hänet

Hänet is the direct object form of the Finnish third-person singular pronoun hän, used for both he and she. In Finnish, pronouns decline by case rather than by gender, and thus hänet marks the object of a transitive verb in affirmative clauses.

The basic object forms of the pronoun include hänet as the accusative/direct object form, and häntä as the partitive object form. Häntä is typically used after negation or with verbs that take a partitive object, for example: En nähnyt häntä. Näin hänet eilen. The genitive form of the pronoun is hänen, which is used to indicate possession (his/her), as in hänen kirjansa.

Hänet can be contrasted with häntä to reflect different object roles in sentences. The choice between the forms does not convey gender; both men and women can be referred to with hän, hänet, or häntä depending on grammatical function. This aligns with Finnish pronoun usage, where gender neutrality is maintained in standard language.

In summary, hänet is the accusative object form of the gender-neutral Finnish pronoun hän, suitable for both masculine and feminine referents. It coexists with häntä (partitive object) and hänen (genitive/possessive) to express different grammatical relationships within a sentence.