Learn Hardcore Finnish: Ystäväni seurustelee, mutta haluaa silti asua yksin. - My friend is in a relationship, but still wants to live alone.

Minun ystäväni seurustelee… – a bit more emphatic, “my friend is in a relationship…”
In everyday speech people often drop minun and just say mun ystävä (spoken Finnish, no suffix).

In this sentence, ystäväni is enough to mean “my friend.”

How do I know if Ystäväni means “my friend” or “my friends”?

The form ystäväni can mean both:

my friend (one friend)
my friends (more than one)

The number is shown by the verb:

Ystäväni seurustelee.
→ seurustelee is 3rd person singular → my friend is in a relationship
Ystäväni seurustelevat.
→ seurustelevat is 3rd person plural → my friends are in relationships

So in your sentence, seurustelee is singular, so it clearly means “my (one) friend.”

Why isn’t there a pronoun like hän (“he/she”) before seurustelee?

Finnish is a pro‑drop language: if the subject is clear from context or verb ending, it’s usually left out.

The subject here is ystäväni (“my friend”).
The verb seurustelee is 3rd person singular, matching that subject.

So Hän seurustelee would be grammatical but redundant here. The sentence:

Ystäväni seurustelee…
already fully tells us who is doing the action, so hän is normally omitted.

What does seurustelee mean exactly? Is it “dates”, “is dating”, or “is in a relationship”?

The verb seurustella means something like:

to be in a romantic relationship
to be “seeing someone” / “dating someone” in an ongoing, steady way

seurustelee = he/she is in a relationship / is going out with someone.

It’s usually more serious/steady than just going on one or two dates. For casual “date (someone)” you might see other expressions, but seurustella implies an established relationship.

So:

Ystäväni seurustelee ≈ “My friend is in a (romantic) relationship / is dating someone steadily.”

How is seurustelee formed from seurustella?

The infinitive is seurustella (“to be in a relationship”).
The present tense (indicative) conjugation is:

minä seurustelen
sinä seurustelet
hän seurustelee
me seurustelemme
te seurustelette
he seurustelevat

So seurustelee is the 3rd person singular form, matching “he/she/my friend.”

What does mutta do in this sentence, and why is there a comma before it?

mutta means “but”. It connects two clauses with a contrast:

Clause 1: Ystäväni seurustelee – My friend is in a relationship
Clause 2: …haluaa silti asua yksin – …still wants to live alone

The comma is normal in Finnish: you typically put a comma before mutta when it joins two clauses.

So the structure is like English: X, mutta Y = X, but Y.

What does silti mean, and how is it different from other words like kuitenkin?

silti means “still, nevertheless, even so” and marks a contrast with what was just said.

Ystäväni seurustelee, mutta haluaa silti asua yksin.
“My friend is in a relationship but still wants to live alone.”

Close alternatives:

kuitenkin – also “however, nevertheless, still”; very common, often a bit more neutral.
silti – often feels slightly more emphatic/contrasty: despite that, still.

Here you could also say:

…mutta haluaa kuitenkin asua yksin.
The meaning is essentially the same.

Can I move silti somewhere else in the sentence?

Yes, Finnish word order is fairly flexible, and silti can move:

…mutta haluaa silti asua yksin. (original; very natural)
…mutta silti haluaa asua yksin. (also common; silti emphasizes the contrast)
…mutta haluaa asua silti yksin. (possible, slightly less typical but still understandable)

All of these mean roughly the same. The original haluaa silti asua yksin is very natural and neutral.

Why is the verb haluaa and not something like haluan or haluat?

haluaa is the 3rd person singular of haluta (“to want”):

minä haluan
sinä haluat
hän haluaa
me haluamme
te haluatte
he haluavat

The subject of haluaa is still ystäväni (“my friend”). Even though the subject is not repeated in the second clause, it stays the same:

Ystäväni seurustelee, mutta (hän) haluaa…
= My friend is in a relationship, but (he/she) wants…

So haluaa must match that 3rd person singular subject.

What’s the difference between asua and elää, and why is asua used here?

Both can translate as “live,” but they are used differently:

asua = to live somewhere, to reside (focus on housing/place)
- asua yksin – live alone (in terms of residence)
- asun Helsingissä – I live in Helsinki
elää = to live in the sense of “to be alive” or “to live (one’s life)”
- elää pitkään – live a long time
- elää onnellista elämää – live a happy life

In haluaa silti asua yksin, the focus is on living alone in one’s home, so asua is the correct verb.

Why is it yksin and not yksinäinen or something else?

yksin is an adverb meaning “alone, by oneself”.

asua yksin – to live alone

yksinäinen is an adjective meaning “lonely” (emotionally):

yksinäinen ihminen – a lonely person

So:

asua yksin = to live alone (no other people in the household)
olla yksinäinen = to feel lonely

Your sentence is talking about living alone, not about feeling lonely, so yksin is correct.

Could the word order be haluaa asua yksin silti or silti haluaa asua yksin? Does it change the meaning?

All of these are grammatically possible:

…haluaa silti asua yksin. (standard, very natural)
…mutta silti haluaa asua yksin. (puts silti early for contrast)
…haluaa asua yksin silti. (understandable, but feels a bit marked/stylistic)

The basic meaning “but still wants to live alone” stays the same. The main difference is nuance and emphasis; the original word order is the most neutral and typical.

Why isn’t there a second ystäväni or hän before haluaa silti asua yksin?

In Finnish, when two clauses share the same subject and are joined by a conjunction like mutta, the subject is usually mentioned only once:

Ystäväni seurustelee, mutta haluaa silti asua yksin.
(My friend is in a relationship but still wants to live alone.)

The subject ystäväni applies to both seurustelee and haluaa. Repeating it:

Ystäväni seurustelee, mutta ystäväni haluaa silti asua yksin.

is grammatically correct but sounds heavy and unnatural in everyday Finnish. The shorter version is preferred.