Hän vihasi vilkkaita katuja, koska halusi rauhallisen ympäristön.

He/She hated lively streets because he/she wanted a peaceful environment.

Breakdown of Hän vihasi vilkkaita katuja, koska halusi rauhallisen ympäristön.

• hän: he/she
• rauhallinen: peaceful
• haluta: to want
• koska: because
• vilkas: lively
• katu: the street
• vihata: to hate
• ympäristö: the environment

Questions & Answers about Hän vihasi vilkkaita katuja, koska halusi rauhallisen ympäristön.

Why is the object vilkkaita katuja in the partitive case instead of a full accusative form?

In Finnish, emotions expressed by verbs like vihata (“to hate”) often take a partitive object. This use of the partitive indicates an indefinite, non-totalized quality—in this case, suggesting a general dislike for busy streets rather than hating a specific, complete set of streets.

What does the pronoun Hän indicate in this sentence, and does it refer to gender?

Hän is a gender-neutral pronoun in Finnish that can mean either “he” or “she.” Finnish does not mark gender on pronouns, so context is needed to know the speaker’s intention, but grammatically it remains neutral.

How does the conjunction koska function in this sentence?

Koska means “because” and introduces the subordinate clause that explains the reason behind the main clause’s emotion. The clause koska halusi rauhallisen ympäristön tells us that the subject hated busy streets due to a desire for a peaceful environment.

Why is the subject Hän mentioned only once, even though there are two clauses?

In Finnish, if the subject remains the same across clauses, it doesn’t need to be repeated. Once Hän is introduced in the first clause, it is understood to be the subject of the subordinate clause as well, which helps avoid unnecessary repetition.

Why is rauhallisen ympäristön in a different case from vilkkaita katuja?

Finnish verbs determine the case of their objects. Here, halusi (“wanted”) takes a complete, definite object, so rauhallisen ympäristön appears in the accusative form. In contrast, vihasi (“hated”) takes a partitive object to express an unspecified or non-totalized entity.

How do the adjectives vilkkaita and rauhallisen correctly agree with the nouns they modify?

In Finnish, adjectives agree with the nouns they describe in case, number, and definiteness. Vilkkaita is in the partitive plural to match katuja, and rauhallisen is inflected in the accusative form to match ympäristön. This agreement ensures that the modifiers accurately reflect the grammatical properties of the nouns they accompany.