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Questions & Answers about Hän aiheuttaa melua.
What does Hän mean, and why doesn't it indicate gender?
Hän is the third-person singular pronoun in Finnish. Unlike English, Finnish does not mark gender in its pronouns, so Hän can refer to either "he" or "she" without specifying gender.
What is the meaning of aiheuttaa and what role does it play in the sentence?
Aiheuttaa means "to cause" or "to produce." It is the main verb in the sentence, describing the action that the subject, Hän, is performing—specifically, causing or producing noise.
Why is the noun melua in the partitive case rather than in the nominative form?
In Finnish, the partitive case is used for expressing an indefinite amount or an incomplete action. In this sentence, melua (the partitive form of melu meaning "noise") is used because the noise is viewed as an unquantified, ongoing effect rather than a complete, countable entity.
How does the word order in this Finnish sentence compare to that of a typical English sentence?
The sentence follows the subject-verb-object order—Hän aiheuttaa melua.—which is similar to English ("He/She causes noise."). However, while Finnish generally maintains this order, it also allows for flexibility due to its rich case system.
Does the sentence imply anything about the nature or extent of the noise?
Yes, by using the partitive melua, the sentence implies that the noise is an indefinite or non-totalized amount rather than a specific, bounded event. This can suggest that the noise is ongoing or not entirely controlled, which can sometimes hint at a negative or disruptive effect.