# who is hän?



## agriprop

Pienessä kilvessä luki "valvoja". Sen tarkoittama mies ei vaivautunut katsomaan *häneen kysyessään*: "Minne?"

Who is 'häneen' refering to, valvoja or another (aforementioned protagonist) man? I can only guess from the context that makes most sense, but not from the sentence itself..
How to distinguish between both cases?

And why 'häneen' but not hänen?


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## sakvaka

It refers to another person, the protagonist. Had the case been different, the writer would've said _ei vaivautunut katsomaan *itseensä*_ (to look at him*self*).

_Häneen_ is the illative form of "hän". The case corresponds the English preposition 'at' here. Direct object (partitive) could've also been used, but with this verb, illative object signifies "a short period of time", partitive "a longer period of time" or "continuous action", and accusative "completely".


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## Hakro

agriprop said:


> And why 'häneen' but not hänen?


"... häneen" - This man didn't bother to look at him (the protagonist) when asking: Where(to)?
"... hänen" - This man didn't bother to look (at what?) when he (the protagonist) asked: Where(to)?

The latter interpretation is obviously wrong.


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## agriprop

thanks!


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