given.

Because in Finnish, adjectives usually agree with the nouns they describe.

So if the noun changes case, the adjective changes too:

• hyvä palkka
• hyvän palkan
• hyvässä palkassa
• hyvästä palkasta

This is a very important Finnish pattern. You usually cannot change only the noun and leave the adjective in its basic form.

It can mean either, depending on context.

• salary
• wages
• pay

In Hän ansaitsee hyvän palkan, English often uses a good salary, but good pay may also fit in some contexts.

So palkka is a fairly broad word related to what someone is paid for work.

Usually, in standard Finnish, you keep hän in a sentence like this.

So the normal full sentence is:

• Hän ansaitsee hyvän palkan.

Finnish often leaves out subject pronouns with I and you because the verb ending already shows the person clearly. With third person singular, the pronoun is more often kept.

In casual spoken Finnish, people often use se instead of hän when talking about a person:

• Se ansaitsee hyvän palkan.

But in standard written Finnish, hän is the correct choice.

Yes. Ansaita can also mean deserve.

For example:

• Hän ansaitsee kiitoksen. = He/she deserves thanks.

So the verb can be used in two related ways:

• earn money, income, wages
• deserve something

In your sentence, it means earn.