hän

See also: haen, -hän, and Appendix:Variations of "han"

Finnish

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *hän, from Proto-Finno-Ugric *sän. Cognates include Erzya сон (son).

In practically all dialects (except potentially Ingrian Finnish), se is the most common third-person pronoun for people, and this is also reflected in colloquial Finnish. hän was most often used in indirect speech (as a logophoric pronoun), potentially with a nuance of doubt or disbelief, although in southwestern, southeastern and far northern eastern dialects it was used more widely in subordinate clauses. The use of hän as a general third-person pronoun may thus be a literary feature.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhæn/, [ˈhæn]

• Audio:

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• Audio:

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• Rhymes: -æn
• Hyphenation^(key): hän

Pronoun

hän

1. (personal) he, she, one, (singular) they (only of a human being; the pronoun does not determine the sex/gender of the person)
2. he, she, one, they, it (in indirect speech: referring to the subject of the main clause, regardless of whether they are a human being or not, i.e. logophoric pronoun)

Usage notes

• In standard Finnish, hän is generally not omitted, despite the verb showing both the person and the number (compare the usage of he (“they pl”)). This is in contrast to the first and second person pronouns which may freely be omitted, with the person being implied by the verb form.
• In colloquial and dialectal Finnish, the inanimate (demonstrative) pronoun se is mostly used instead of hän, the latter being reserved for certain particular uses such as to indicate that another speaker is being paraphrased. Yet in some others (such as Kven), both pronouns are used in the same role.

Declension

• Irregular. The comitative and instructive forms don't exist; the abessive is hardly used. To be more precise: the singular stem is declined like type 32 (sisar) in the singular cases, except for the accusative singular form hänet (see following note).
• In addition to the standard set of cases, hän and the other personal pronouns have a specific accusative form, hänet. This form would have been the nominative plural form of the first stem, if the word were not a personal pronoun.
• The shorter forms hällä, hältä and hälle exist for the adessive, ablative and allative respectively, but these are dated or jocular except in poetic use and some set phrases.

Declension of hän noun case singular plural nominative hän he genitive hänen heidän partitive häntä heitä accusative hänet heidät inessive hänessä heissä elative hänestä heistä illative häneen heihin adessive hänellä heillä ablative häneltä heiltä allative hänelle heille essive hänenä heinä translative häneksi heiksi abessive hänettä heittä instructive – – comitative – –

Synonyms

• se (colloquial)

Derived terms

• hänenlainen
• hänenlaisensa

 

compounds

• hän-kertoja
• hän-muotoinen

 

Descendants

• Kven: hän

See also

Finnish personal pronouns

	first	second		third
		familiar	polite
singular	minä	sinä	Te	hän
plural	me	te		he

Further reading

• “hän”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[2] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02

Ingrian

Pronunciation

• (Ala-Laukaa) IPA^(key): /ˈhæn/, [ˈhæn]
• (Soikkola) IPA^(key): /ˈhæn/, [ˈhæn]
• (Hevaha) IPA^(key): /ˈhæn/, [ˈhæn]
• Rhymes: -æn
• Hyphenation: hän

Pronoun

hän

1. (dialectal) Alternative form of hää
   • 1936, N. A. Iljin and V. I. Junus, Bukvari iƶoroin șkouluja vart, Leningrad: Riikin Ucebno-pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva, page 46:

     Toisille hän lapsille esimerkin näyttää.

     He sets an example for the other children.

References

• Ruben E. Nirvi (1971) Inkeroismurteiden Sanakirja, Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, page 84
• Arvo Laanest (1997) Isuri keele Hevaha murde sõnastik, Eesti Keele Instituut, page 41

Kven

Etymology

From Finnish hän, from Proto-Finnic *hän.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhæn/

Pronoun

hän

1. he, she (animate)

Declension

Declension of hän singular plural nominative hän het genitive hänen heiđän, heän partitive häntä heitä accusative hänen heiđät, heät illative hänheen heihin inessive hänessä heissä elative hänestä heistä allative hänele, hänelet, hälle, hället heile, heilet adessive hänelä, hällä heillä ablative häneltä, hältä heiltä translative hänenä heinä essive häneksi heiksi abessive hänettä heittä

Synonyms

• se

See also

Kven personal pronouns

	first	second	third anim	third anim or inan
singular	mie	sie	hän	se
plural	met	tet	het	net

References

• Eira Söderholm (2017) Kvensk grammatikk, Tromsø: Cappelen Damm Akademisk, →ISBN, page 276

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse héðan, with influence from Middle Low German hen (“away”), both ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *hiz (“this”).

Adverb

hän

1. (often somewhat solemn) away, hence (and often by implication to somewhere else)

   Han gick hän

   He walked away/hence (also a euphemism for died)

   Vi åkte hän till Säffle

   We went away/hence to Säffle (redundant, somewhat poetic or jocular)

   Hän mot nya mål!

   Away towards new goals!

Synonyms

• hädan

Related terms

• hänföra
• hänseende
• hänskjuta
• hänsyn

See also

• bära hän

Further reading

• hän in Svensk ordbok.

Veps

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *hän, from Proto-Finno-Ugric *sän. Cognate to Hungarian ő. False cognate with Swedish han.

Pronoun

hän (genitive hänen, partitive händast)

1. he, she

Inflection

Inflection of hän
nominative sing.	hän
genitive sing.	hänen
partitive sing.	händast
partitive plur.	heid
	singular	plural
nominative	hän	hö
accusative	hänen	hö
genitive	hänen	heiden
partitive	händast	heid
essive-instructive	—	—
translative	—	—
inessive	hänes	heiš
elative	hänespäi	heišpäi
illative	hänehe	heihe
adessive	hänel	heil
ablative	hänelpäi	heilpäi
allative	hänele	heile
abessive	häneta	heita
comitative	hänenke	heidenke
prolative	—	—
approximative I	—	—
approximative II	—	—
egressive	—	—
terminative I	—	—
terminative II	—	—
terminative III	—	—
additive I	—	—
additive II	—	—

References

• Zajceva, N. G., Mullonen, M. I. (2007) “он”, in Uz’ venä-vepsläine vajehnik / Novyj russko-vepsskij slovarʹ [New Russian–Veps Dictionary]‎^[3], Petrozavodsk: Periodika