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Questions & Answers about Hän puhuu hyvin suomea.
What does Hän mean in this sentence, and does it specify gender?
Hän means “he” or “she” in English, but it doesn’t tell you if the person is male or female. Finnish pronouns are gender-neutral.
Why is suomea in the partitive case rather than suomi?
Many verbs in Finnish (like puhua) take their object in the partitive when the action is ongoing or not completed. Also, you “speak some amount of a language,” so you use the partitive form suomea (the partitive of suomi) instead of the nominative.
Why isn’t there any article like “a” or “the” before suomea?
Finnish has no articles (no words for “a” or “the”). Nouns stand on their own without definite or indefinite articles.
How is the verb puhuu formed from its infinitive puhua?
The infinitive is puhua. To form the present tense, 3rd person singular, you remove the -a from puhua and add -u, giving puhuu. Finnish verbs change endings based on person and number.
What is hyvin, and could it come after suomea instead?
hyvin is an adverb meaning “well.” Finnish word order is quite flexible, so you can also say Hän puhuu suomea hyvin. The difference is subtle—placement can shift emphasis, but both orders are correct.
Can you leave out Hän since puhuu already shows who is speaking?
Yes. Finnish verbs are inflected for person, so the subject pronoun hän is often dropped when context is clear. Puhuu hyvin suomea still means “He/she speaks Finnish well.”
How would I turn this into a question: “Does he/she speak Finnish well?”
Add the question particle -ko to the verb and swap order slightly: Puhuuko hän hyvin suomea? Here puhuu becomes puhuuko.
How do you say “He doesn’t speak Finnish well”?
Use the negative auxiliary ei and the verb in its connegative form: Hän ei puhu hyvin suomea (or Hän ei puhu suomea hyvin).