He ovat lähellä toisiaan.

to be

Breakdown of He ovat lähellä toisiaan.

• lähellä: close
• he: they
• toisiaan: each other

Questions & Answers about He ovat lähellä toisiaan.

What is the literal, word‑for‑word translation of He ovat lähellä toisiaan?

A close, word‑for‑word breakdown is:

• He = they (3rd person plural, people)
• ovat = are (3rd person plural of olla = to be)
• lähellä = near / close (by), literally “at/ on closeness” (adessive case)
• toisiaan = each other / one another (in the partitive case)

So literally something like: “They are near to each other.”

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What is the difference between he and hän in Finnish?

• Hän = he / she (singular person, gender‑neutral).
• He = they (plural people).

So:

• Hän on lähellä minua. = He/She is close to me.
• He ovat lähellä toisiaan. = They are close to each other.

Note: Although written Finnish uses hän and he, in everyday spoken Finnish people very often say se (for hän) and ne (for he). But in standard written language, hän/he are used for people.

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Why is it ovat and not on?

Finnish verbs agree with the subject in number and person.