Breakdown of He kuuntelevat toistensa mielipiteitä rauhassa.
Questions & Answers about He kuuntelevat toistensa mielipiteitä rauhassa.
He is the basic subject pronoun “they” in Finnish, in the nominative case. It’s just like he / she / they as subjects in English.
- He = they (subject form, “who does something”)
- Heidän = their (possessive form, “whose something”)
In this sentence the possessive idea (“each other’s opinions”) is already expressed by toistensa, so you do not use Heidän.
So:
- He kuuntelevat… = They listen… ✅
- Heidän kuuntelevat… ❌ (ungrammatical as a subject)
Finnish verbs agree with the subject in person and number.
The dictionary form is kuunnella (“to listen”). The present tense stem is kuuntele-, and the personal ending for they (3rd person plural) is -vat / -vät:
- minä kuuntelen – I listen
- sinä kuuntelet – you (sg) listen
- hän kuuntelee – he / she listens
- me kuuntelemme – we listen
- te kuuntelette – you (pl) listen
- he kuuntelevat – they listen
So with he you must use kuuntelevat, not kuuntelee (which is only for hän).
This is a common confusion. The dictionary form kuunnella and the present tense stem kuuntele- look different, but they are related by a regular sound change.
- Infinitive: kuunnella (with nn)
- Present stem: kuuntele- → kuuntelevat
The nn of kuunnella alternates with nt in many forms. You can see the same kind of alternation in other verbs and words, for example:
- mennä → menette (you go)
- tunnen → tuntea
So you don’t say he kuunnellat or he kuunnelevat; the correct present plural is he kuuntelevat.
Toistensa is a special reciprocal form meaning “each other’s” / “one another’s.”
The base word is toinen = the other / another / one of the two.
To express “each other’s (something)”, Finnish uses the genitive plural form:
- toinen (one / the other)
- toiset (the others)
- toistensa (of each other, each other’s) → genitive plural
So:
- toistensa mielipiteitä = each other’s opinions
If you said Heidän mielipiteitään, that would be their opinions in general, without emphasizing each other. Toistensa specifically highlights reciprocity: they listen to one another’s opinions.
Mielipiteitä is the partitive plural of mielipide (“opinion”).
- Nominative plural: mielipiteet
- Partitive plural: mielipiteitä
The verb kuunnella (“to listen to”) typically takes its object in the partitive because listening is an ongoing, non-completed activity; you’re not “finishing” all the opinions, you’re just listening to some amount of them.
Compare:
- He kuuntelevat musiikkia. – They listen to music. (partitive)
- He kuuntelevat toistensa mielipiteitä. – They listen to each other’s opinions. (partitive)
Using mielipiteet here would sound unnatural or wrong. You almost always use the partitive with kuunnella for things like music, speech, opinions, etc.
No, that sounds wrong in normal Finnish.
Mielipiteet (nominative plural) would suggest a more total, completed object (“all the opinions as a complete set”). But kuunnella prefers the partitive because of the nature of “listening” as an ongoing activity.
Natural options:
- He kuuntelevat toistensa mielipiteitä. ✅
- He kuuntelevat toistensa neuvoja. (they listen to each other’s advice) ✅
Using a nominative plural object with kuunnella is very rare and would require a special, marked context; for a learner, it’s safest to treat kuunnella + partitive as the rule.
Rauhassa is the inessive case of rauha (“peace”), literally “in peace.” In this sentence it functions like an adverbial, describing how they listen: calmly, in a peaceful way, without disturbance.
- rauha – peace
- rauhassa – in peace / peacefully (inessive singular)
You could roughly paraphrase:
- He kuuntelevat toistensa mielipiteitä rauhassa.
≈ They listen to each other’s opinions in peace / calmly / without rushing.
There is also an adverb rauhallisesti (“calmly”), but rauhassa is very common and idiomatic in this kind of sentence.
Yes, Finnish word order is quite flexible, and your example is grammatically fine.
Both are natural:
- He kuuntelevat toistensa mielipiteitä rauhassa.
- He kuuntelevat rauhassa toistensa mielipiteitä.
The neutral emphasis is similar in both; placement can slightly affect which element feels more highlighted, but there is no big meaning change here. Adverbials like rauhassa can usually move around freely:
- Rauhassa he kuuntelevat toistensa mielipiteitä. (now rauhassa is more in focus)
You can say He kuuntelevat toisiaan, but the meaning changes slightly.
He kuuntelevat toisiaan. = They listen to each other.
(focus on the people, the act of listening to one another)He kuuntelevat toistensa mielipiteitä. = They listen to each other’s opinions.
(focus specifically on the opinions as the object)
Both are grammatical and natural; the original sentence specifically highlights that they respect and pay attention to what the others think.
You can drop He, and the sentence is still grammatical:
- Kuuntelevat toistensa mielipiteitä rauhassa.
Finnish often drops subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows the person and number. However, including He is very common and can:
- make the subject clearer in longer texts
- add a bit of emphasis to they (as opposed to someone else)
So both are possible; the version with He is slightly more explicit.
Finnish has two common “they” pronouns:
- he – “they” for people (standard written Finnish)
- ne – “they” for things / animals / non-humans, but also very widely used for people in spoken Finnish
In standard written language, with people as the subject, you use he:
- He kuuntelevat toistensa mielipiteitä rauhassa. ✅ (standard)
In everyday spoken Finnish, people very often say:
- Ne kuuntelee toistensa mielipiteitä rauhassa.
(spoken style: ne- singular verb kuuntelee)
As a learner writing standard Finnish, stick with:
- he kuuntelevat for people
- ne ovat vanhat kirjat (they are the old books) for inanimate things
The base noun is mielipide (“opinion”). The plural stem is mielipite-, and the partitive plural ending is -itä:
- Singular nominative: mielipide
- Plural nominative: mielipiteet
- Plural partitive: mielipiteitä
So the building steps are:
- mielipide → plural stem mielipite-
- mielipite-
- -itä → mielipiteitä
The combination -e + -itä is a common pattern for many -e nouns in the plural partitive:
- kappale → kappaleita (pieces)
- huone → huoneita (rooms)
- mielipide → mielipiteitä (opinions)