| Finnish: jonkun '''puolesta''' | 'on behalf of somebody'|} The noun (or pronoun) can be omitted when there is a possessive suffix:
As with verbs, the pronoun cannot be omitted in the third person (singular or plural):
Finnish: Olin _ mukanasi "I was with you"
but Finnish: Olin '''hänen''' mukanaan "I was with him/her"
Finnish: Tulen _ mukaanne "I will come with you (plural or polite)"
but Finnish: Tulen '''heidän''' mukanaan "I will come with them"
Prepositions
There are few important prepositions in Finnish. In prepositional phrases the noun is always in the partitive:
| + Prepositions | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: '''ennen''' joulua | before Christmas | | Finnish: '''ilman''' sinua | without you | |
Some postpositions can also be used as prepositions:
| + Postpositions as prepositions | | Postposition | Preposition | English |
|---|
| Finnish: kylän '''keskellä''' | Finnish: '''keskellä''' kylää | in the middle of the village | |
Using postpositions as prepositions is not strictly incorrect and occurs in poetry, as in, for example, the song "Finnish: Alla vaahterapuun" "under a maple tree", instead the usual Finnish: vaahterapuun alla.
Verb forms
See main article: Finnish verb conjugation. Finnish verbs are usually divided into seven groups depending on the stem type. All seven types have the same set of endings, but the stems undergo (slightly) different changes when inflected.
There are very few irregular verbs in Finnish. In fact, only Finnish: olla = 'to be' has two irregular forms Finnish: on "is" and Finnish: ovat "are "; other forms follow from the stem Finnish: ole–/ol–; e.g. Finnish: olet ← Finnish: ole+t "you are", Finnish: olkoon ← Finnish: ol+koon "let it be". A handful of verbs, including Finnish: nähdä "to see", Finnish: tehdä "to do/make", and Finnish: juosta "to run" have rare consonant mutation patterns which are not derivable from the infinitive. In spoken Finnish, some frequently used verbs (Finnish: mennä, tulla, olla, panna) have irregular stems (Finnish: mee, tuu, oo, paa, instead of Finnish: mene, tule, ole, pane ("go, come, be, put"), respectively).
Finnish does not have a separate verb for possession (compare English "to have"). Possession is indicated in other ways, mainly by genitives and existential clauses. For animate possessors, the adessive case is used with Finnish: olla, for example Finnish: koiralla on häntä = 'the dog has a tail' – literally 'on the dog is a tail', or in English grammar, "There is a tail on the dog". This is similar to Irish and Welsh forms such as "There is a hunger on me".
Tense-aspect forms
Finnish verbs have present, imperfect, perfect and pluperfect tense-aspect forms.
- Present (nonpast): corresponds to English present and future tense forms. For the latter, a time qualifier may need to be used to avoid ambiguity. The present is formed with using the personal suffixes only. For example, Finnish: otan "I take" (from Finnish: ottaa, "to take").
- Imperfect: actually a preterite, but called "imperfect" for historical reasons; corresponds to English past continuous and past simple, indicating a past action which is complete but might have been a point event, a temporally extended event, or a repeated event. The imperfect is formed with the suffix Finnish: -i- in addition to the personal suffixes, e.g. Finnish: otin "I took".
- Perfect: corresponds to the English present perfect ("I have eaten") in most of its usages, but can carry more sense than in English of a past action with present effects. The form uses the verb Finnish: olla "to be" in the present tense as an auxiliary verb. Personal suffixes are added to the auxiliary, while the main verb is in the Finnish: -nut/-nyt participle form. For example, Finnish: olen ottanut "I have taken", where Finnish: ole- is the auxiliary verb stem, Finnish: -n is the personal suffix for "I", Finnish: otta- is the stem for the main verb, and Finnish: -nut is the participle marker.
- Pluperfect: corresponds to the English past perfect ("I had visited") in its usage. Similarly to perfect, the verb Finnish: olla is used in the past tense as an auxiliary verb. For example, Finnish: olin ottanut "I had taken".
As stated above, Finnish has no grammatical future tense. To indicate futurity, a Finnish speaker may use forms that are, by some, deprecated as ungrammatical. One is the use of the verb Finnish: tulla, 'to come', as it were as an auxiliary: Finnish: Tämä tulee olemaan ongelma 'This is going to be a problem', cf Swedish Swedish: Det här kommer att vara ett problem. Another, less common and now archaic, is to use the verb Finnish: olla, 'to be', with the present passive participle of the main verb: Finnish: Hän on oleva suuri Jumalan mies 'For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord' (Luke 1:15).
Voices
Finnish has two possible verb voices: active and passive. The active voice corresponds with the active voice of English, but the Finnish passive voice has some important differences from the English passive voice.
Passive voice
The so-called Finnish passive is impersonal and unipersonal, that is, it only appears in one form regardless of who is implicitly understood to be the performer of the action. In that respect, it could be described as a "fourth person" since there is no way of connecting the action performed with a particular agent (except for some nonstandard forms; see below). It is called "passive" for historical reasons in imitation of Swedish and Latin grammars, but this term is in fact incorrect because the object of an active sentence remains an object in the equivalent Finnish "passive" sentence, in other words, the Finnish "passive" sentence is in fact active. In languages with true passives, an active sentence's object becomes the subject in the equivalent passive sentence. Active: Finnish: me pidätämme hänet "we will arrest him" => passive: Finnish: pidätetään hänet "he will be arrested".
Consider the example: Finnish: talo maalataan "the house will be painted". The time when the house is being painted could be added: Finnish: talo maalataan '''marraskuussa''' "the house will be painted in November". The colour and method could be added: Finnish: talo maalataan '''punaiseksi harjalla''' "the house will be painted red with a brush". But nothing can be said about the person who will do the painting; there is no simple way to say "the house will be painted by Jim". There is a calque, evidently from Swedish, Finnish: toimesta "by the action of", that can be used to introduce the agent: Finnish: Talo maalataan Jimin toimesta, approximately "The house will be painted by the action of Jim". This type of expression is considered prescriptively incorrect, but it may be found wherever direct translations from Swedish, English, etc. are made, especially in legal texts, and has traditionally been a typical feature of Finnish "officialese". An alternative form, passive + ablative, also a calque from Swedish, was once common but is now archaic.
Notice also that the object is in the form of the accusative that has the same form as the nominative case (which is true of all words except for the personal pronouns). Verbs which govern the partitive case continue to do so in the passive, and where the object of the action is a personal pronoun in the accusative, that goes into its special accusative form: Finnish: minut/sinut/hänet/meidät/teidät/heidät unohdettiin "I/you/(s)he/we/you/they was/were forgotten". Whether the object of a passive verb should be termed the subject of the clause has been debated, but traditionally Finnish grammars have considered a passive clause to have no subject.
Use of the passive voice is not as common in Finnish as in Germanic languages; sentences in the active voice are preferred, if possible. Confusion may result, as the agent is lost and becomes ambiguous. For instance, a bad translation of the English "the PIN code is asked for by the device when..." into Finnish: PIN-koodia kysytään, kun... raises the question "who asks?", whereas Finnish: laite kysyy PIN-koodia, kun... ("the device asks for the PIN code when...") is unambiguous. Nevertheless, this usage of the passive is common in Finnish, particularly in literary and official contexts. Occasionally this leads to extreme cases such as Finnish: kaupunginhallitus halutaan erottaa "it is wanted that the municipal board be dismissed", implying that a popular uprising could be near, when this suggestion could also be made by a political group in the town council consisting of only a few or theoretically (very unlikely because misleading) even a single person.[2]
It can also be said that in the Finnish passive the agent is always human and never mentioned. A sentence such as 'the tree was blown down' would translate poorly into Finnish if the passive were used, since it would suggest the image of a group of people trying to blow the tree down.
Colloquially, the first-person plural indicative and imperative are replaced by the passive, e.g. Finnish: menemme meille ("we'll go to our place") and Finnish: menkäämme meille ("let us go to our place") are replaced by Finnish: mennään meille (see spoken Finnish).[3]
Because of its vagueness about who is performing the action, the passive can also translate the English "one does (something)", "(something) is generally done", as in Finnish: sanotaan että... "they say that..."
Formation of the passive is dealt with in the article on Finnish verb conjugation.
As first-person plural
In modern colloquial Finnish, the passive form of the verb is used instead of the active first-person plural in the indicative and the imperative, to the almost complete exclusion of the standard verb forms. For example, in the indicative, the standard form is Finnish: me menemme 'we are going', but the colloquial form is Finnish: me mennään. Without the personal pronoun Finnish: me, the passive alone replaces the first-person plural imperative, as in Finnish: Mennään! 'Let's go!'. In colloquial speech, the pronoun Finnish: me cannot be omitted without confusion, unlike when using the standard forms Finnish: menemme (indicative) and Finnish: menkäämme (imperative).
Zero person
The so-called "zero person" is a construct in which a verb appears in the third-person singular with no subject, and the identity of the subject must be understood from the context. Typically the implied subject is either the speaker or their interlocutor, or the statement is intended in a general sense. The zero person has some similarity to the English use of the formal subject Finnish: one.
- Finnish: Saunassa hikoilee "In the sauna, one sweats"
- Finnish: Jos tulee ajoissa, saa paremman paikan "If you arrive in good time, you get a better seat"
Indicative
The indicative is the form of the verb used for making statements or asking simple questions. In the verb morphology sections, the mood referred to will be the indicative unless otherwise stated.
Conditional
The conditional mood expresses the idea that the action or state expressed by the verb may or may not actually happen. As in English, the Finnish conditional is used in conditional sentences (for example "I would tell you if I knew") and in polite requests (for example "I would like some coffee").
In the former case, and unlike in English, the conditional must be used in both halves of the Finnish sentence:
Finnish: ymmärtäisin jos puhuisit hitaammin = *"I would understand if you would speak more slowly".
The characteristic morphology of the Finnish conditional is 'isi' inserted between the verb stem and the personal ending. This can result in a closed syllable becoming open and so trigger consonant gradation:
Finnish: tiedän = 'I know', Finnish: tietäisin = 'I would know'.
Finnish: haluan = 'I want', Finnish: haluaisin = 'I would like'.
Conditional forms exist for both active and passive voices, and for present tense and perfect.
The conditional can be used for added politeness when offering, requesting, or pleading: Finnish: Ottaisitko kahvia? 'Would you like some coffee?'; Finnish: Saisinko tuon punaisen? 'May I have that red one?'; Finnish: Kertoisit nyt 'I do wish you would tell me'.
Imperative
The imperative mood is used to express commands. In Finnish, there is only one tense form (the present-future). The possible variants of Finnish imperatives are:
- 1st, 2nd or 3rd person
- singular or plural
- active or passive
- positive or negative
Active, 2nd-person imperatives
These are the most common forms of the imperative: "Do this", "Don't do that".
The singular imperative is simply the verb's present tense without any personal ending (that is, remove the Finnish: -n from the first-person-singular form):
| + Active, 2nd-person imperatives | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: tule! | 'come!' | | Finnish: syö! | 'eat!' | | Finnish: huomaa! | 'note!' | |
To make this negative, Finnish: älä (which is the active imperative singular 2nd person of the negative verb) is placed before the positive form:
| Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: älä sano! | 'don't say!' | | Finnish: älä mene! | 'don't go!' | | Finnish: älä valehtele! | 'don't lie!'
(from Finnish: valehdella "to lie", type II) | |
To form the plural, add Finnish: -kaa or Finnish: -kää to the verb's stem:
| Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: tulkaa! | 'come!' | | Finnish: juokaa! | 'drink!' | | Finnish: mitatkaa! | 'measure!'
(from Finnish: mitata "to measure", type IV) | |
To make this negative, Finnish: älkää (which is the active imperative present plural 2nd person of the negative verb) is placed before the positive form and the suffix Finnish: -ko or Finnish: -kö is added to the verb stem:
| Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: älkää sanoko! | 'don't say!' | | Finnish: älkää menkö! | 'don't go!' | | Finnish: älkää tarjotko! | 'don't offer!' | |
Note that 2nd-person-plural imperatives can also be used as polite imperatives when referring to one person.
The Finnish language has no simple equivalent to the English "please". The Finnish equivalent is to use either Finnish: ole hyvä or Finnish: olkaa hyvä = 'be good', but it is generally omitted. Politeness is normally conveyed by tone of voice, facial expression, and use of conditional verbs and partitive nouns. For example, Finnish: voisitteko means "could you", in the polite plural, and is used much like English "Could you..." sentences: Finnish: voisitteko auttaa "could you help me, please?"
Also, familiar (and not necessarily so polite) expressions can be added to imperatives, e.g. Finnish: menes, Finnish: menepä, Finnish: menehän. These are hard to translate exactly, but extensively used by Finnish speakers themselves. Finnish: Menes implies expectation, that is, it has been settled already and requires no discussion; Finnish: menepä has the Finnish: -pa which indicates insistence, and Finnish: -hän means approximated "indeed".
Passive imperatives
| + Passive imperatives | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: tehtäköön | let (something) be done | | Finnish: älköön tehtäkö | let (something) not be done | | Finnish: olkoon tehty | let (something) have been done | | Finnish: älköön olko tehty | let (something) not have been done | |
3rd-person imperatives
The 3rd-person imperatives behave as if they were jussive; besides being used for commands, they can also be used to express permission. In colloquial language, they are most often used to express disregard to what one might or might not do, and the singular and plural forms are often confused.
| + 3rd-person imperatives | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: olkoon | 'let it (him, her) be' | | Finnish: tehkööt | 'let them do' | | Finnish: älköön unohtako | 'let him not forget', 'he'd better not forget' | | Finnish: älkööt unohtako | 'let them not forget' | |
1st-person-plural imperatives
| + 1st-person-plural imperatives | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: menkäämme | 'let's go' | | Finnish: älkäämme tehkö | 'let us not do', 'we better not do' | |
The 1st-person imperative sounds archaic, and a form resembling the passive indicative is often used instead: Finnish: mennään! = 'let's go!'
Optative
The optative mood is an archaic or poetic variant of the imperative mood that expresses hopes or wishes. It is not used in normal language.
| + Optative | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: ollos | if only/that/would you were | |
Potential
The potential mood is used to express that the action or state expressed by the verb is possible but not certain. It is relatively rare in modern Finnish, especially in speech. Most commonly it is used in news reports and in official written proposals in meetings. It has only the present tense and perfect. The potential has no specific counterpart in English, but can be translated by adding "possibly" (or occasionally "probably") to the verb.
The characteristic morphology of the Finnish potential is Finnish: -ne-, inserted between the verb stem and the personal ending. Before this affix, continuants assimilate progressively (Finnish: pes+ne- → Finnish: pesse-) and stops regressively (Finnish: korjat+ne- → Finnish: korjanne-). The verb Finnish: olla 'to be' in the potential has the special suppletive form Finnish: lie-, e.g. the potential of Finnish: on haettu 'has been fetched' is Finnish: lienee haettu 'may have been fetched'.
Potential forms exists for both active and passive voices, and for present tense and perfect:
| + Potential | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: lienen | I may be/it's possible that I am | | Finnish: pessee | she may wash/she is [likely] to wash | | Finnish: korjannee | she may fix/she is [likely] to fix | | Finnish: surrevat | it is possible that they are mourning/will mourn | | Finnish: se pestäneen | it will probably be washed (by someone) | | Finnish: lienette nähneet | you may have seen | | Finnish: ei liene annettu | possibly may not have been given (by someone) | |
In some dialects Finnish: tullee ('may come') is an indicative form verb (Finnish: tulee 'comes'). This is not a potential form, but rather due to secondary gemination.
Eventive
No longer used in modern Finnish, the eventive mood is used in the Kalevala. It is a combination of the potential and the conditional. It is also used in some dialects of Estonian.
| + Eventive | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: kävelleisin | 'I probably would walk' | |
Infinitives
Finnish verbs are described as having four, sometimes five infinitives:
First infinitive
The first infinitive short form of a verb is the citation form found in dictionaries. It is not unmarked; its overt marking is always the suffix Finnish: -a or Finnish: -ä, though sometimes there are modifications (which may be regarded as stem or ending modifications depending on personal preference).
| Verb stem | Finnish infinitive | English infinitive |
|---|
| Finnish: sano- | Finnish: sanoa | to say | | Finnish: tietä- | Finnish: tietää | to know | | Finnish: luke- | Finnish: lukea | to read | |
When the stem is itself a single syllable or is of two or more syllables ending in Finnish: -oi or Finnish: -öi, the suffix is Finnish: -da or Finnish: -dä, respectively. (This represents the historically older form of the suffix, from which the Finnish: d has been lost in most environments.)
| Verb stem | Finnish infinitive | English infinitive |
|---|
| Finnish: tuo- | Finnish: tuoda | to bring | | Finnish: jää- | Finnish: jäädä | to stay | | Finnish: imuroi- | Finnish: imuroida | to vacuum | | Finnish: epäröi- | Finnish: epäröidä | to hesitate | |
If the stem ends in one the consonants Finnish: l, Finnish: r, Finnish: n, then the final consonant is doubled before adding the infinitive Finnish: -a or Finnish: -ä. In the case of a stem ending in the consonant Finnish: s, the infinitive ending gains the consonant Finnish: t, becoming Finnish: -ta or Finnish: -tä. (These consonant stems take a linking vowel Finnish: -e- when forming the present tense, or Finnish: -i- when forming the imperfect, e.g. Finnish: pestä 'to wash': Finnish: pesen 'I wash' : Finnish: pesin 'I washed'). Stems ending in Finnish: -ts, followed by a link vowel in the present or imperfect, drop the Finnish: s from the stem before adding the infinitive marker Finnish: -a or Finnish: -ä.
| Verb stem | Finnish infinitive | English infinitive |
|---|
| Finnish: men(e)- | Finnish: mennä | to go | | Finnish: ol(e)- | Finnish: olla | to be | | Finnish: pur(e)- | Finnish: purra | to bite | | Finnish: pes(e)- | Finnish: pestä | to wash | | Finnish: mainits(e)- | Finnish: mainita | to mention | |
Some verbs have so called "alternating stems" or multiple stems with weak-strong consonant gradation between them. It depends on the verb if the infinitive is in the strong or weak form. These have long vowel stems in the present/future tense, which already ends with Finnish: -a or Finnish: -ä. These verbs drop the Finnish: a which is present in the present tense stem and replace it with Finnish: -t in the first infinitive stem followed by the standard Finnish: -a or Finnish: -ä first infinitive marker. The Finnish: a dropping to Finnish: t weakens a preceding Finnish: k, Finnish: p or Finnish: t so that a weak grade is seen in the first infinitive form. This often creates difficulties for the non-Finn when trying to determine the infinitive (in order to access the translation in a dictionary) when encountering an inflected form. Inflected forms are generally strong except when the stem ending contains a double consonant and there is only a single vowel separating this from the last stem Finnish: k, Finnish: p or Finnish: t.
| Inflected Finnish | English | Finnish infinitive | English infinitive | Note |
|---|
| Finnish: minä putoan | I am falling | Finnish: pudota | to fall down | Finnish: putoa- strong grade | | Finnish: minä putosin | I fell down | Finnish: pudota | to fall down | Finnish: putosi- strong grade | | Finnish: olen pudonnut | I have fallen down | Finnish: pudota | to fall down | Finnish: pudon- weak grade (Finnish: nn forces weak grade) | | Finnish: he kokoavat | they'll assemble | Finnish: koota | to assemble | Finnish: kokoa- strong grade | | Finnish: me kokoamme | we'll assemble | Finnish: koota | to assemble | Finnish: kokoa- strong grade (Finnish: mm does not cause weakness because Finnish: oa is not a diphthong) | |
Some verbs lose elements of their stems when forming the first infinitive. Some verbs stem have contracted endings in the first infinitive. Stems ending Finnish: -ene/Finnish: -eni in the present/imperfect drop the Finnish: n and replace it with Finnish: t, and where applicable, trigger the weak grade in the infinitive stem. The contracted infinitive ending Finnish: -eta/Finnish: -etä have Finnish: -itse/Finnish: -itsi verbs take the infinitive stem Finnish: -ita/Finnish: itä. These contracted verbs may also be subject to consonant weakening when forming the infinitive
e.g. Finnish: mainita 'to mention' has the longer conjugated stem Finnish: mainits- as in Finnish: mainitsen huomenna, että... 'I'll mention tomorrow that...'
e.g. Finnish: paeta 'to flee' has the longer conjugated stem Finnish: paken- as in Finnish: me pakenimme Afganistanista 'we fled from Afghanistan'
The first infinitive long form is the translative plus a possessive suffix (rare in spoken language).
| Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: ...soitti sanoakseen... | '...(s/he) phoned in order to say...' | | Finnish: tietääksemme | (idiomatic) 'as far as we know' | | Finnish: voidakseni lukea | 'in order for me to be able to read' | |
The first infinitive only has an active form.
Second infinitive
The second infinitive is used to express aspects of actions relating to the time when an action takes place or the manner in which an action happens. In equivalent English phrases these time aspects can often be expressed using "when", "while" or "whilst" and the manner aspects using the word "by" or else the gerund, which is formed by adding "-ing" to English verb to express manner.
It is recognizable by the letter Finnish: e in place of the usual Finnish: a or Finnish: ä as the infinitive marker. It is only ever used with one of two case makers; the inessive Finnish: ssa/ssä indicating time or the instructive Finnish: n indicating manner. Finnish phrases using the second infinitive can often be rendered in English using the gerund.
The second infinitive is formed by replacing the final Finnish: a/ä of the first infinitive with Finnish: e then adding the appropriate inflectional ending. If the vowel before the Finnish: a/ä is already an Finnish: e, this becomes Finnish: i (see example from Finnish: lukea 'to read').
The cases in which the second infinitive can appear are:
| + Second infinitive | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Active inessive (while someone is in the act of) |
|---|
| Finnish: tehdessä | 'when doing' | | Finnish: sanoessa | 'when saying' | | Active inessive + possessive suffix (while themselves in the act of) |
|---|
| Finnish: lukiessaan | 'while he is/was reading' | | Finnish: sanoessasi | 'while you are/were saying' | | Passive inessive (when or while in the act of something being done) |
|---|
| Finnish: sanottaessa | 'when saying' | | Finnish: tehtäessä | 'when doing' | | Finnish: luettaessa | 'when reading' | | Active instructive (by means of/while in the act of) |
|---|
| Finnish: tehden | 'by doing' | | Finnish: sanoen | 'by saying' | | Finnish: lukien | 'by reading' | | Finnish: hän tuli itkien huoneeseen | 'she came into the room crying' | |
The inessive form is mostly seen in written forms of language because spoken forms usually express the same idea in longer form using two clauses linked by the word Finnish: kun ("when"). The instructive is even rarer and mostly exists nowadays in set phrases (for example Finnish: toisin sanoen = 'in other words').
If the person performing the action of the verb is the same as the person in the equivalent relative clause, then the verb uses the appropriate personal possessive suffix on the verb for the person. If the person in the main clause is different from that in the relative clause then this is indicated by with the person in the genitive and the verb is unmarked for person.
| Second infinitive inessive | Equivalent Finnish: kun phrase | English translation |
|---|
| Finnish: ollessani Englannissa kävin monessa pubissa | Finnish: kun olin Englannissa, kävin monessa pubissa | when I was in England, I went into many pubs | | Finnish: ollessaan Englannissa he kävivät monessa pubissa | Finnish: kun he olivat Englannissa, he kävivät monessa pubissa | when they were in England, they went into many pubs | | Finnish: Jaakon ollessa Englannissa Laura meni Espanjaan | Finnish: Kun Jaakko oli Englannissa, Laura meni Espanjaan | when Jaakko was in England, Laura went to Spain | |
Third infinitive
This corresponds to the English gerund ("verb + -ing" form), and behaves as a noun in Finnish in that it can be inflected, but only in a limited number of cases. It is used to refer to a particular act or occasion of the verb's action.
The third infinitive is formed by taking the verb stem with its consonant in the strong form, then adding Finnish: ma followed by the case inflection.
The cases in which the third infinitive can appear are:
| Case | Finnish | English |
|---|
| inessive | Finnish: lukema'''ssa''' | '(in the act of) reading' | | Example: Finnish: hän on lukema'''ssa''' kirjasto'''ssa''' | 's/he's reading in the library' | | elative | Finnish: lukema'''sta''' | '(from just having been) reading' | | illative | Finnish: lukema'''an''' | '(about to be / with the intention of) reading' | | adessive | Finnish: lukema'''lla''' | '(by) reading' | | abessive | Finnish: lukema'''tta''' | '(without) reading' | |
A rare and archaic form of the third infinitive which occurs with the verb Finnish: pitää:
The third infinitive instructive is usually replaced with the first infinitive short form in modern Finnish.
Note that the Finnish: -ma form without a case ending is called the 'agent participle' (see - Participles
below). The agent participle can also be inflected in all cases, producing forms which look similar to the third infinitive.
Fourth infinitive
The fourth infinitive has the stem ending Finnish: -minen and indicates obligation, but it is quite rare in Finnish today. This is because there are other words like Finnish: pitää and Finnish: täytyy that can convey this meaning.
For example
| + Fourth Infinitive | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: Sinne ei ole menemistä | 'There is no going there' i.e. 'One must not go there' | |
Though not an infinitive, a much more common Finnish: -minen verbal stem ending is the noun construct which gives the name of the activity described by the verb. This is rather similar to the English verbal noun '-ing' form, and therefore as a noun, this form can inflect just like any other noun.
| + Finnish: -minen noun formation | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: lukeminen on hauskaa | 'reading is fun' | | Finnish: vihaan lukemista | 'I hate reading' | | Finnish: nautin lukemisesta | 'I enjoy reading' | |
Fifth infinitive
This is a fairly rare form which has the meaning 'on the point of ...ing / just about to ...'
| + Fifth infinitive | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: olin lukemaisillani | 'I was just about to read' | |
Verb conjugation
For full details of how verbs are conjugated in Finnish, please refer to the Finnish verb conjugation article.
Participles
Finnish verbs have past and present participles, both with passive and active forms, and an 'agent' participle. Participles can be used in different ways than ordinary adjectives and they can have an object.
Past passive participle
This is formed in the same way as the passive perfect or passive past-perfect forms, by taking the passive past form, removing the Finnish: -tiin ending and replacing it with Finnish: -ttu/tty (depending on vowel harmony)
Past active participle
Basically this is formed by removing the infinitive ending and adding Finnish: -nut/nyt (depending on vowel harmony) and in some cases Finnish: -lut/lyt, Finnish: -sut/syt, Finnish: -rut/ryt. For example:
| 1st infinitive | active past participle |
|---|
| Finnish: puhua | Finnish: puhunut | | Finnish: syödä | Finnish: syönyt | |
However, depending on the verb's stem type, assimilation can occur with the consonant of the stem ending.
In type II verbs, and Finnish: n, Finnish: l, Finnish: r or Finnish: s in the stem ending is assimilated to the consonant in the participle ending (as also happens in formation of the first infinitive, although Finnish: -s stem endings take an extra Finnish: t in the first infinitive)
| 1st Infinitive | Stem | Active past participle |
|---|
| Finnish: mennä | (Finnish: men-) | Finnish: mennyt | | Finnish: pestä | (Finnish: pes-) | Finnish: pessyt | | Finnish: harjoitella | (Finnish: harjoittel-) | Finnish: harjoitellut | |
The assimilation causes the final consonant cluster to be strengthened which in turn can weaken a strong cluster if one exists in the stem. See Finnish: harjoitella above.
In verbs of types IV, V and VI, the Finnish: t at the end of the stem is assimilated to the Finnish: n:
| 1st infinitive | Stem | Active past participle |
|---|
| Finnish: haluta | (Finnish: halut-) | Finnish: halunnut | | Finnish: tarvita | (Finnish: tarvit-) | Finnish: tarvinnut | | Finnish: rohjeta | (Finnish: rohjet-) | Finnish: rohjennut | |
Present passive participle
The present passive participle can be constructed from the past passive form of the verb. The Finnish: -iin ending of the past passive is replaced with Finnish: -ava/ävä, which can be inflected in the same way as the present active participle. For example:
| Infinitive | Past passive | Passive participle | English |
|---|
| Finnish: antaa | Finnish: annettiin | Finnish: annettava | which is to be given | | Finnish: syödä | Finnish: syötiin | Finnish: syötävä | which is to be eaten | | Finnish: kertoa | Finnish: kerrottiin | Finnish: kerrottava | which is to be told | |
It is possible to translate this participle in several related ways e.g. Finnish: sanottava 'which must be/is to be said', 'which can be said', 'which will be said' or 'which is said'.Here are some sentences and phrases further illustrating the formation and use of the present passive participle:| Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: Juotava vesi | Drinkable water | | Finnish: Onko sinulla mitään sanottavaa? | Do you have anything to say? | | Finnish: Onko pöydässä jotakin syötävää? | Is there anything to eat on the table? Or even, Is there anything edible on the table? | |
This participle can also be used in other ways. If used with the appropriate third-person singular form of the verb Finnish: olla and with the subject in the genitive it can express necessity or obligation.Finnish: Minun on lähdettävä 'I must leave'
Finnish: Heidän olisi mentävä 'They would have to go'
Inflected in the inessive plural, it can be used in conjunction with the verb 'to be' to indicate that something can or cannot be done.
Finnish: Onko Pekka tavattavissa? 'Is Pekka available?'/'Is Pekka able to be met with?'
Present active participle
This participle is formed simply by finding the 3rd person plural form of the verb and removing -t, and acts as an adjective describing what the object or subject of the sentence is doing, for example:
| + Present active participle | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: nukku{{pipe | 'sleeping dog' | | Finnish: häikäise{{pipe | 'blinding light' | | Finnish: olin luke{{pipe | 'I pretended to be reading'
[{{abbr|act.|active}} I participle {{abbr|pl.|plural}} essive + {{abbr|poss.|possessive}} suffix] | |
Agent participle
The agent participle is formed in a similar way as the third infinitive (see above), adding -ma or -mä to the verb stem. It allows the property of being a target of an action to be formatted as an adjective-like attribute. Like adjectives, it can be inflected in all cases. For example, Finnish: '''ihmisen tekemä''' muodostelma "a man-made formation". The party performing the action is indicated by the use of genitive, or by a possessive suffix. This is reflected in English, too: Finnish: ihmise'''n''' tekemä – "of man's making", or Finnish: kirjoittama'''ni''' kirja "book of my writing". For example:
| + Agent participle | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: tytön lukema kirja | the book read by the girl | | Finnish: tytön lukemaa kirjaa | (partitive) the book read by the girl | | Finnish: tytön lukemassa kirjassa | in the book read by the girl | | etc. | |
It is not required for the action to be in the past, although the examples above are. Rather, the construction simply specifies the subject, the object and the action, with no reference to time. For an example in the future, consider: Finnish: huomenna '''käyttämänänne''' välineenä on... "tomorrow, as the instrument you will be using is...". Here, Finnish: käyttämä "that which is used" describes, i.e. is an attribute to Finnish: väline "instrument". (Notice the case agreement between Finnish: käyttämä-nä and Finnish: välinee-nä.) The suffix Finnish: -nne "your" specifies the person "owning" the action, i.e. who does it, thus Finnish: käyttämänne is "that which was used by you", and Finnish: käyttämänänne is "as that which was used by you".It is also possible to give the actor with a pronoun, e.g. Finnish: sinun käyttämäsi "that which was used by you". In standard language, the pronoun Finnish: sinun "your" is not necessary, but the possessive suffix is. In inexact spoken usage, this goes vice versa; the possessive suffix is optional, and used typically only for the second-person singular, e.g. Finnish: sun käyttämäs.
Negation of verbs
Present indicative
Verbs are negated by using a negative verb in front of the stem from the present tense (in its 'weak' consonant form). This verb form used with the negative verb is called a connegative.
| + Present indicative | | Finnish | English | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Singular |
|---|
| Finnish: tiedän | 'I know' | → | Finnish: en tiedä | 'I don't know' | | Finnish: tiedät | 'you know' | → | Finnish: et tiedä | 'you don't know' | | Finnish: tietää | '(s)he knows' | → | Finnish: ei tiedä | '(s)he doesn't know' | | Plural |
|---|
| Finnish: tiedämme | 'we know' | → | Finnish: emme tiedä | 'we don't know' | | Finnish: tiedätte | 'you know' | → | Finnish: ette tiedä | 'you don't know' | | Finnish: tietävät | 'they know' | → | Finnish: eivät tiedä | 'they don't know' | |
Note that the inflection is on the negative verb, not on the main verb, and that the endings are regular apart from the 3rd-person forms.
Present passive
The negative is formed from the third-person singular "negative verb" Finnish: ei and the present passive with the final Finnish: -an removed:
| Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: ei puhuta | 'it is not spoken' | | Finnish: ei tiedetä | 'it is not known' | |
Imperfect indicative
The negative is formed from the appropriate part of the negative verb followed by the nominative form (either singular or plural depending on the number of the verb's subject) of the active past participle. So for Finnish: puhua the pattern is:
| + Imperfect indicative | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Singular |
|---|
| Finnish: en puhunut | 'I did not speak' | | Finnish: et puhunut | 'you did not speak' | | Finnish: ei puhunut | '(s/he) did not speak' | | Plural |
|---|
| Finnish: emme puhuneet | 'we did not speak' | | Finnish: ette puhuneet | 'you did not speak' | | Finnish: eivät puhuneet | 'they did not speak' | |
Note one exception: when the 'te' 2nd-person plural form is used in an honorific way to address one person, the singular form of the participle is used: Finnish: te ette puhunut = 'you (polite) did not speak'.
Imperfect passive
The negative is formed from the third-person singular negative verb – 'ei' – and the nominative singular form of the passive present participle (compare this with the negative of the imperfect indicative):
| + Imperfect passive | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: ei puhuttu | 'it was not spoken' | | Finnish: ei tiedetty | 'it was not known' | |
Note that in the spoken language, this form is used for the first-person plural. In this case, the personal pronoun is obligatory:
Adverbs
A very common way of forming adverbs is by adding the ending Finnish: -sti to the inflecting form of the corresponding adjective:
| + Adverbs | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: nopea, nopea'''sti''' | 'quick, quickly' | | Finnish: kaunis, kaunii'''sti''' | 'beautiful, beautifully' | | Finnish: hidas, hitaa'''sti''' | 'slow, slowly' | | Finnish: helppo, helpo'''sti''' | 'easy, easily' | |
Adverbs modify verbs, not nouns, therefore they do not inflect. Finnish: -sti adverbs are not used to modify adjectives (such as to express degree) like Finnish: -ly adverbs might be in English; the genitive of adjectives is used for this purpose.
Comparative formation
The comparative form of the adverb has the ending Finnish: -mmin.
| + Comparative formation | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: nopea, nopea'''sti''', nopea'''mmin''' | 'quick, quickly, more quickly/faster' | | Finnish: kaunis, kauni'''isti''', kauni'''immin''' | 'beautiful, beautifully, more beautifully' | | Finnish: hidas, hita'''asti''', hita'''ammin''' | 'slow, slowly, more slowly' | | Finnish: helppo, helpo'''sti''', helpo'''mmin''' | 'easy, easily, more easily' | |
Superlative formation
The superlative form of the adverb has the ending Finnish: -immin.
| + Superlative formation | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: helppo, helposti, helpommin, helpoimmin | 'easy, easily, more easily, most easily' | |
Because of the Finnish: -i-, the stem vowel can change, similarly to superlative adjectives, or to avoid runs of three vowels:
| Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: nopea, nopeasti, nopeammin, nopeimmin | 'quick, quickly, more quickly/faster, fastest' | | Finnish: kaunis, kauniisti, kauniimmin, kauneimmin | 'beautiful, beautifully, more beautifully, most beautifully' | | Finnish: hidas, hitaasti, hitaammin, hitaimmin | 'slow, slowly, more slowly, most slowly' | |
Irregular forms
There are a number of irregular adverbs, including:
| + Irregular forms | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: hyvä, hyvin, paremmin, parhaiten | 'good, well, better, best' | |
Numbers
See main article: Finnish numerals.
The ordinary counting numbers (cardinals) from 0 to 10 are given in the table below. Cardinal numbers may be inflected and some of the inflected forms are irregular in form.
Cardinal numbers and key inflected forms| Number | | | | Illative |
|---|
| 0 | Finnish: nolla | Finnish: nollan | Finnish: nollaa | Finnish: nollaan | | 1 | Finnish: yksi | Finnish: yhden | Finnish: yhtä | Finnish: yhteen | | 2 | Finnish: kaksi | Finnish: kahden | Finnish: kahta | Finnish: kahteen | | 3 | Finnish: kolme | Finnish: kolmen | Finnish: kolmea | Finnish: kolmeen | | 4 | Finnish: neljä | Finnish: neljän | Finnish: neljää | Finnish: neljään | | 5 | Finnish: viisi | Finnish: viiden | Finnish: viittä | Finnish: viiteen | | 6 | Finnish: kuusi | Finnish: kuuden | Finnish: kuutta | Finnish: kuuteen | | 7 | Finnish: seitsemän | Finnish: seitsemän | Finnish: seitsemää (*) | Finnish: seitsemään | | 8 | Finnish: kahdeksan | Finnish: kahdeksan | Finnish: kahdeksaa | Finnish: kahdeksaan | | 9 | Finnish: yhdeksän | Finnish: yhdeksän | Finnish: yhdeksää | Finnish: yhdeksään | | 10 | Finnish: kymmenen | Finnish: kymmenen | Finnish: kymmentä | Finnish: kymmeneen | | (*) sometimes Finnish: seitsentä (alternative form)
In colloquial spoken Finnish, the numerals usually appear in contracted forms.
To form teens, Finnish: toista is added to the base number. Finnish: Toista is the partitive form of Finnish: toinen, meaning here "second group of ten". Hyphens are written here to separate morphemes. In Finnish text, hyphens are not written.
- Finnish: yksi-toista, Finnish: kaksi-toista, ... Finnish: yhdeksän-toista
"one of the second, two of the second, ... nine of the second"
11, 12, ... 19In older Finnish, until about the early 20th Century, the same pattern was used up to one hundred: Finnish: kolmeneljättä 'thirty-three'.
Sentence structure
Word order
Since Finnish is an inflected language, word order within sentences can be much freer than, for example, English. In English the strong subject–verb–object order typically indicates the function of a noun as either subject or object although some English structures allow this to be reversed. In Finnish sentences, however, the role of the noun is determined not by word order or sentence structure as in English but by case markings which indicate subject and object.
The most usual neutral order, however, is subject–verb–object. But usually what the speaker or writer is talking about is at the head of the sentence.
| Finnish | English | Note |
|---|
| Finnish: koira puri miestä | 'the dog bit the man' | we are talking of the dog and what it did | | Finnish: miestä puri koira | 'the man was bitten by a/the dog' | we are talking about the man and what it was that bit him, e.g. not a snake | | Finnish: koira miestä puri | 'it was a dog that bit the man' | we are confirming that it was a/the dog that bit the man, not some other animal | |
Here Finnish: koira ('dog') is in the nominative form but Finnish: mies ('man') is marked as object by the case marked form Finnish: miestä. This sentence is a bald statement of fact. Changing the word order changes the emphasis slightly but not the fundamental meaning of the sentence.
| Finnish | English | Note |
|---|
| Finnish: minulla on rahaa | 'I have money' | a bald statement of fact | | Finnish: rahaa minulla on | 'money is something I do have' | although I may not have something else | | Finnish: rahaa on minulla | 'The money is with me' | I am telling you where the money is | | Finnish: minulla rahaa on | 'I've definitely got (the) money' | I am confirming that I do have (the) money | | Finnish: on minulla rahaa | 'Yes, I do have (the) money' | if having money has been questioned | |
Finnish: Minulla here is the word Finnish: minä (I) in a case form ending Finnish: -lla which when used with the verb Finnish: olla (to be, expressed here in the form Finnish: on) expresses ownership. This is because Finnish does not have a verb form equivalent of the English word 'have'. Finnish: Minulla is not considered the subject.
And finally, a classic example:
| Finnish | Translation |
|---|
| Finnish: minä olen valtio | 'I am the state' (matter-of-fact) | | Finnish: valtio olen minä | 'French: L'État, c'est moi' (French – attributed to Louis XIV) | |
Besides the word-order implications of turning a sentence into a question, there are some other circumstances where word-order is important:
Existential sentences
These are sentences which introduce a new subject – they often begin with 'there is' or 'there are' in English.
The location of the thing whose existence is being stated comes first, followed by its stative verb, followed by the thing itself. Note how this is unlike the normal English equivalent, though English can also use the same order:
Forming questions
There are two main ways of forming a question – either using a specific question word, or by adding a Finnish: -ko/-kö suffix to one of the words in a sentence. A question word is placed first in the sentence, and a word with the interrogative suffix is also moved to this position:
| + Interrogatives (questions) | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: mikä tämä on? | 'what is this?' | | Finnish: tämä on kirja | 'this is a book' | | Finnish: onko tämä kirja? | 'is this a book?'|-| Finnish: tämäkö on kirja? || 'is this a book?'|-| Finnish: kirjako tämä on? || 'is this a book?'|-| Finnish: eikö tämä ole kirja? || 'is this not a book?'
(note the Finnish: -kö goes on the negative verb)|}Forming answers
The response to a question will of course depend on the situation, but grammatically the response to a question typically follows the grammatical structure in the question. Thus a question structured in the inessive case (e.g. Finnish: missä kaupungissa asut? 'in which town do you live?') will have an answer that is also in the inessive (e.g. Finnish: Espoossa 'in Espoo') unless special rules dictate otherwise. Questions which in English would be answered with 'yes' or 'no' replies are usually responded to by repeating the verb in either the affirmative or negative.
| + Interrogatives (questions) | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: mihin päin ne lähtee? | 'which way are they headed?' | | Finnish: Helsinkiin | 'towards Helsinki' | | Finnish: onko sinulla avain? | 'have you got the key?' | | Finnish: on/Finnish: ei ole | 'yes'/'no' ('is'/'is not' in possession) | | Finnish: menettekö leffaan? | 'are you guys going to the movies?' | | Finnish: menemme/Finnish: emme mene | 'yes'/'no' ('we are going'/'we are not going') | | Finnish: aiotko lähteä ilman pipoa? | 'Are you intending to go off without a hat?' | | Finnish: aion | 'Yes' ('I intend') | |
The words Finnish: kyllä and Finnish: ei are often shown in dictionaries as being equivalent to 'yes' and 'no', but the situation is a little more complicated than that. The typical response to a question which in English is answered 'yes' or 'no' is, as we see above, more usually answered by repeating the verb in either an affirmative or negative form in the appropriate person. The word 'kyllä' is rather a strong affirmation in response to a question and is similar to the word 'niin' which is an affirmation of a response to a statement of fact or belief. (However, in conversations, Finnish: niin may even simply mean that the sentence was heard, not expressing any sort of concurrence. The same problem occurs with the colloquial Finnish: joo "yeah".)
| + Kyllä and Niin | | Finnish | English |
|---|
| Finnish: aiotko lähteä ilman pipoa? (question) | 'Are you intending to go off without a hat?' | | Finnish: kyllä | 'Yes, I sure am' (Strong affirmation. I really do intend to go bareheaded) | | Finnish: on hölmöä lähteä ulos talviaikana ilman pipoa (statement) | 'it is foolish to go out in wintertime without a hat' | | Finnish: niin | 'Yes indeed' (I agree with your statement) | |
The word Finnish: ei is the negative verb form and has to be inflected for person and the verb itself is usually present, though not always.
Finnish: osaatko sinä saksaa? 'can you (speak) German?'
Finnish: en ('no'; 'I don't')or better
Finnish: en osaa ('I can't')
See also
Further reading
- Book: Karlsson, Fred . 2018 . Finnish: A Comprehensive Grammar . London and New York . Routledge . 978-1-138-82104-0.
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