Finnish verb conjugation
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Verbs in the Finnish language 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.
Please refer to the Finnish language grammar article for more about verbs and other aspects of Finnish grammar.
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Type I verbs
These are verbs whose infinitive forms end in vowel + 'a' (or 'ä' for front-vowel containing stems), for example 'puhua' = 'to speak', 'tietää' = 'to know'. This group contains a very large number of verbs. Here is how 'tietää' conjugates in the present indicative:
- minä tiedän = I know
- sinä tiedät = you (singular) know
- hän/se tietää = (s)he/it knows
- me tiedämme = we know
- te tiedätte = you (plural/formal) know
- he tietävät = they know
The personal endings are thus -n, -t, -(doubled vowel), -mme, -tte, -vat. The inflecting stem is formed by dropping the final '-a', and has a strong consonant in the third-person forms and weak otherwise. Note that for third person plural, this is an exception to the general rule for strong consonants.
Imperfect indicative
In the simple case (which applies to most type I verbs), the imperfect indicative is formed by inserting the charateristic 'i' between the stem and the personal endings, which are the same as in the present tense except that the vowel does not double in the 3rd person singular:
- 'puhun' = 'I speak', 'puhuin' = 'I spoke'
- 'puhut' = 'you speak', 'puhuit' = 'you spoke'
- 'puhuu' = '(he) speaks', 'puhui' = '(he) spoke'
- 'puhumme' = 'we speak', 'puhuimme' = 'we spoke' and so on.
However, the insertion of the 'i' often has an effect on the stem. Of type I verbs, one notable exception is 'tietää':
- 'tiedän' = 'I know', 'tiesin' = 'I knew'
'ymmärtää' = 'to understand' also follows this pattern. Changes of stem for other verb types will be discussed in the relevant sections below.
Passive
- Present passive
- The present passive is formed by adding '-taan' to the inflecting stem of the verb with the consonant in its weak form:
- puhua -> puhu- -> puhutaan
- If the vowel at the end of the stem is 'a' or 'ä' it is changed to 'e' before the '-taan' ending:
- tietää -> tiedä- -> tiede -> tiedetään
- Imperfect passive
- This is formed in the same way as the present passive, except that the ending is '-ttiin', hence 'puhuttiin' = 'it was spoken', 'tiedettiin' = 'it was known'.
- Note the presence of the same 'i' marker in the imperfect passive as in the imperfect indicative. Note also the presence of the extra 't'.
- Conditional passive
- This is formed in the same way as the present passive, except that the ending is '-ttaisiin', hence 'puhuttaisiin' = 'it would be spoken', 'tiedettaisiin' = 'it would be known'.
- Note the presence of the 'isi' conditional marker.
- Potential passive
- This is formed in the same way as the present passive, except that the ending is '-ttaneen', hence 'puhuttaneen' = 'it may be spoken', 'tiedettaneen' = 'it may be known'.
- Note the presence of the 'ne' potential marker.
Type II verbs
These are verbs whose infinitive forms end in two consonants + 'a', for example 'mennä' = 'to go'. This is another large group of verbs.
Present indicative
The stem is formed by removing the 'a' and its preceding consonant. Then add 'e' followed by the personal endings: menen, menet, menee, menemme, menette, menevät.
Imperfect indicative
The 'i' of the imperfect is added directly to the stem formed as for the present tense, then the personal endings are added: 'pestä' = 'to clean', 'pesen' = 'I clean', 'pesin' = 'I cleaned' etc.
Passive
Present passive
In this group, the passive has the same '-aan' ending as for group I verbs, but no 't'; the easiest way to form the passive is to extend the vowel on the end of the first infinitive and then add 'n':
- mennä -> mennään
All other forms of the passive are related to the present passive in the same way as for type I verbs, including the 'extra t', except that since there was no 't' to start with, the passive forms only have one ! Also the double consonant before the ending becomes single.
- mennä -> mennään -> mentiin, mentäisiin
- olla -> ollaan -> oltiin (see below), oltaisiin
'Olla' ('to be')
Strictly, 'olla' belongs to this group. 'To be' is irregular in most languages, and Finnish is no exception, but the irregularities are confined to the 3rd-person forms of the present tense - everything else is regular:
- 'olen' = 'I am'
- 'olet' = 'you are'
- 'on' = 'he/she/it is' (irregular)
- 'olemme' = 'we are'
- 'olette' = 'you are'
- 'ovat' = 'they are' (irregular)
Type III verbs
Verbs whose infinitives end in vowel + 'da', for example 'juoda' = 'to drink', 'syödä' = 'to eat'. This is a fairly large group of verbs, partly because one way in which foreign borrowings are incorporated into the Finnish verb paradigms is to add 'oida', for example, 'organisoida' = 'to organise'.
Another important verb of this type is 'voida' = 'to be able/allowed to'.
The stem is formed by removing 'da' with no vowel doubling in the third person singular: juon, juot, juo, juomme, juotte, juovat.
Imperfect indicative
For these verbs whose stems end in two vowels, the first of the vowels is lost when the 'i' is added in the imperfect: 'juon = 'I drink', 'join' = 'I drank' etc.
There is an exception to this rule if the stem already ends in an 'i' - for example 'voida' or the '-oida' verbs mentioned earlier. In this case the stem does not change between present and imperfect indicative, so the imperfect forms are the same as the present forms, and the distinction between them must be made from context.
Passive
Passives in this group are formed in the same way as for group II verbs:
- syödä -> syödään, syötiin, syötäisiin
- juoda -> juodaan, juotiin, juotaisiin
Type IV verbs
This, and the following two groups, have infinitives ending in vowel + 'ta'. Most commonly, type IV verbs end with 'ata', 'ota', 'uta', but the other two vowels are possible. Examples are 'tavata' = 'to meet', 'haluta' = 'to want', 'tarjota' = 'to offer'.
The inflecting stem is formed by dropping the 'a' changing the final consonant into its strong form:
- haluta -> halut-
- tavata -> tapat-
- tarjota -> tarjot-
In the present indicative, the final 't' mutates into an 'a' ! After this, the personal ending is added (or the vowel doubled in the 3rd person singular) as usual:
- haluan, haluat, haluaa, haluamme, haluatte, haluavat
- tapaan, tapaat, tapaa etc.
- tarjoan, tarjoat, tarjoaa etc.
Imperfect indicative
The same stem is used as for the present except that the final 't' becomes 's' rather than 'a'. This is followed by the imperfect 'i' marker and the personal endings: 'halusin' = 'I wanted', 'tapasimme' = 'we met' etc.
Passive
Passives in this group are formed in the same way as for type II verbs, except that since the present passives will all have a 't' (from the first infinitive) the 'extra t' appears in the other forms as for type I verbs:
- haluta -> halutaan, haluttiin, haluttaisiin
- tavata -> tavataan, tavattiin, tavattaisiin
Type V verbs
All the verbs in this groups have infinitives ending in 'ita'. There are not that many of them, the most 'important' being 'tarvita' = 'to need'
The stem is formed by dropping the final 'a' and adding 'se': tarvitsen, tarvitset, tarvitsee, tarvitsemme, tarvitsette, tarvitsevat.
Imperfect indicative
Passive
Passives of this type are formed in the same way as for type IV verbs.
Type VI verbs
Almost all the verbs of this type have infinitives ending in 'eta'. There are not many verbs which fall into this category of their 'own right', and these don't tend to be commonly used. However, it is a reasonably common route for turning adjectives into verbs (for example 'kylmä' = 'cold', 'kylmetä' = 'to get cold')
The stem for this type is formed by removing the 'ta' then adding 'ne' with the additional change that the final consonant of the stem is in its strong form:
- 'rohjeta' = 'to dare'
- 'rohkenen' = 'I dare'
- 'rohkenet' = 'you dare'
- 'rohkenee' = 'he/she/it dares' etc.
- 'paeta' = 'to escape', 'pakenen' = 'I escape'
- 'kylmetä' = 'to get cold', 'kylmenen' = 'I get cold'
Imperfect indicative
Passive
Passives of this type are formed in the same way as for type IV verbs.
Irregular stems
Finnish has mercifully few irregular verbs, and apart from 'olla' discussed above, the personal endings are always regular. The three common verbs with irregular stems are 'tehdä' = 'to do, make', 'nähdä' = 'to see', and 'juosta' = 'to run'. Their present indicatives go as follows:
- teen, teet, tekee, teemme, teette, tekevät
- näen, näet, näkee, näemme, näette, näkevät
- juoksen, juokset, juoksee, juoksemme, juoksette, juoksevat