En ymmärrä, mitä hän sanoi.

I don’t understand what he/she said.

Breakdown of En ymmärrä, mitä hän sanoi.

• minä: I
• hän: he/she
• en: not
• ymmärtää: to understand
• sanoa: to say
• mitä: the (comparative)

Questions & Answers about En ymmärrä, mitä hän sanoi.

What do the individual words en, ymmärrä, mitä, hän, and sanoi mean in this sentence?

Word‑for‑word:

• en – the negative verb in 1st person singular: I do not / I don’t
• ymmärrä – the verb understand (in a special form used with the negative)
• mitä – what (here: “what (it is that)”)
• hän – he / she (Finnish does not mark gender)
• sanoi – said (3rd person singular past tense of sanoa “to say”)

Altogether: En ymmärrä, mitä hän sanoi. = “I don’t understand what he/she said.”

Why doesn’t the sentence use minä for “I”? Why is it just En ymmärrä and not Minä en ymmärrä?

Finnish usually leaves out subject pronouns when they are clear from the verb form.

• The -n ending or the negative verb form already tells you it’s I.
• En ymmärrä is therefore normally preferred in everyday speech and writing.
• Minä en ymmärrä is also correct, but it adds emphasis, like “I don’t understand (but maybe someone else does).”

What exactly is en? Is it part of the verb ymmärtää?

En is its own verb: the Finnish negative verb.

• It conjugates for person, while the main verb goes into a special bare form:
  • en ymmärrä – I don’t understand
  • et ymmärrä – you (sg) don’t understand
  • ei ymmärrä – he/she doesn’t understand
  • emme ymmärrä – we don’t understand
  • ette ymmärrä – you (pl) don’t understand
  • eivät ymmärrä – they don’t understand

So en is not a prefix; it’s a separate negative verb that works together with ymmärrä.

Why is it ymmärrä and not ymmärrän or ymmärtää?

The verb ymmärtää (“to understand”) has different forms:

• ymmärtää – dictionary / infinitive form (“to understand”)
• ymmärrän – 1st person singular, present, positive: “I understand”
• ymmärrä – the “connegative” form, used with the negative verb: “(I) don’t understand”

Finnish uses this special bare form with en / et / ei / emme / ette / eivät.

So:

• Minä ymmärrän. – I understand.
• En ymmärrä. – I don’t understand.

Why is there a comma before mitä hän sanoi?

Finnish always separates a main clause from a subordinate clause with a comma.

• En ymmärrä – main clause (“I don’t understand”)
• mitä hän sanoi – subordinate clause (“what he/she said”)

Rule: if you have something introduced by words like että (that), joka (who/which), mitä (what), etc. that forms its own clause, put a comma before it.

So the comma here is grammatical, not optional decoration:

En ymmärrä, mitä hän sanoi.

Why is it mitä and not mikä for “what” here?

Finnish has two very common “what” words: mikä and mitä.

• mikä is the basic nominative form, often used with olla (“to be”):
  
  • Mikä tämä on? – What is this?
• mitä is the partitive form and is used:
  • in many “what” questions that are not identity questions
  • in many subordinate clauses like “what he said / what you did”

In a sentence like “I don’t understand what he said”, Finnish uses mitä:

• Ymmärrän, mitä hän sanoi. – I understand what he said.
• En ymmärrä, mitä hän sanoi. – I don’t understand what he said.

So mitä hän sanoi is the natural way to say “what he said”; mikä hän sanoi would be incorrect here.

What does hän mean? Does it mean “he” or “she”?

Hän can mean he or she. Finnish personal pronouns do not mark gender.

• hän – he / she
• hänen – his / her

So:

• En ymmärrä, mitä hän sanoi. can mean:
  • “I don’t understand what he said.”
  • or “I don’t understand what she said.”

The gender must be guessed from context, or specified separately if needed.

What form is sanoi, and how is it different from sanoo or sanoin?

All are forms of sanoa (“to say”):

• hän sanoo – he/she says (present, 3rd person singular)
• hän sanoi – he/she said (past, 3rd person singular)
• sanoin – I said (past, 1st person singular)

In En ymmärrä, mitä hän sanoi. we have sanoi:

• It tells you the “saying” happened in the past: “what he/she said” (earlier).

Can I change the tenses, for example to “I didn’t understand what he said” or “I don’t understand what he is saying”?

Yes. Some common variations:

1. En ymmärtänyt, mitä hän sanoi.

   • “I didn’t understand what he said.”
   • Both the not-understanding and the saying are in the past.

2. En ymmärrä, mitä hän sanoo.

   • “I don’t understand what he is saying.” (now, ongoing)
   • Main verb present, subordinate verb present.

3. En ymmärtänyt, mitä hän sanoo.

   • “I didn’t understand what he (usually) says / says (in general).”
   • Less common; sounds somewhat specific in context.

Your original sentence:

• En ymmärrä, mitä hän sanoi.
  = “I don’t understand what he/she said (earlier).”
  Present lack of understanding about a past statement.

Could I say En ymmärrä mitä hän sanoi without the comma?

In careful written Finnish, the comma should be there:

• En ymmärrä, mitä hän sanoi.

In informal writing (texts, chats), people sometimes skip commas, but that’s considered incorrect in standard language.

In speech, of course, there is no written comma, but you often hear a small pause before mitä that corresponds to the comma.

Can I change the word order to En ymmärrä, mitä sanoi hän?

In normal modern Finnish, that word order is strange or poetic.

• Neutral, natural word order:
  
  • En ymmärrä, mitä hän sanoi.

Putting hän after the verb (mitä sanoi hän) might appear in:

• very old‑fashioned / poetic language, or
• songs / lyrics / stylized texts.

For everyday Finnish, keep hän before sanoi in this type of clause.

Could I just say En ymmärrä on its own?

Yes. En ymmärrä. by itself simply means “I don’t understand.”

• En ymmärrä. – I don’t understand.
• En ymmärrä, mitä hän sanoi. – I don’t understand what he/she said.

The longer sentence gives the specific thing you don’t understand. The shorter one is more general and is often used in conversation when you’re confused or didn’t catch something.