Hänen kommenttinsa oli ystävällinen, joten opettaja vastasi nopeasti.

Her/His comment was friendly, so the teacher replied quickly.

Breakdown of Hänen kommenttinsa oli ystävällinen, joten opettaja vastasi nopeasti.

• olla: to be
• joten: so
• nopeasti: quickly
• vastata: to answer
• opettaja: the teacher
• ystävällinen: friendly
• hänen: her/his
• kommentti: the comment

Questions & Answers about Hänen kommenttinsa oli ystävällinen, joten opettaja vastasi nopeasti.

What does hänen mean here, and does it show gender like “his” vs. “her”?

Hänen is the genitive form of hän, the Finnish third‑person singular pronoun. It corresponds to his or her in English.

Finnish does not mark gender in pronouns.
So hänen kommenttinsa can mean:

• his comment
• her comment

Only context tells you which one it is.

Why is it hänen kommenttinsa and not just hänen kommentti for “his/her comment”?

In standard Finnish, possession is usually marked twice:

1. With a genitive pronoun or noun: hänen (his/her), Marian (Maria’s), etc.
2. With a possessive suffix attached to the noun: -ni, -si, -mme, -nne, -nsA.

Here:

• kommentti = comment
• kommentti + nsa → kommenttinsa = his/her comment
• hänen kommenttinsa literally: the comment of him/her.

So:

• hänen kommentti – feels incomplete/wrong in standard written Finnish
• hänen kommenttinsa – standard and natural
• kommenttinsa alone – also possible if the owner is clear from context

In speech, people sometimes say only hänen kommentti (without the suffix), but that’s colloquial, not standard.

What exactly does the ending -nsa in kommenttinsa do?

The ending -nsa / -nsä is the 3rd person possessive suffix. It means his / her / its / their depending on context.

• kirja = book
• kirjansa = his/her/their book
• kommentti = comment
• kommenttinsa = his/her/their comment

Key points:

• It always attaches to the end of the noun (or noun phrase head).
• It follows vowel harmony: -nsa after back vowels (a, o, u), -nsä after front vowels (ä, ö, y).
• It doesn’t show number or gender; those come from context.

Why is the verb oli used instead of on?

Oli is the past tense of olla (to be).

• on = is (present)
• oli = was (past)

So:

• Hänen kommenttinsa on ystävällinen = His/Her comment is friendly.
• Hänen kommenttinsa oli ystävällinen = His/Her comment was friendly.

The sentence is telling you about something that already happened, so Finnish uses the past tense oli.

Why is ystävällinen in this basic form? Shouldn’t it have a case ending?

Ystävällinen is an adjective meaning friendly. Here it is a predicative after the verb olla (to be):

• kommenttinsa (subject)
• oli (verb)
• ystävällinen (predicative adjective)

In Finnish, when you say “X is Y” and Y is an adjective describing X, that adjective is normally:

• in nominative singular (no extra ending), and
• it agrees in number with the subject.

So:

• Kommentti oli ystävällinen. = The comment was friendly.
• Kommentit olivat ystävällisiä. = The comments were friendly.

Here the subject (kommenttinsa) is singular, so ystävällinen also appears in the singular nominative form with no added case ending.

What does joten mean, and how is it different from koska?

Joten is a conjunction that means so / therefore / thus. It introduces a result or consequence:

• Hänen kommenttinsa oli ystävällinen, joten opettaja vastasi nopeasti.
  = His/Her comment was friendly, so the teacher answered quickly.

Koska means because and introduces a reason:

• Opettaja vastasi nopeasti, koska hänen kommenttinsa oli ystävällinen.
  = The teacher answered quickly because his/her comment was friendly.

The meaning relationship is similar, but:

• joten: consequence → “so / therefore”
• koska: cause → “because”

Also note: in Finnish you must put a comma before joten, because it connects two independent clauses.

Why is it opettaja vastasi nopeasti and not something like opettaja nopeasti vastasi? Is the word order fixed?

Finnish word order is fairly flexible, but there is a neutral, typical order:

subject – verb – (objects) – adverbs

So the neutral version is:

• Opettaja vastasi nopeasti.
  The teacher answered quickly.

You can move nopeasti for emphasis or style:

• Opettaja nopeasti vastasi. – puts extra emphasis on quickly, sounds a bit poetic or marked.
• Nopeasti opettaja vastasi. – also emphasises how quickly.

For a learner, it’s best to stick to the neutral subject–verb–adverb order unless you have a reason to highlight something.

What does vastasi mean, and how is it formed?

Vastasi is the past tense (preterite) of the verb vastata (to answer, to reply), in the 3rd person singular.

Verb: vastata (to answer)

• Stem: vasta-
• Past tense marker: -i-
• 3rd person singular ending: ∅ (no extra ending)

Conjugation (past):

• minä vastasin – I answered
• sinä vastasit – you answered
• hän vastasi – he/she answered
• me vastasimme – we answered
• te vastasitte – you (pl.) answered
• he vastasivat – they answered

So opettaja vastasi = the teacher answered / responded.

Why is nopeasti used instead of nopea or something like “quick”?

Nopea is an adjective = quick, fast.
Nopeasti is an adverb = quickly, fast (in how you do something).

In Finnish, many adverbs are formed by adding -sti to the adjective root:

• nopea (quick) → nopeasti (quickly)
• hidas (slow) → hitaasti (slowly)
• selvä (clear) → selvästi (clearly)

English often distinguishes adjectives and adverbs with -ly; Finnish often does it with -sti.

Because vastasi needs an adverb describing how the teacher answered, the adverb form nopeasti is used:

• Opettaja vastasi nopeasti. = The teacher answered quickly.

Why doesn’t opettaja have an article like “the teacher” or “a teacher”?

Finnish does not have articles like a / an / the at all.

• opettaja can mean a teacher or the teacher, depending only on context.

In this sentence, it’s naturally understood as the teacher, because:

• We are talking about a specific teacher who is reacting to that specific comment.

So you must add articles in English, but in Finnish you simply use opettaja.

Could you drop hänen and just say Kommenttinsa oli ystävällinen, joten opettaja vastasi nopeasti?

Yes, that is grammatically possible:

• Kommenttinsa oli ystävällinen, joten opettaja vastasi nopeasti.

In that version, kommenttinsa still clearly means his/her comment, thanks to the possessive suffix -nsa.

Differences:

• Hänen kommenttinsa – slightly clearer and a bit more explicit, very normal in written Finnish.
• Kommenttinsa (without hänen) – still correct; whether it’s natural depends on context and style.

If the owner has already been clearly mentioned, Finnish often drops hänen and keeps just the suffix. For learners, hänen kommenttinsa is a safe, clear form to use.