Questions & Answers about Hän haluaa elää rauhassa.
Why is hän used here, and does it mean he or she?
Hän is the Finnish third-person singular pronoun for a person. It can mean either he or she.
Finnish usually does not mark gender in third-person personal pronouns, so hän is gender-neutral in that sense. You understand whether it refers to a man or a woman from context.
A few related forms:
- minä = I
- sinä = you
- hän = he / she
- me = we
- te = you (plural)
- he = they
In everyday spoken Finnish, people often use se instead of hän, but hän is the normal written and standard form when referring to a person.
Why is it haluaa and not just halua?
Haluaa is the correct third-person singular form of the verb haluta, meaning to want.
The verb changes depending on the subject:
- minä haluan = I want
- sinä haluat = you want
- hän haluaa = he/she wants
- me haluamme = we want
- te haluatte = you want
- he haluavat = they want
So because the subject is hän, the verb must be haluaa.
This is one of the first big differences from English: Finnish verbs usually show the person clearly in their endings.