Learn Hardcore Finnish: Hän haluaa olla itsenäinen aikuinen ja kantaa oman vastuunsa. - She wants to be an independent adult and carry her own responsibility.

Finnish does not grammatically mark gender in third person pronouns. You only know whether it’s a man or a woman from the surrounding context or from what you already know about the person. The pronoun itself doesn’t tell you.

What exactly is haluaa, and why not halua or haluan?

The verb is haluta (to want).

In the sentence, haluaa is:

3rd person singular, present tense
matching the subject hän

Conjugation of haluta in the present tense (singular):

minä haluan – I want
sinä haluat – you (sing.) want
hän haluaa – he/she wants

So you use haluaa because the subject is hän.

What form is olla, and why do we need it after haluaa?

Olla is the basic (1st) infinitive of the verb to be.

In Finnish, after verbs of wanting, liking, planning, etc., you usually use the infinitive:

hän haluaa olla… – he/she wants to be…
hän aikoo olla… – he/she intends to be…
hän päättää olla… – he/she decides to be…

So haluaa olla literally corresponds to wants to be in English.

Why are itsenäinen and aikuinen both in the basic form? Shouldn’t there be endings like itsenäisen aikuisen?

Here itsenäinen aikuinen is a predicative (a description of what he/she wants to be).

In Finnish, when you say someone is something in a general sense, both the adjective and the noun are typically in the nominative singular:

hän on itsenäinen aikuinen – he/she is an independent adult
hän on pitkä mies – he is a tall man
hän haluaa olla hyvä opettaja – she wants to be a good teacher

So itsenäinen (independent) and aikuinen (adult) stay in the basic form because they describe the subject, not e.g. a possessed object or something marked for another case.

Is itsenäinen only “independent” in a personal sense, or can it be political (like independent Finland) too?

Itsenäinen covers both:

personal / psychological: an independent adult, an independent child
- itsenäinen aikuinen – an independent adult
political / national: an independent country
- itsenäinen Suomi – independent Finland

The exact sense is determined by the noun it describes and the context. With aikuinen, it’s clearly about a person’s independence, not about politics.

What does kantaa literally mean, and why is it used with vastuu?

Literally, kantaa means to carry (physically):

kantaa kassia – to carry a bag
kantaa lasta – to carry a child

Metaphorically, it also means to bear or to shoulder something abstract, like responsibility:

kantaa vastuu / vastuunsa – to bear (one’s) responsibility

So here kantaa oman vastuunsa = to carry / bear his/her own responsibility.
This is a very common idiomatic combination in Finnish.

How is vastuunsa built up, and what does each part mean?

The base word is vastuu = responsibility.

Vastuunsa consists of:

vastuu – responsibility
-nsa – possessive suffix: his / her / their (3rd person)

So vastuunsa literally means his/her/their responsibility.

Grammatically, in this sentence vastuunsa is the direct object of kantaa (what does he/she carry? – his/her responsibility).

Why do we have both oman and the possessive suffix -nsa? Isn’t that double possession?

It is double marking in form, but it’s normal and meaningful in Finnish.

-nsa on vastuunsa says whose responsibility it is: his/her/their.
oma (here oman) adds the idea of own and emphasizes that the responsibility belongs specifically to that same person.

So:

kantaa vastuunsa – carries his/her responsibility (neutral)
kantaa oman vastuunsa – carries his/her own responsibility (emphasis on own, not someone else’s, and not avoiding it)

You can say kantaa vastuunsa without oma, but oman adds emphasis, similar to English own.

Why is it oman vastuunsa and not oma vastuunsa? What case is oman?

Oma is declined here:

oma (nominative)
oman (genitive / accusative form)

In kantaa oman vastuunsa, the whole phrase oman vastuunsa is the object of the verb kantaa (what does he/she carry?). A total object normally appears in the genitive/accusative, so the agreeing adjective oma also appears in that form: oman.

The possessed noun vastuunsa carries the possessive suffix -nsa, which often “hides” the object case ending, but the adjective oman shows that object/genitive form clearly.

Is vastuunsa singular or plural? How would you say “their responsibilities”?

Vastuunsa here is grammatically singular (from vastuu, singular).

However, the idiom kantaa vastuunsa is often understood more broadly: carry/accept one’s (share of) responsibility, which can cover multiple concrete responsibilities.

If you need an explicit plural of the noun:

vastuut – responsibilities
vastuunsa could in another context also be plural (their responsibilities), but then context must clearly support it.

For a clearly plural phrase, you might say for example:

kantaa kaikki vastuunsa – to carry all his/her responsibilities

What does ja connect here: two adjectives, or two actions?

Ja (“and”) connects two actions / infinitive phrases that share the same subject and main verb:

haluaa olla itsenäinen aikuinen
(haluaa) kantaa oman vastuunsa

So structurally it is:

Hän haluaa [olla itsenäinen aikuinen] ja [kantaa oman vastuunsa].

He/she wants to be an independent adult and to carry his/her own responsibility.

Could you leave out hän in this sentence, like in some other pro‑drop languages?

You could, and it would still be correct:

Haluaa olla itsenäinen aikuinen ja kantaa oman vastuunsa.

Finnish often drops subject pronouns when the person is clear from context and verb form. However:

In isolation (as a standalone sentence with no context), Hän haluaa… is more natural and clearer.
In a longer text where the person has already been mentioned, people frequently drop hän to avoid repetition.

So both are grammatically fine; including hän just makes the subject explicit.

Is Hän haluaa olla itsenäinen aikuinen ja kantaa oman vastuunsa formal, colloquial, or neutral? How would this sound in spoken Finnish?

As written, the sentence is standard neutral written Finnish.

In everyday colloquial spoken Finnish, it might often sound like:

Se haluu olla itsenäinen aikuinen ja kantaa oman vastuunsa.

Changes:

hän → se (very common colloquial pronoun for people)
haluaa → haluu (vowel reduction in spoken language)

The rest of the sentence is already quite natural for speech and might stay the same.