Learn Hardcore Finnish: Hän on ahkera opiskelija, eikä kukaan ole kateellinen hänelle. - She/He is a hard‑working student, and no one is jealous of her/him.

In everyday spoken Finnish, people often use se (“it”) to refer to people instead of hän, but in standard written language hän is used for people.

Why is there no word like a or the before ahkera opiskelija?

Finnish simply has no articles at all—no a/an and no the.

hän on ahkera opiskelija can mean:
- he/she is a hardworking student
- or, in the right context, even he/she is the hardworking student

Whether it feels like a or the in English comes from context, not from any special word in Finnish. So:

ahkera opiskelija = a hardworking student / the hardworking student depending on what has been said before.

In ahkera opiskelija, which word changes when I change number or case?

Both words usually change; the adjective agrees with the noun in number and case.

Here are some common forms:

Singular nominative (as in your sentence):
- ahkera opiskelija – a hardworking student
Plural nominative:
- ahkerat opiskelijat – hardworking students
Singular partitive:
- ahkeraa opiskelijaa – (of) a hardworking student
Plural partitive:
- ahkeria opiskelijoita – (of) hardworking students

General rule: the adjective ahkera and the noun opiskelija “travel together” and take the same number and case (with a few special-exception adjectives you’ll meet later).

Why is there a comma before eikä, and can I say ja ei kukaan instead of eikä kukaan?

The comma
In written Finnish, you normally put a comma between two main clauses, even if they’re joined by ja, mutta, tai, eikä, etc.:

Hän on ahkera opiskelija, eikä kukaan ole kateellinen hänelle.
Clause 1: Hän on ahkera opiskelija
Clause 2: (E)ikä kukaan ole kateellinen hänelle

eikä vs. ja ei kukaan

eikä works like “and not / nor”.
eikä kukaan ≈ and nobody / and no one.

You could say ja ei kukaan ole kateellinen hänelle, and it’s grammatically OK, but it usually sounds heavier or more emphatic. Native speakers much more often use eikä kukaan in this kind of sentence.

So the most natural written form is exactly what you have:

..., eikä kukaan ole kateellinen hänelle.

What exactly does eikä mean, and how is it formed?

eikä is the negative conjunction “and not / nor” for 3rd person singular.

It’s made from:

the negative verb ei (3rd singular: not)
plus the clitic -kä, which often adds “either / nor” type meaning

You get a mini “conjugation”:

enkä – and I do not / nor do I
etkä – and you do not / nor do you
eikä – and he/she/it does not / nor does he/she/it
emmekä, ettekä, eivätkä for the plural persons

In your sentence:

eikä kukaan ole kateellinen ≈ and no one is (not) jealous / and nobody is jealous

Why is kukaan used here, and not joku?

Both are “someone/anyone” type words, but they behave differently, especially with negation.

joku = someone (usually in positive sentences)
- Joku on kateellinen. – Someone is jealous.
kukaan is mostly used with a negative to give no one / nobody:
- Kukaan ei ole kateellinen. – No one is jealous.

Here kukaan appears with the negative verb hidden inside eikä:

eikä kukaan ole kateellinen
Literally: and not anyone is jealous → and nobody is jealous

If you said joku ei ole kateellinen, it would mean someone is not jealous (implying others maybe are), which is a different meaning.

Why is the verb ole and not on in eikä kukaan ole kateellinen?

In Finnish negation, you use:

a negative verb (ei, here inside eikä)
plus the main verb in its special negative form (the “connegative”), which for olla is ole

Compare:

Positive: Hän on kateellinen. – He/She is jealous.
Negative: Hän ei ole kateellinen. – He/She is not jealous.

In your sentence:

eikä = ei (negative, 3rd person singular) + -kä
ole is the main verb olla in its negative form
Together: eikä kukaan ole kateellinen = and nobody is jealous

If it were positive, you’d say:

Kukaan on kateellinen. – Someone / at least one person is jealous. (rare, usually rephrased in practice)

Is kukaan grammatically singular or plural? Why isn’t the verb plural?

kukaan is grammatically singular.

That’s why you get kukaan ole (with ei/eikä) and not a plural verb form.
So the structure is like: no single person (not even one) is jealous.

If you really wanted a more obviously plural-like expression, you could say:

Yksikään heistä ei ole kateellinen. – Not a single one of them is jealous.

There is also a plural form ketkään, but it’s much less common and used only in quite specific contexts. For ordinary “nobody/no one”, kukaan + singular verb is what you use.

Why is it kateellinen hänelle and not something like kateellinen häntä?

The case choice is controlled by the adjective kateellinen itself.

kateellinen (jollekin) – jealous of someone
- Olen kateellinen sinulle. – I am jealous of you.
- Kukaan ei ole hänelle kateellinen. – No one is jealous of him/her.

Here hänelle is the allative case (ending -lle), which often means “to/towards” and is used with many feeling-related adjectives:

vihainen hänelle – angry at him/her
kiitollinen hänelle – grateful to him/her
kateellinen hänelle – jealous of him/her

häntä is the partitive form of hän, and it is not used in this construction. So:

❌ kateellinen häntä – ungrammatical / wrong
✅ kateellinen hänelle – correct

Why does hänelle come at the very end of the sentence? Could it be placed earlier?

Finnish word order is more flexible than English. In this sentence:

eikä kukaan ole kateellinen hänelle

is a neutral, natural order:

subject: kukaan
verb: ole
predicate adjective: kateellinen
complement in allative: hänelle

You can move hänelle around:

Kukaan ei ole hänelle kateellinen.
Hänelle kukaan ei ole kateellinen.

The differences are mostly about emphasis and information flow:

Putting hänelle first ( Hänelle kukaan ei ole kateellinen ) emphasizes to him/her – “As for him/her, nobody is jealous (of them).”
Leaving hänelle at the end keeps the rhythm closest to English no one is jealous of him/her and is the most neutral here.

How would the second half look without eikä? Can I make two separate sentences?

Yes. Without eikä, you make a normal negative sentence with ei:

Hän on ahkera opiskelija. Kukaan ei ole kateellinen hänelle.
– He/She is a hardworking student. Nobody is jealous of him/her.

So you have two basic options:

One sentence with eikä linking the clauses:
- Hän on ahkera opiskelija, eikä kukaan ole kateellinen hänelle.
Two separate sentences with a regular negative clause:
- Hän on ahkera opiskelija. Kukaan ei ole kateellinen hänelle.

You can also start a new sentence with Eikä for stylistic emphasis (especially in narrative text):

Hän on ahkera opiskelija. Eikä kukaan ole kateellinen hänelle.

Here Eikä is capitalized because it starts a new sentence.