Finnish - English translation

Finnish to English: recover articles, people, and completion

Hän does not tell you which English gendered pronoun to choose

Finnish hän identifies a person without encoding he or she. An isolated sentence containing hän does not justify guessing the person’s gender from a job, a name, or a situation. Use a known pronoun from the surrounding exchange, repeat the person’s name, or use singular they where appropriate. The English translation should not add an identity claim absent from the Finnish original.

“Hän tulee huomenna” can be “They are coming tomorrow” when referring to one person whose gender is not specified. Singular they takes the familiar English verb form are even though the referent is one individual. Keep that person distinct from any actual plural group mentioned later in the message.

Finnish noun endings may contain the whole English location phrase

Finnish often places location or movement information in endings where English uses a preposition. “Olen Helsingissä” is “I am in Helsinki.” A different ending can express movement into a place or movement away from it. Identify that relationship before selecting in, to, or from; the bare place name is not the whole message.

This is particularly useful in travel updates. Being at a station, travelling to it, and leaving it are three different statuses. Retain the direction encoded by the Finnish form rather than smoothing every sentence into a generic English statement about being somewhere. Check whether the location belongs to the person, the event, or an item being delivered.

An object ending can reveal a completed whole

Finnish object marking can distinguish an ongoing or unbounded activity from an action directed at a completed whole. The exact interpretation depends on the verb, negation, and sentence construction; it is not a mechanical English tense switch. A sentence about reading part of a book differs from one presenting the whole book as read through.

English may need a progressive, a result phrase, or an explicit quantity to preserve this meaning. Do not assume that every partitive object means only some of the physical object. Some verbs require partitive marking independently of whether the intended real-world action sounds complete in English. Understand the construction before adding words such as partly or completely.

Add English articles without inventing a new referent

Finnish does not use articles equivalent to English a and the. English often needs one, and the choice tells readers whether an item is being introduced or is already identifiable. “Minulla on lippu” can be “I have a ticket.” If the conversation concerns one specific expected ticket, an English definite reference may instead be needed.

Also distinguish polite singular te from plural te through the conversation and agreement clues. Both usually become you, but the English message may need an explicit group reference to preserve number. Keep the request courteous without replacing every polite Finnish form with an English title.