Finnish grammar
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This article deals with the grammar of the Finnish language. It is probably best to read the main article first. There is a separate article covering the ways in which spoken Finnish differs from the formal grammar of the written language.
Pronouns
The pronouns are inflected in the Finnish language much in the same way than their referent nouns are.
Personal pronouns
Unlike in English, the personal pronouns are used to refer to human beings only. The personal pronouns in Finnish in the nominative case are listed in the following table:
| Personal pronouns | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| Singular | |
| minä | I |
| sinä | you |
| hän | she or he |
| Plural | |
| me | we |
| te | you |
| he | they |
| Polite | |
| Te | you |
Since Finnish verbs are inflected for person, personal pronouns are not required for sense and are usually omitted in standard Finnish except where used for emphasis. In spoken Finnish, all pronouns are generally used. In the 3rd person, the pronoun is needed: "hän menee" = he goes, "he menevät" = they go. This applies to both colloquial and written language.
In common with some other languages, the second person plural can be used as a polite form when addressing one person. This usage is diminishing in Finnish society.
Demonstrative Pronouns
The demonstratives are used of non-human animate entities and inanimate objects. However, se and ne are often used to refer to humans in colloquial Finnish. Furthermore, the demonstratives are used to refer to group nouns and the number of the pronoun must correlate with the number of its referent.
| Demonstrative pronouns | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| Singular | |
| tämä | this |
| tuo | that |
| se | it/that |
| Plural | |
| nämä | these |
| nuo | those |
| ne | they/those |
Interrogative pronouns
| Interrogative pronouns | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| kuka | who, which (of many) |
| mikä | what, which (of many) |
| ken | who, which (of many) - (old or dialectal word) |
| kumpi | which (of two) |
| kumpainen | which (of two) - (old or dialectal word) |
[EDIT: "ken" is somewhat old word itself as its nominative form, however, "ketä" is a word derived from it, and it's fairly common: "Ketä rakastat?" = "Whom do you love?"]
Relative pronouns
| Relative pronouns | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pronoun | Example | English |
| joka (refers to preceding word) | "hän on ainoa, jonka muistan" | "s/he was the only one who (I) remember" |
| mikä (refers to preceding clause/ sentence or to a pronoun or a superlative that refers to a thing) | "se on ainoa asia, minkä muistan" | "it was the only thing that (I) remember" |
Reciprocal pronouns
| Reciprocal pronouns | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pronoun | Example | English |
| toinen | "he rakastavat toisiaan" | "they love each other" (plural) |
| "he rakastavat toinen toistaan" | "they love one another" (double singular) | |
Reflexive pronouns
| Reflexive pronouns | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pronoun | Suffix | Example | English |
| itse | plus corresponding possessive suffix | "keitin itselleni teetä" | "(I) made myself some tea" |
Indefinite pronouns
A large group that entails all of the pronouns that do not fall into any of the categories above. Notice that there are no negative pronouns, such as "nobody", but the positive pronoun has to be negated with the negative verb "ei". No double negatives aren't possible.
| Indefinite pronouns | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| joka (uninflected) | every, each |
| jokainen | every, everyone |
| joku | some, someone (person) |
| jompikumpi | either one |
| jokin | some, something (animal, thing) |
| kukin | each one |
| kumpainenkin | both (old or dialectal) |
| kumpikin | both |
| mikin | each thing (dialectal) |
| kenkään | anyone (old or dialectal) |
| kukaan | anyone |
| -> ei kukaan | not anyone |
| kumpikaan | either one |
| -> ei kumpikaan | not either one |
| mikään | anything -> ei mikään = nothing |
Some indefinite adjectives are often perceived as indefinite pronouns. These include:
| Indefinite adjectives | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| ainoa | only |
| eräs | some, certain, one |
| harva | few |
| itse (non-reflexive) | self |
| kaikki | all, everyone, everything |
| molemmat | both |
| moni | many |
| muu | other |
| muutama | some, a few |
| sama | same |
| toinen (non-reciprocal, non-numeral use) | another |
Noun forms
The Finnish language does not distinguish gender in nouns or even in personal pronouns: 'hän' = 'he' or 'she' depending on the referent. This causes some unaccustomed Finnish speakers to muddle "he" and "she" when speaking languages such as English or Swedish, which can be a source of confusion.
Cases
Finnish has fifteen noun cases: four grammatical cases, six locative cases, two essive cases (three in some Eastern dialects) and three marginal cases. Please see the article Finnish language noun cases for details.
| Finnish cases | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case | Suffix | English prep. | Sample | Translation |
| Grammatical | ||||
| nominatiivi | - | talo | house | |
| genetiivi | -n | of | talon | of (a) house |
| akkusatiivi | - or -n | - | talo or talon | house |
| partitiivi | -(t)a | - | taloa | house (as an object) |
| Locative (internal) | ||||
| inessiivi | -ssa | in | talossa | in (a) house |
| elatiivi | -sta | from (inside) | talosta | from (a) house |
| illatiivi | -an, -en, etc. | into | taloon | into (a) house |
| Locative (external) | ||||
| adessiivi | -lla | at, on | talolla | at (a) house |
| ablatiivi | -lta | from | talolta | from (a) house |
| allatiivi | -lle | to | talolle | to (a) house |
| Essive | ||||
| essiivi | -na | as | talona | as a house |
| (eksessiivi; dialectal) | -nta | from being | talonta | from being a house |
| translatiivi | -ksi | to (role of) | taloksi | to a house |
| Marginal | ||||
| instruktiivi | -n | with (the aid of) | taloin | with the houses |
| abessiivi | -tta | without | talotta | without (a) house |
| komitatiivi | -ne- | together (with) | taloineni | with my house(s) |
Plurals
There are three different 'plurals' in Finnish:
Nominative plural
The nominative plural is the definite, divisible, telic plural. The suffix is -t; it may not be infixed.
| Nominative plural | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| "koirat olivat huoneessa" | "the dogs were in the room" |
| "huoneet olivat suuria" | "the rooms were large" |
Following numbers
After numbers greater than one, the noun is put in the partitive singular.
| Following numbers | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| "huoneessa oli kaksi koiraa" | "there were two dogs in the room" |
| "talossa oli kolme huonetta" | "the house had three rooms" |
Inflected plural
This uses the stem of the partitive plural inflected with the same set of endings as for singular nouns. The infix is -i-, and it suppresses long vowels; it may only be infixed.
| Inflected plural | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| 'huone' -> 'huoneita' | '(some) rooms' |
| -> 'huoneissa' | 'in rooms' |
As a combined example of plurals
| Inflected plural | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| 'lintu on puussa' | 'the bird is in the tree' |
| -> 'linnut ovat puissa' | 'the birds are in the trees' |
Inflection of pronouns
The personal pronouns are inflected in the same way as nouns, and can be found in most of the same cases as nouns. For example:
| Inflection of pronouns | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Finnish | Case | Example | English |
| 'minä' | nominative | 'I' | |
| 'minun' | genitive | ('my, mine') | |
| 'tämä talo on minun ' | 'this house is mine ' | ||
| 'tämä on minun taloni ' | 'this is my house' | ||
| 'minut' | accusative | 'hän tuntee minut' | 's/he knows me' |
| 'minua' | partitive | 'hän rakastaa minua' | 's/he loves me' |
| 'minussa' | inessive | 'tämä herättää minussa vihaa' | 'this provokes (lit. awakens) anger in me' |
| 'minusta' | elative | 'hän puhui minusta' | 's/he was talking about/ of me'. Also used idiomatically to mean 'in my opinion'. |
| 'minuun' | illative | 'hän uskoi minuun' | 's/he believed in me' |
| 'minulla' | adessive | 'minulla on rahaa' | 'I've got some money' |
| 'minulta' | ablative | 'hän otti minulta rahaa' | 'he took some money from/ off me'. |
| 'minulle' | allative | 'anna minulle rahaa' | 'give me some money' |
| 'sinuna' | essive | 'If I were you' (lit. 'as you') | |
| 'minuksi' | translative | 'häntä luullaan usein minuksi' | 's/he is often mistaken for me' |
Noun/adjective stem types
Vowel stems
This section is a stub. You can help by adding to it (https://academickids.com:443/encyclopedia/index.php?title=Finnish_grammar&action=edit).
Vowel stems are generally invariable.
The exception is the word ending -i, which is elided under agglutination to produce the stem, e.g. nimi ~ nim-. In singular, an epenthetic -e- is inserted, e.g. nime-. In plural, the plural marker -i- is added, followed by the aforementioned -e-, e.g. nimie-. This is used e.g. in this manner: nimi "name", nimen "of the name", nimien "of the names".
Failure to elide the -i changes meanings. For example, the genitive case will be mistaken for the instructive case, e.g. nimen "of the name" → nimin "using names". Another good example is the accidental production of a plural, e.g. nimiä "(at the) names", as contrasted to the nimeä "at the name".
Recent loanwords, where the -i is added to nativize the word, are an exception to this elision, but the plural is unchanged. For example, the singular stem of taksi is taksi-, but the plural stem is taksie-. The usage is as such: taksin "of the taxi", taksien "of the taxies".
Likewise, applying the elision rule to the recent loans produces unintended meanings. For example, a singular stem such as takse- looks like a word derived from a nonexistent verb taksettaa, vrt. pauke "banging" ~ paukuttaa "to bang repeatedly".
Consonant stems
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-nen nouns
This is a very large class of words which includes common nouns (for example 'nainen' = 'woman'), many names, and many common adjectives. Adding -nen to a noun is a very productive mechanism for making adjectives ('muovi' = 'plastic' -> 'muovinen' = 'made of plastic'). It can also function as a diminutive ending.
The stem for these words removes the '-nen' and adds '-s(e)' after which the inflectional ending is added:
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| 'muovisessa pussissa' | 'in the plastic bag' |
| 'kaksi muovista lelua' | 'two plastic toys' |
| 'muoviseen laatikkoon' | 'into the plastic box' |
Here are a few of the diminutive forms that are still in use:
| Finnish | From word | English |
|---|---|---|
| 'kätönen' | käsi | 'a small hand' (affectionate) |
| 'lintunen' | lintu | 'birdie', 'a small bird' |
| 'veikkonen' | veikka | 'my friend' (used in some sayings, like the English form) |
| 'kirjanen' | kirja | 'booklet' |
| 'kukkanen' | kukka | 'little flower' |
| 'kalanen' | kala | 'little fish' |
The diminutive form mostly lives in surnames which are usually very old words to which most Finns have forgotten the meaning. Some of the most common:
| Finnish | From word | English |
|---|---|---|
| 'Rautiainen' | rautio | blacksmith (of a blacksmith's family) |
| 'Korhonen' | korho | 'deaf' (of a deaf man's family) |
| 'Leinonen' | leino | 'sorrowful, melancholic' |
| 'Virtanen', 'Jokinen', 'Järvinen', 'Nieminen'... | virta, joki, järvi, niemi | 'the family from by the stream (virta), river (joki), lake (järvi), peninsula (niemi)' |
| 'Mikkonen' | [A family name assimilated from the name of the farmhouse, after the householder's name 'Mikko'] | |
| 'Martikainen' | possible origin Martikka, a South Karelian surname, identical to Russian surname Martika |
Occasionally such nouns become placenames. For example, there is a peninsula called "Neuvosenniemi" in one lake. "Neuvonen" means "a bit of advice/direction"; at this peninsula people rowing tar barrels across the lake would stop to ask whether the weather conditions would make it unsafe to continue to the other side.
[EDIT: "muovisessa pussissa" means literally "in a bag made of plastic". A more fluent way to say "in a plastic bag" is simply to say "muovipussissa" (written together). The same applies for "muoviseen laatikkoon" -> "muovilaatikkoon" = "into a/the plastic box".]
-e nouns
These nouns look as though they should behave like vowel stem nouns, but in fact behave like consonant stem nouns due to the historical loss of a final consonant. There are some common nouns in this class, for example 'huone' = 'room', 'kirje' = 'letter'
The result is that the partitive singular adds a 't' followed by the partitive ending appropriate to a consonant stem 'ta'. Other case forms add an 'e' followed by the case ending:
| -e nouns | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| 'kaksi huonetta' | 'two rooms' |
| 'huoneessa' | 'in the room' |
| 'huoneeseen' | 'into the room' |
Adjectives
Adjectives in Finnish are inflected in exactly the same way as nouns, and an adjective must agree in number and case with the noun it is modifying.
For example, here are some adjectives:
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| 'iso' | 'big' |
| 'pieni' | 'small' |
| 'punainen' | 'red' |
And here are some examples of adjectives inflected to agree with nouns:
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| 'iso|n talo|n edessä | 'in front of the big house' |
| 'kaksi pien|tä talo|a' | 'two small houses' |
| 'punaise|ssa talo|ssa' | 'in the red house' |
Notice that adjective undergo the same sorts of stem changes when they are inflected as nouns do.
Comparative formation
The comparative of the adjective is formed by adding '-mpi' to the inflecting stem. For example:
| Finnish | English | Finnish | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| 'iso' | 'big' | 'iso|mpi' | 'bigger' |
| 'pieni' | 'small' | 'piene|mpi' | 'smaller' |
| 'punainen' | 'red' | 'punaise|mpi' | 'more red' |
Since the comparative adjective is still an adjective, it must be inflected to agree with the noun it modifies. To make the inflecting stem of the comparative, the '-mpi' ending loses its final 'i'. If the syllable context calls for a weak consonant, the '-mp-' becomes '-mm-'. Then '-a-' is added before the actual case ending. This should become clear with a few examples:
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| 'iso|mma|n talo|n edessä' | 'in front of the bigger house' |
| 'kaksi piene|mpä|ä talo|a' | 'two smaller houses' |
| 'punaise|mma|ssa talo|ssa' | 'in the redder house' |
Superlative formation
The superlative of the adjective is formed by adding '-in' to the inflecting stem. For example:
| Superlative formation | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Finnish | English | Finnish | English |
| 'iso' | 'big' | 'iso|in' | 'biggest' |
| 'punainen' | 'red' | 'punais|in' | 'reddest' |
Note that because the superlative marker vowel is an 'i', the same kind of changes can occur with vowel stems as happen in verb imperfects, and noun inflecting plurals:
| Finnish | English | Finnish | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| 'pieni' | 'small' | 'pienin' | 'smallest' (not *'pienein') |
Since the superlative adjective is still an adjective, it must be inflected to agree with the noun it modifies. The '-in' becomes either '-imma-' or '-impa-' depending on whether the syllable context calls for a weak or strong consonant. Here are the examples:
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| 'iso|imma|n talo|n edessä' | 'in front of the biggest house' |
| 'kaksi pien|in|tä taloa' | 'the two smallest houses' |
| 'punais|imma|ssa talo|ssa' | 'in the reddest house' (if that makes sense...) |
Irregular forms
The most important irregular form is:
| Main irregular form | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| 'hyvä, parempi, paras' | 'good, better, best' |
(though Finns understand 'hyvempi' :-) [used mainly by small children]
Notice also:
| More irregular forms | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| 'pitkä, pidempi, pisin' | 'long, longer, longest' |
| 'lyhyt, lyhyempi, lyhin' | 'short, shorter, shortest' (although the standard forms are also used) |
There are a small number of other irregular comparative and superlative forms, such as:
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| 'uusi' | 'new' |
Where the inflecting stem is 'uude-' but the superlative is 'uusin' = 'newest'.
Postpositions and prepositions
Postpositions are more common in Finnish than prepositions. Both postpositions and prepositions can be combined with either a noun or a possessive suffix to form a P-positional phrase.
Postpositions
Postpositions indicate place, time, cause, consequence or relation. In postpositional phrases the noun is usually in genitive:
| Postpositions | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| 'pöydän alla' | 'under the table' |
| 'joulun jälkeen' | 'after Christmas' |
| 'lasten tähden' | 'for the sake of the children' |
| 'jonkun puolesta' | 'on behalf of somebody' |
The noun (or pronoun) can be omitted when there is a possessive suffix:
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| 'olen _ ''vierellä|si' '' | '(I) am next to (you)' or '(I) am by (your) side' |
[EDIT: As with verbs, the pronoun can not be omitted in third person (singular or plural):
"Olin __ mukanasi" -> "I was with you" vs. "Olin hänen mukanaan" -> "I was with him/her"
"Tulen __ mukaanne" -> "I will come with you (plural or polite)" vs. "Tulen heidän mukanaan" -> "I will come with them"]
Prepositions
There are few important prepositions in Finnish. In prepositional phrases the noun is always in partitive:
| Prepositions | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| 'ennen joulua' | 'before Christmas' |
| 'ilman sinua' | 'without you' |
Some postpositions can also be used as prepositions:
| Prepositions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Finnish | Equal Finnish | English |
| 'kylän keskellä ' | ' keskellä kylää' | ' in the middle of the village' |
Verb forms
Finnish verbs are usually divided into six groups depending on the stem type. All six 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 'olla' = 'to be' has irregular endings (and then only in the present tense for the 3rd-person forms). A handful of verbs, including 'nähdä' = 'to see', 'tehdä' = 'to do/make', and 'juosta' = 'to run' have mildly irregular stems.
As a final oddity, Finnish does not have a verb corresponding to 'to have' - possession is indicated in other ways. For animate possessors, the adessive case is used with 'olla', for example 'koiralla on häntä' = 'the dog has a tail' - literally 'on the dog is a tail'.
Tenses
Finnish verbs have present, imperfect, perfect and pluperfect tenses.
- Present: corresponds to English present and future tenses. For the latter, a time qualifier may need to be used to avoid ambiguity.
- Imperfect: 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.
- 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.
- Pluperfect: corresponds to the English past perfect ("I had visited") in its usage.
Voices
Finnish has two possible verb voices: active and passive. The active voice corresponds with that of English, but the passive voice has some important differences.
Passive voice
In fact, the Finnish passive would be better described as a "fourth person", since there is no way of connecting the action performed with a particular agent and hence there is only one form of the passive. This should become clear through an example: talo maalataan "the house will be/is being painted".
The time when the house is being painted could be added: talo maalataan marraskuussa "the house will be painted in November". The colour and method could be added: talo maalataan punaiseksi harjalla "the house is being painted red with a brush". But nothing can be said about the person doing the painting; there is no simple grammatical mechanism to say "the house is being painted by Jim". There is a calque, evidently from Swedish, toimesta "from the action of", that can be used to introduce the agent: Taloa maalataan Jimin toimesta, approximately "One paints the house from Jim's action". This expression is grammatically incorrect, but it may be found wherever direct translation from Swedish, English, etc. has been attempted, especially in legal texts.
Hence the form maalataan is the only one which is needed. Notice also that the subject of the verb (i. e. the object of the action) is in the nominative case. Verbs which govern the partitive case continue to do so in the passive, and where the subject is a personal pronoun, that goes into its special accusative form: minut unohdettiin "I was forgotten".
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.
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 sanotaan että... "they say that..."
In modern spoken Finnish, the passive form of the verb is used after me to mean "we do (something)" (e. g. me tullaan "we are coming") and on its own at the beginning of a sentence to mean "let's..." (mennään! "let's go!"). In the first of these cases, the me cannot be omitted without risk to comprehension, unlike with the "standard" form tulemme.
Formation of the passive will be dealt with under the verb types below.
Moods
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 (e.g. "I would tell you if I knew") and in polite requests (e.g. "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:
"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:
'tiedän' = 'I know', 'tietäisin' = 'I would know'
cf. 'haluan' = 'I want', 'haluaisin' = 'I would like'
Conditional forms exists for both active and passive voices, and for present and perfect tenses.
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 (only plural for 1st person)
- 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, chop the '-n' off the first person singular form):
| Active, 2nd person imperatives | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| 'tule!' | 'come!' |
| 'syö!' | 'eat!' |
| 'huomaa!' | 'note!' |
To make this negative, 'älä' (which is the active imperative singular 2nd person of the negative verb) is placed before the positive form:
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| 'älä sano!' | 'don't say!' |
| 'älä mene!' | 'don't go!' |
| 'älä valehtele!' | 'don't lie!' (from 'valehdella' = 'to lie', type II) |
To form the plural, add '-kaa' or '-kää' to the verb's stem:
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| 'tulkaa!' | 'come!' |
| 'juokaa!' | 'drink!' |
| 'mitatkaa!' | 'measure!' (from 'mitata' = 'to measure', type IV) |
To make this negative, 'älkää' (which is the active imperative present plural 2nd person of the negation verb)is placed before the positive form and the suffix '-ko' or '-kö' is added to the verb stem:
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| 'älkää sanoko!' | 'don't say!' |
| 'älkää menkö!' | 'don't go!' |
| '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 'ole hyvä' or '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.
Passive imperatives
| Passive imperatives | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| tehtäköön | let (sth) be done |
| älköön tehtäkö | let (sth) not be done |
| olkoon tehty | let (sth) have been done |
| älköön olko tehty | let (sth) not have been done |
3rd person imperatives
| 3rd person imperatives | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| 'olkoon' | 'let it (him, her) be' |
| 'tehkööt' | 'let them do' |
| 'älköön unohtako' | 'let him not forget', 'he better not forget' |
| 'älkööt unohtako' | 'let them not forget' |
1st person plural imperatives
| 1st person plural imperatives | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| 'menkäämme' | 'let us go' |
| '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: 'mennään!' = 'let's go!'
Optative
The optative mood is a variant of the imperative mood. It expresses hopes or wishes. Archaic and/or poetic.
| Optative | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| 'kävellös' | 'oh, please walk' |
Potential
The potential mood is used to express that the action or state expressed by the verb is likely but not certain, and is rare in modern Finnish, especially in speech. The potential has no counterpart in English.
The characteristic morphology of the Finnish conditional is -ne- inserted between the verb stem and the personal ending.
Potential forms exists for both active and passive voices, and for present and perfect tenses:
| Potential | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| lie|ne|n | I may be / it's possible that I am |
| pes|se|e | s/he may wash |
| sur|re|vat | it is possible that they are mourning/ will mourn |
| se pes|tä|ne|en | it may be washed (by sbd.) |
| lie|ne|tte nähneet | you may have seen |
| ei lie|ne annettu | possibly may not have been given (by sbd.) |
In some dialects 'tullee' ('may come') is an indicative form verb ('tulee' = 'comes') but grammatically it is a potential verb.
Eventive
The eventive mood is used in the Kalevala. It is a combination of the potential and the conditional. It is also used in dialects of Estonian.
| Eventive | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| '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 "dictionary entry" form. All first infinitive short forms end in a/ ä. This corresponds to the English 'to' form, for example:
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| 'sano|a' | 'to say' |
| 'tietä|ä' | 'to know' |
| 'teh|dä' | 'to do' |
| 'luke|a' | 'to read' |
The first infinitive long form is the translative plus a possessive suffix.
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| '...soitti sano|a|kse|en...' | '...(s/he) phoned in order to say...' |
| 'tietä|ä|kse|mme' | (idiomatic use:) 'as far as we know' |
| 'voi|da|kse|ni lukea' | ' in order for me to be able to read' |
The first infinitive only has active form.
Second infinitive
This corresponds to the English verbal noun (-ing form), and behaves as a noun in Finnish in that it can be inflected, but only in the inessive and the instructive. In the inessive it has both active and passive forms. The instructive has only active form. A possessive suffix can be added to the active inessive. The second infinitive is relatively rare, especially in the spoken language, except in certain set phrases (for example 'toisin sanoen' = 'in other words').
The second infinitive is formed by replacing the final 'a'/'ä' of the first infinitive with 'e' then adding the appropriate inflectional ending. If the vowel before the 'a'/'ä' is already an 'e', this becomes 'i' (see example from '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) | |
| 'teh|de|ssä' | '(as one is) doing' |
| 'sano|e|ssa' | '(as one is) saying' |
| Active Inessive + Possessive Suffix (while themselves in the act of) | |
| 'teh|de|ssä|än' | '(while s/he is) reading' |
| 'sano|e|ssa|si' | '(while you are) saying' |
| Passive Inessive (when or while in the act of something being done) | |
| 'sano|tta|e|ssa' | 'when saying' |
| 'teh|tä|e|ssä' | 'when doing' |
| 'lue|tta|e|ssa' | 'when reading' |
| Active Instructive (by means of/ while in the act of) | |
| 'teh|de|n' | 'while/by doing' |
| 'sano|e|n' | 'while/by saying' |
| 'luki|e|n' | 'while/by reading |
Third infinitive
This corresponds to the English verbal noun (-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 'ma' followed by the case inflection.
The cases in which the third infinitive can appear are:
| Case | Finnish | English |
|---|---|---|
| inessive | 'lukemassa' | '(in the act of) reading' |
| Example: 'hän on lukemassa kirjastossa' | 's/he's reading in the library' | |
| elative | 'lukemasta' | '(from just having been) reading' |
| illative | 'lukemaan' | '(about to be / with the intention of) reading' |
| adessive | 'lukemalla' | '(by) reading' |
| abessive | 'lukematta' | '(without) reading' |
A rare and archaic form of the third infinitive which occurs with the verb pitää:
| Case | Finnish | English |
|---|---|---|
| instructive | 'sinun ei pidä lukeman' | 'you must not read' |
The third infinitive instructive is usually replaced with the first infinitive short form in modern Finnish.
Note that the '-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 -MINEN and indicates obligation, but it is quite rare in Finnish today. This is because there are other words like pitää and täytyy that can convey this meaning.
For example
| Fourth Infinitive | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| 'Sinne ei ole menemistä' | 'There is no going there' i.e. 'One must not go there' |
Though not an infinitve, a much more common -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.
| -MINEN noun formation | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| 'lukeminen on hauskaa' | 'reading is fun' |
| 'vihaan lukemista' | 'I hate reading' |
| '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 |
| '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 present and past participles, both with active and passive forms, and an 'agent' participle. Participles can be used in different ways than ordinary adjectives and they can have an object.
Present participle, active
| Present participle, active | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| 'nukku|va koira' | 'sleeping dog' |
| 'häikäise|vä valo' | 'blinding light' |
| 'olin luke|v|i|na|ni' | 'I pretended to be reading' [act. I participle pl. essive + poss. suff.] |
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Present participle, passive
| Present participle, passive | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| 'minun on nuku|tta|va' | 'I must sleep' [pass. I participle sg. nom.] |
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Past participle, active
Basically this is formed by removing the infinitive ending and adding '-nut/nyt' (depending on vowel harmony). For example:
| From | To |
|---|---|
| 'puhua' | 'puhunut' |
| 'syödä' | 'syönyt' |
However, depending on the verb's stem type, assimilation can occur with the 'n' of the ending.
In type II verbs, the 'n' is assimilated to the consonant at the end of the stem:
| From | To | To |
|---|---|---|
| 'mennä' | ('men-') | 'mennyt' |
| 'harjoitella' | ('harjoitel-') | 'harjoitellut' |
In verbs of types IV-VI, the 't' at the end of the stem is assimilated to the 'n':
| From | To | To |
|---|---|---|
| 'haluta' | ('halut-') | 'halunnut' |
| 'tarvita' | ('tarvit-') | 'tarvinnut' |
| 'rohjeta' | ('rohjet-') | 'rohjennut' |
Past particple, passive
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| 'lähde|tty|ä|si kotiin' | 'after you went home' [pass. II participle sg. ess.+ poss.suff.] |
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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 indicates something done by someone and can be inflected in all cases. The party performing the action is indicated by the use of genitive. For example:
| Agent participle | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| 'tytön lukema kirja' | the book read by the girl |
| 'tytön lukemaa kirjaa' | (partitive) the book read by the girl |
| 'tytön lukemassa kirjassa' | in the book read by the girl |
| etc. | |
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):
| Present indicative | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finnish | English | Finnish | English | |
| Singular | ||||
| 'tiedän' | 'I know' | -> | 'en tiedä' | 'I don't know' |
| 'tiedät' | 'you know' | -> | 'et tiedä' | 'you don't know' |
| 'tietää' | '(s)he knows' | -> | 'ei tiedä' | '(s)he doesn't know' |
| Plural | ||||
| 'tiedämme' | 'we know' | -> | 'emme tiedä' | 'we don't know' |
| 'tiedätte' | 'you know' | -> | 'ette tiedä' | 'you don't know' |
| 'tietävät' | 'they know' | -> | '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" - 'ei' - and the present passive with the final '-an' removed:
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| 'ei puhuta' | 'it is not spoken' |
| '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 'puhua' the pattern is:
| Imperfect indicative | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| Singular | |
| 'en puhunut' | 'I did not speak' |
| 'et puhunut' | 'you did not speak' |
| 'ei puhunut' | '(s/he) did not speak' |
| Plural | |
| 'emme puhuneet' | 'we did not speak' |
| 'ette puhuneet' | 'you did not speak' |
| '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: 'te ette puhunut' = 'you (s, 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 |
| 'ei puhuttu' | 'it was not spoken' |
| '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:
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| 'me ei menty' | 'we did not go' |
Interrogatives (questions)
There are two main ways of forming a question - either using a specific question word, or by adding a '-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 |
| 'mikä tämä on?' | 'what is this?' |
| 'tämä on kirja' | 'this is a book' |
| 'onko tämä kirja?' | 'is this a book?' |
| 'tämäkö on kirja?' | 'is this a book?' |
| 'kirjako tämä on?' | 'is this a book?' |
| 'eikö tämä ole kirja?' | 'is this not a book?' (note the '-kö' goes on the negative verb) |
Adverbs
A very common way of forming adverbs is by adding the ending '-sti' to the inflecting form of the corresponding adjective:
| Adverbs | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| 'nopea, nopeasti' | 'quick, quickly' |
| 'kaunis, kauniisti' | 'beautiful, beautifully' |
| 'hidas, hitaasti' | 'slow, slowly' |
| 'helppo, helposti' | 'easy, easily' |
The great thing about adverbs is that because they are modifying verbs, not nouns, they don't inflect!
Comparative formation
The comparative form of the adverb has the ending '-mmin'
| Comparative formation | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| 'nopea, nopeasti, nopeammin' | 'quick, quickly, more quickly/faster' |
| 'kaunis, kauniisti, kauniimmin' | 'beautiful, beautifully, more beautifully' |
| 'hidas, hitaasti, hitaammin' | 'slow, slowly, more slowly' |
| 'helppo, helposti, helpommin' | 'easy, easily, more easily' |
Superlative formation
The superlative form of the adverb has the ending '-immin'.
| Superlative formation | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| 'helppo, helposti, helpommin, helpoimmin' | 'easy, easily, more easily, most easily' |
Because of the '-i-', the stem vowel can change, similarly to superlative adjectives, or to avoid runs of three vowels:
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| 'nopea, nopeasti, nopeammin, nopeimmin' | 'quick, quickly, more quickly/faster, fastest' |
| 'kaunis, kauniisti, kauniimmin, kauneimmin' | 'beautiful, beautifully, more beautifully, most beautifully' |
| 'hidas, hitaasti, hitaammin, hitaimmin' | 'slow, slowly, more slowly, most slowly' |
Irregular forms
There are a number of irregular adverbs, including:
| Irregular forms | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| 'hyvä, hyvin, paremmin, parhaiten' | 'good, well, better, best' |
Numbers
Please refer to the separate numbers article for details of how numbers work in Finnish.
Sentence structure
Since Finnish is an inflected language, word order within sentences can be comparatively free - the function of a word being indicated by its ending.
The most usual neutral order, however, is subject-verb-object:
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| 'koira puri miestä' | 'the dog bit the man' |
but this can be varied for emphasis:
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| 'miestä puri koira' | 'the man was bitten by a dog' |
and:
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| 'miestä koira puri' | 'it was the man that the dog bit' (and not, say, his wife) |
| 'koira miestä puri' | 'it was a dog that bit the man' (and not, say, a wolf) |
| 'puri koira miestä' | 'the dog did bite the man' (if there was doubt whether any biting happened) |
The last three are not quite as natural, and would normally be expressed using a longer sentence (or several sentences). 'Puri miestä koira' is also possible but sounds rather poetical.
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 'there is' or 'there are' in English.
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| 'huoneessa on sänky' | 'there is a bed in the room' |
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:
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| 'siellä seisoi mies' | '(in/out) there stood a man' |