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Languages Fast and Easy - Finnish Grammar
Languages Fast and Easy - Finnish Grammar
Somewhat like 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
min
sin
you
hn
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 third person, the pronoun is needed: "hn
menee" = he goes, "he menevt" = they go. This applies to both colloquial and written
language.
In colloquial Finnish, the pronouns se and ne are very commonly used as the singular and
plural third person pronouns, respectively. Use of hn and he is mostly restricted to
writing and formal speech.
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.
[edit]
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
tm
this
tuo
that
se
it/that
Plural
nm
these
nuo
those
Interrogative pronouns
Interrogative pronouns
Finnish
English
kuka
mik
ken
kumpi
Relative pronouns
Relative pronouns
Pronoun
Example
"hn on ainoa, jonka
muistan"
English
"s/he is the only one who
(I) remember"
Reciprocal pronouns
Reciprocal pronouns
Pronoun
Example
English
toinen
"he rakastavat toinen toistaan" "they love one another" (double singular)
Reflexive pronouns
Reflexive pronouns
Pronoun
itse
Suffix
Example
"keitin itselleni
teet"
English
"(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 are possible.
Indefinite pronouns
Finnish
English
joka (uninflected)
every, each
jokainen
every, everyone
joku
jompikumpi
either one
jokin
kukin
each one
kumpainenkin
kumpikin
both
mikin
kenkn
anyone
-> ei kukaan
not anyone
kumpikaan
either one
-> ei kumpikaan
mikn
Each pronoun declines. However, the endings -kAAn and -kin are clitics, and case endings
are placed before them, e.g. mikn "any", miltkn "from any". It should be noted that
there are irregular nominatives. As indicated, kukaan is an irregular nominative; the
regular root is kene- with -kn, e.g. kukaan "(not) anyone", keneltkn "from (not)
anyone".
English lacks a direct equivalent to the pronoun mones; it would be "that-th", or "whichth" for questions. For examples, Palkkio riippuu siit monentenako maaliin tulee "The
reward depends on as-which-th one comes to the finish", or explicitly "The reward
depends on in which position one comes to the finish". It would be difficult to translate
the question Monesko?, but, while far from proper English, the question How manyeth
may give an English-speaking person an idea of the meaning.
Some indefinite adjectives are often perceived as indefinite pronouns. These include:
Indefinite adjectives
Finnish
English
ainoa
only
ers
harva
few
itse (non-reflexive)
self
kaikki
molemmat
both
moni
many
muu
other
muutama
some, a few
sama
same
Noun forms
The Finnish language does not distinguish gender in nouns or even in personal pronouns:
'hn' = '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. Notice that the word in a
given locative case modifies the verb, not a noun. Please see the article Finnish language
noun cases for details.
Finnish cases
Case
Suffix
English prep.
Sample
Translation
Grammatical
nominatiivi
talo
house
of (a) house
genetiivi
-n
of
talon
akkusatiivi
- or -n
partitiivi
-(t)a
taloa
Locative (internal)
inessiivi
-ssa
in
talossa
in (a) house
elatiivi
-sta
from (inside)
talosta
illatiivi
taloon
Locative (external)
adessiivi
-lla
at, on
talolla
at (a) house
ablatiivi
-lta
from
talolta
allatiivi
-lle
to
talolle
to (a) house
Essive
essiivi
-na
as
talona
as a house
from being
talonta
translatiivi
to (role of)
taloksi
to a house
-ksi
Marginal
instruktiivi
-n
abessiivi
-tta
without
komitatiivi
-ne-
talotta
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
Following numerals
After numerals greater than one in the nominative singular, the noun is put in the partitive
singular. Otherwise the noun agrees with the numeral in number and case. (Please refer to
the separate article on numerals for an explanation of plural numerals.)
Following numerals
Finnish
English
"ostin tietokoneen tuhannella eurolla" "I bought a computer for a thousand euros"
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
-> 'huoneissa'
'in rooms'
Inflected plural
Finnish
'lintu on puussa'
English
'the bird is in the tree'
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
'min'
Case
Example
nominative
English
'I'
('my, mine')
'minun'
genitive
'tm talo on
minun '
'tm on minun
taloni '
'this is my house'
'minut'
'minua'
partitive
'hn rakastaa
minua'
'minussa' inessive
'tm hertt
minussa vihaa'
'minusta' elative
'minuun' illative
'minulla' adessive
'minulla on rahaa'
'minulta' ablative
'minulle' allative
'anna minulle
rahaa'
'sinuna'
essive
'minuksi' translative
'hnt luullaan
usein minuksi'
singular
sg.
gen.
sg.
part.
plural
pl.
gen.
pl.
part.
notes
kala
tie
tien
maa
tiet
tiet
teiden teit
An 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. nimi "(at the) names", as contrasted
to the nime "at the name".
Recent loanwords are an exception to this elision, but the plural is unchanged. (Often the
-i is added to nativize a word as Finnish nouns generally don't end in consonants.) 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.
Consonant stems
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 form behaves like it ended in -s, with the exception of the nominative, where it is nen. Thus, the stem for these words removes the '-nen' and adds '-s(e)' after which the
inflectional ending is added:
Finnish
English
'muovisessa pussissa'
Finnish
From word
English
'ktnen'
ksi
'lintunen'
lintu
'veikkonen' veikka
'kirjanen'
'booklet'
kirja
'kukkanen' kukka
'little flower'
'kalanen'
'little fish'
kala
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
'Korhonen'
korho
'Leinonen'
leino
'Virtanen', 'Jokinen',
'Jrvinen', 'Nieminen'...
'Mikkonen'
'Martikainen'
'Lyytikinen'
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.
Bold text=====-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'. Likewise, the illative case ending assibilates. Other
case forms add an 'e' followed by the case ending:
-e nouns
Finnish
English
'huoneessa'
'huoneeseen'
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
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'
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
Superlative formation
The superlative of the adjective is formed by adding '-in' to the inflecting stem. For
example:
Superlative formation
Finnish English
'iso'
'big'
'punainen' 'red'
Finnish
'iso''|''in'
English
'biggest'
'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:
'small'
English
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
'punais''|''imma''|''ssa talo''|''ssa' 'in the reddest house' (if that makes sense...)
Irregular forms
The most important irregular form is:
Finnish
English
Finnish
Hypothetic regular
English
'pitk, *pitkmpi,
*pitkin'
'lyhyt, lyhyempi,
lyhin'
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
Postpositions indicate place, time, cause, consequence or relation. In postpositional
phrases the noun is usually in genitive:
Postpositions
Finnish
English
'pydn alla'
'joulun jlkeen'
'after Christmas'
'lasten thden'
The noun (or pronoun) can be omitted when there is a possessive suffix:
Finnish
English
[EDIT: As with verbs, the pronoun can not be omitted in third person (singular or plural):
"Olin __ mukanasi" -> "I was with you" vs. "Olin hnen mukanaan" -> "I was with
him/her"
"Tulen __ mukaanne" -> "I will come with you (plural or polite)" vs. "Tulen heidn
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
Prepositions
Finnish
Equal Finnish
English
'kyln keskell ' ' keskell kyl' ' 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 an irregular
form on "is"; other forms follow from the stem ol- with an epenthetic 'e' and consonant
cluster abbreviation if necessary; e.g. olet ol+t "you are", ovat ol+vat "they are". A
handful of verbs, including 'nhd' = 'to see', 'tehd' = 'to do/make', and 'juosta' = 'to run'
have rare consonant mutation patterns which are not derivable from the infinitive.
Finnish does not have a separate verb for possession. Possession is indicated in other
ways, mainly by genitives and existential clauses. For animate possessors, the adessive
case is used with 'olla', for example 'koiralla on hnt' = '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 forms such as "There is a hunger on me".
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. The present is formed with
using the personal suffixes only. For example, otan "I take" (from ottaa, "to
take").
Imperfect: actually a preterite tense, 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 infix -i- in addition to
the personal suffixes, e.g. 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 is Germanic of origin, and uses the verb 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 -nut/-nyt participle form. For example, olen ottanut
"I have taken", where ole- is the auxiliary verb stem, -n is the personal suffix for
"I", otta- is the stem for the main verb, and -nut is the participle marker.
Pluperfect: corresponds to the English past perfect ("I had visited") in its usage.
Similarly to perfect, the verb olla is used in the past tense as an auxiliary verb. For
example, olin ottanut "I had taken".
Voices
Finnish has two possible verb voices: definite and indefinite. The definite voice
corresponds with the active voice of English, but the indefinite voice has some important
differences from the passive voice.
Indefinite voice
The Finnish indefinite would best be 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 indefinite. 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 (that is, the object of the action) is in the nominative case. Verbs which govern
the partitive case continue to do so in the indefinite, 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 indefinite the agent is always human and never
mentioned. A sentence such as the tree was blown down would translate poorly into
Finnish if the indefinite 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 indefinite can also
translate the English one does (something), (something) is generally done, as in sanotaan
ett "they say that"
In modern colloquial Finnish, the indefinite form of the verb is used after me to mean "we
do (something)", for example, me tullaan "we are coming", and on its own at the
beginning of a sentence to make a suggestion, as in Mennn! "Let's go!". In case of the
former, the me cannot be omitted without risk of causing confusion with the latter, unlike
with the "standard" form tulemme.
Formation of the indefinite will be dealt with under the verb types below.
[edit]
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:
"ymmrtisin 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:
'tiedn' = 'I know', 'tietisin' = 'I would know'.
cf. 'haluan' = 'I want', 'haluaisin' = 'I would like'.
Conditional forms exists for both definite and indefinite voices, and for present and
perfect tenses.
[edit]
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:
[edit]
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):
Finnish
English
'tule!'
'come!'
'sy!'
'eat!'
'huomaa!'
'note!'
To make this negative, 'l' (which is the definite imperative singular 2nd person of the
negative verb) is placed before the positive form:
Finnish
English
'l sano!'
'don't say!'
'l mene!'
'don't go!'
'l valehtele!'
'don't lie!'
(from 'valehdella' = 'to lie', type II)
Finnish
English
'tulkaa!'
'come!'
'juokaa!'
'drink!'
'mitatkaa!'
'measure!'
(from 'mitata' = 'to measure', type IV)
To make this negative, 'lk' (which is the definite imperative present plural 2nd person
of the negation verb)is placed before the positive form and the suffix '-ko' or '-k' is
added to the verb stem:
Finnish
English
Indefinite imperatives
Finnish
English
tehtkn
lkn tehtk
olkoon tehty
Finnish
English
'olkoon'
'tehkt'
'lkn unohtako' 'let him not forget', 'he better not forget'
Finnish
English
'menkmme'
'let us go'
Optative
Finnish
English
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. It has only the
present and perfect tenses. 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. Furthermore, continuants assimilate progressively
(pes+ne- pesse-) and stops regressively (korjat+ne- korjanne-). The verb "lie"
always replaces the verb "olla" "to be" in the potential mood, e.g. the potential of on
haettu "has been fetched" is lienee haettu "may have been fetched".
Potential forms exists for both definite and indefinite voices, and for present and perfect
tenses:
Potential
Finnish
English
lie|ne|n
pes|se|e
korjan|ne|e
sur|re|vat
se pes|t|ne|en
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
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. It is not unmarked;
its overt marking is the suffix -ta, which is however radically changed more often than
not. First, vowel harmony has 'a' for back-vowel and '' for front-vowel words.
Intervocalically, the 't' elides, e.g. sano|a, kirjoitta|a. The cluster '-k+ta' is changed to 'hda', e.g. *nk+t nhd. Consonant gradation is not used; the root for this form is the
strong form. This corresponds to the English 'to' form, for example:
Finnish English
'sano|a' 'to say'
Finnish
English
'tiet||kse|mme'
'voi|da|kse|ni lukea'
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 definite and indefinite forms. The instructive has only a definite form.
A possessive suffix can be added to the definite 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'/'' of the first infinitive with 'e'
then adding the appropriate inflectional ending. If the vowel before the 'a'/'' 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
'sano|e|ssa'
'sano|e|ssa|si'
'when saying'
'teh|t|e|ss'
'when doing'
'lue|tta|e|ssa'
'when reading'
'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
'lukemassa'
'lukemasta'
inessive
elative
illative
'lukemaan'
adessive 'lukemalla'
'(by) reading'
abessive 'lukematta'
'(without) reading'
A rare and archaic form of the third infinitive which occurs with the verb pit:
Case
Finnish
English
Fourth Infinitive
Finnish
English
'Sinne ei ole menemist' '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.
Finnish
English
'vihaan lukemista'
'nautin lukemisesta'
Fifth infinitive
This is a fairly rare form which has the meaning 'on the point of ...ing / just about to ...'
Fifth infinitive
Finnish
English
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.
Finnish
English
'lhde|tty||si kotiin'
From
To
'puhua' 'puhunut'
'syd' 'synyt'
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
'menn'
To
('men-')
To
'mennyt'
From
To
To
Finnish
English
Finnish
'nukku|va koira'
English
'sleeping dog'
Agent participle
Finnish
English
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: huomenna kyttmnnne vlineen on - "tomorrow, as the instrument you will be using is --". Here, kyttm "that which is
used" describes, i.e. is an attribute to vline "instrument". (Notice the case agreement
between kyttm-n and vlinee-n.) The suffix -nne "your" specifies the person
"owning" the action, i.e. who does it, thus kyttmnne is "that which was used by
you(pl.)", and kyttmnnne is "as that which was used by you".
It is also possible to give the actor with a pronoun, e.g. sinun kyttmsi "that which was
used by you". In standard language, the pronoun 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. sun kyttms.
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
'tiedn'
'I know'
'tiedt'
'you know'
'tiet'
Plural
'tiedmme' 'we know'
'tiedtte'
'you know'
'tietvt'
'they 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 indefinite
The negative is formed from the third-person singular "negative verb" - 'ei' - and the
present indefinite with the final '-an' removed:
Finnish
English
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'
'et puhunut'
'ei puhunut'
Plural
'emme puhuneet' 'we did not speak'
'ette puhuneet'
Imperfect passive
Finnish
English
Finnish
English
Interrogatives (questions)
There are two main ways of forming a question - either using a specific question word, or
by adding a '-ko/k' 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
'mik tm on?'
'what is this?'
'tm on kirja'
'this is a book'
'onko tm kirja?'
'tmk on kirja?'
'kirjako tm on?'
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
'hidas, hitaasti'
'slow, slowly'
Comparative formation
The comparative form of the adverb has the ending '-mmin'
Comparative formation
Finnish
English
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
'hidas, hitaasti, hitaammin, hitaimmin' 'slow, slowly, more slowly, most slowly'
Irregular forms
There are a number of irregular adverbs, including:
Irregular forms
Finnish
English
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
Finnish
English
Finnish
English
Finnish
English
Finnish
English
'rahaa minulla
on'
'rahaa on
minulla'
'minulla rahaa
on'
'on minulla
rahaa'
Finnish
English
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
Finnish
English
Finnish
English
'huoneessa on kaksi snky' 'in the room there are two beds'
Cardinal numbers
Finnish
yksi
English
one
kaksi
two
kolme
three
nelj
four
viisi
five
kuusi
six
seitsemn seven
kahdeksan eight
yhdeksn
nine
kymmenen ten
To get 'teen's, 'toista' is added to the base number: yksitoista, kaksitoista ...
yhdeksntoista. ('Toista' actually means 'of second [decade]'. Formerly it has been used
for numbers over 19, too: e.g. 35 would be 'viisineljtt', 'five-of-fourth'.)
Twenty is simply 'kaksikymment' = 'two tens' (with kymmenen appearing in the partitive
after a number as is normal for nouns). Then the decades are kolmekymment,
neljkymment ... yhdeksnkymment.
100 is 'sata', 200 is 'kaksisataa' and so on.
1000 is 'tuhat', 2000 is 'kaksituhatta' and so on.
So, 3721 = 'kolme-tuhatta-seitsemn-sataa-kaksi-kymment-yksi' (actually written as one
long word with no dashes in between).
Long numbers (like 32534756) are separated in three numbers sections with space
beginning from the end of the number (for example 32 534 756). Writing it with letters
follow the spacing, in the example (in numbers over one million, 'miljoona' ('million') is
written separately) 'kolme-kymment-kaksi miljoonaa viisi-sataa-kolme-kymment-neljtuhatta seitsemn-sataa-viisi-kymment-kuusi'. (No dashes, they are only to make the
number look clear.)
Numbers can be inflected in cases; all parts of the number except 'toista' are inflected. For
example:
Finnish
English
kahtena pivn
kahdessatoista maassa
in twelve countries
Finnish
English
kahdet saappaat
kolmet jalanjljet
Ordinal numbers
These are the 'ordering' form of the numbers - first, second, third and so on. Ordinal
numbers are generally formed by adding an '-s' ending, but 'first' and 'second' are
completely different, and for the others then stems are not straightforward:
Finnish
English
ensimminen first
toinen
second
kolmas
third
neljs
fourth
viides
fifth
kuudes
sixth
seitsems
seventh
kahdeksas
eighth
yhdekss
ninth
kymmenes
tenth
For teens, you change the first part of the word; however note how 'first' and 'second' lose
their irregularity in 'eleven' and 'twelve':
Finnish
English
yhdestoista
eleventh
kahdestoista
twelfth
kolmastoista
thirteenth
neljstoista
fourteenth
viidestoista
fifteenth
kuudestoista
sixteenth
seitsemstoista seventeeth
kahdeksastoista eighteenth
yhdeksstoista nineteeth
For twenty through ninety-nine, all parts of the number get the '-s' ending. 'First' and
'second' take the irregular form only at the end of a word. The regular forms are possible
for them but they are less common.
Finnish
kahdeskymmenes
English
twentieth
kahdeskymmenestoinen
kahdeskymmeneskolmas
twenty-third
100th is 'sadas', 1000th is 'tuhannes', 3721st is 'kolmas-tuhannes-seitsems-sadas-kahdeskymmenes-ensimminen'. (Again, dashes only included here for clarity; the word is
properly spelled without them.)
Like cardinals, ordinal numbers can also be inflected:
Finnish
kolmatta viikkoa
English
for (already) the third week
tuhannennelle asiakkaalle
The 'toista' in the 'teens' is actually the partitive of 'toinen', which is why 'toista' gets no
further inflection endings. (Literally 'yksitoista || one-of-the-second'.)
Long ordinal numbers in Finnish are typed in almost the same way than the long cardinal
numbers. 32534756 would be (in numbers over one million, 'miljoona' ('million') is
written separately) 'kolmas-kymmenes-kahdes miljoonas viides-sadas-kolmaskymmenes-neljs-tuhannes seitsems-sadas-viides-kymmenes-kuudes'. (Still, no dashes.)
Names of numbers
This is a feature of Finnish which doesn't have an exact counterpart in English. These
forms are used to refer to the actual number itself, rather than the quantity or order which
the number represents. This should be clearer from the examples below, but first here is
the list:
Names of numbers
Finnish
English
nolla
ykknen
number one
kakkonen
number two
kolmonen
number three
nelonen
number four
viitonen
number five
kuutonen
number six
seitsemn
yhdeksn or yhdeksikk
kymmenen
satanen
number hundred
Also, 'kahdeksikko' refers to the shape of the number. Some examples of how these are
used:
The 'number three tram' is the 'kolmonen' when you are riding it, you are
'kolmosella' (Yes, these inflect too!)
A magazine has the title '7' and is called 'Seiska'
My car, a '93 model, is an 'ysi kolmonen' when buying spare parts
The '106' bus is the 'sata kuutonen'
A 5 bill may be called "vitonen", a 10 bill "kymppi", a 20
"kaksikymppinen", a 100 bill "satanen",
VERVOS CONJUGACIONS
Type I verbs
These are verbs whose infinitive forms end in vowel + 'a' (or '' for front-vowel
containing stems), for example 'puhua' = 'to speak', 'tiet' = 'to know'. This group
contains a very large number of verbs. Here is how 'tiet' conjugates in the present
indicative:
min tiedn = I know
sin tiedt = you (singular) know
hn/se tiet = (s)he/it knows
me tiedmme = we know
te tiedtte = you (plural/formal) know
he tietvt = 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:
Indefinite
Present indefinite
The present indefinite 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 '' it is changed to 'e' before the '-taan'
ending:
tiet -> tied- -> tiede -> tiedetn
Past indefinite
This is formed in the same way as the present indefinite, 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 past indefinite as in the imperfect
indicative. Note also the presence of the extra 't'.
Conditional indefinite
This is formed in the same way as the present indefinite, 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 indefinite
This is formed in the same way as the present indefinite, 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.
[edit]
Type II verbs
These are verbs whose infinitive forms end in two consonants + 'a', for example 'menn'
= 'to go'. This is another large group of verbs.
[edit]
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, menevt.
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: 'pest' = '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':
menn -> mennn
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.
menn -> mennn -> mentiin, mentisiin
olla -> ollaan -> oltiin (see below), oltaisiin
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.
[edit]
Passive
Passives in this group are formed in the same way as for group II verbs:
syd -> sydn, sytiin, sytisiin
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 -> haluttavata -> tapattarjota -> tarjotIn 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
This section is a stub. You can help by adding to it.
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 'kylm' = 'cold', 'kylmet' = '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'
'kylmet' = 'to get cold', 'kylmenen' = 'I get cold'
Imperfect indicative
This section is a stub. You can help by adding to it.
Passive
Passives of this type are formed in the same way as for type IV verbs.
English
olla
to be
ja
and
se
it
ei
no
joka
which
hn
he, she
ett
that
tm
this
mutta
but
10
voida
to be able to
Written Spoken
English
11
saada
to get
12
kun
when
13
niin
so
14
kuin
than
15
tulla
to come
16
min