Consonant stems

-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:

Here are a few of the diminutive forms that are still in use:

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:

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:

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:

And here are some examples of adjectives inflected to agree with nouns:

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:

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:

Superlative formation

The superlative of the adjective is formed by adding '-in' to the inflecting stem. For example:

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:

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:

Irregular forms

The most important irregular form is:

(though Finns understand 'hyvempi' :-) [used mainly by small children]

Notice also:

There are a small number of other irregular comparative and superlative forms, such as:

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:

The noun (or pronoun) can be omitted when there is a possessive suffix:

[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:

Some postpositions can also be used as prepositions:

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 "vaguely personal" form 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 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 more can be said about the person doing the painting ! There is no mechanism for saying "the house is being painted by Jim". [Correction: actually you could say "Talo on Jimin maalattavana". This indicates that the house is currently been painted by Jim as we speak. More common would be to say "Talo on Jimin maalaama" meaning that it has been painted by Jim.]

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 because of a mental image of a group of people huffing ang puffing and 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": "sanotaan että..." = "they say that..."

In modern spoken Finnish, the passive form of the verb is used after "me" to mean "we do {something}" ("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.

[EDIT: "talo maalataan" literally means "the house will be painted". "taloa maalataan (nyt)" means "the house is being painted (right now)". There is a big difference whether you say "talo" or "taloa", because the partitive form sometimes also indicates the tense of the clause.]

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, perfect and pluperfect 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):

To make this negative, 'älä' (which is the active imperative singular 2nd person of the negative verb) is placed before the positive form:

To form the plural, add '-kaa' or '-kää' to the verb's stem:

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:

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

3rd person imperatives

1st person plural imperatives

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.

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:

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.

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:

The first infinitive long form is the translative plus a possessive suffix.

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:

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:

A rare and archaic form of the third infinitive which occurs with the verb pitää:

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

This corresponds to the English verbal noun (-ing form), and behaves as a noun in Finnish in that it can be inflected. It is used to refer to the action of the verb in general.

The third infinitive is formed by taking the verb stem with its consonant in the strong form, then adding 'minen'. It then inflects like all other nouns ending with '-nen'.

Fifth infinitive

This is a fairly rare form which has the meaning 'on the point of ...ing / just about to ...'

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, passive

Past participle, active

Basically this is formed by removing the infinitive ending and adding '-nut/nyt' (depending on vowel harmony). For example:

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:

In verbs of types IV-VI, the 't' at the end of the stem is assimilated to the 'n':

Past particple, passive

'lähde|tty|ä|si kotiin' = 'after you went home' [pass. II participle sg. ess.+ poss.suff.]

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:

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):

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:

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:

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):

Note that in the spoken language, this form is used for the first person plural. In this case, the personal pronoun is obligatory:

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:

Adverbs

A very common way of forming adverbs is by adding the ending '-sti' to the inflecting form of the corresponding adjective:

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'

Superlative formation

The superlative form of the adverb has the ending '-immin'.

Because of the '-i-', the stem vowel can change, similarly to superlative adjectives, or to avoid runs of three vowels:

Irregular forms

There are a number of irregular adverbs, including:

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:

but this can be varied for emphasis:

and:

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.

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:

See also

• Finnish