Finnish language grammar
This article details the grammar of the Finnish language. There are separate articles covering the sound patterns of Finnish, and the ways in which spoken Finnish differs from the formal grammar of the written language. It is probably best to read the introduction to Finnish and Finnish language phonetics articles to make best use of this article.
The personal pronouns in Finnish are:
Since Finnish verbs are inflected for person, personal pronouns are not required for sense and are usually omitted in written Finnish except where used for emphasis. In spoken Finnish, however, the pronouns are generally used.
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.
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.
The formation of the partitive plural is rather variable, but the basic principle is to add '-i-' to the inflecting stem, followed by the '-(t)a' partitive ending. However, in a similar way to verb imperfects, the '-i-' can cause changes to the final vowel of the stem, leading to an apparent diversity of forms.
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As a combined example of plurals 'lintu on puussa' = 'the bird is in the tree' -> 'linnut ovat puissa' = 'the birds are in the trees'
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 rare 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:
At least in one place the name has also been left into a place. There is a peninsula called "Neuvosenniemi" in one lake. "Neuvonen" means "a bit of advice/direction" and the peninsula was where people rowing tar barrels across the lae would stop and ask if wheather etc should make it safe to continue across the other side.
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:
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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'.
"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"
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"
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.
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.
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, perfect and pluperfect tenses.
Finnish verbs are described as having four, sometimes five infinitives:
All first infinitives end in 'a'/'ä'.
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:
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:
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.
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'.
However, the insertion of the 'i' often has an effect on the stem. Of type I verbs, one notable exception is 'tietää':
'ymmärtää' = 'to understand' also follows this pattern. Changes of stem for other verb types will be discussed in the relevant sections below.
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.
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.
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.
The inflecting stem is formed by dropping the 'a' changing the final consonant into its strong form:
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:
The stem is formed by dropping the final 'a' and adding 'se': tarvitsen, tarvitset, tarvitsee, tarvitsemme, tarvitsette, tarvitsevat.
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:
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':
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'
Note that in the spoken language, this form is used for the first person plural. In this case, the personal pronoun is obligatory: 'me ei menty' = 'we did not go'
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:
'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?' = 'isn this _not_ a book?' (note the '-kö' goes on the negative verb)
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, the word 'älä' is placed before the positive form:
To form the plural, add '-kaa' or '-kää' to the verb's stem:
To make this negative, the word 'älkää' is placed before the positive form and the suffix '-ko' or '-kö' is added to the verb stem:
Note that 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.
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Twenty is simply 'kaksikymmentä' = 'two tens' (with kymmenen appearing in the partitive after a number as is normal for nouns). Then the decades are kolmekymmentä, neljäkymmentä ... yhdeksänkymmentä.
100 is 'sata', 200 is 'kaksisataa' and so on.
1000 is 'tuhat', 2000 is 'kaksituhatta' and so on.
So, 3721 = 'kolme-tuhatta-seitsemän-sataa-kaksi-kymmentä-yksi' (actually written as one long word with no dashes in between).
Numbers can be inflected in cases; all parts of the number except 'toista' are inflected. For example:
For teens, you change the first part of the word; however note how 'first' and 'second' lose their irregularity in 'eleven' and 'twelve':
For twenty through ninety-nine, all parts of the number get the '-s' ending. Note that 'first' and 'second' take the irregular form only at the end of a word. (For 'second', the regular form is also possible.)
100th is 'sadas', 1000th is 'tuhannes', 3721th is 'kolmas-tuhannes-seitsemäs-sadas-kahdes-kymmenes-ensimmäinen'. (Again, dashes only included here for clarity; the word is properly spelled without them.)
Like cardinals, ordinal numbers can also be inflected:
Also note that 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'.)
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 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:
'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:
'siellä seisoi mies' = '(in/out) there stood a man'
Personal pronouns
Noun forms Cases
Finnish has fourteen (arguably fifteen or even sixteen) noun cases.
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Plurals
There are three different 'plurals' in Finnish:
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 (but see the 'accusative' above). For example:
Noun/adjective stem types
Vowel stems
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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.
-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'
Adjectives Comparative formation
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Superlative formation
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Irregular forms
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Postpositions and prepositions
Verb forms Tenses[?]
Finnish verbs have present, imperfect, perfect and pluperfect tenses.
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 an "impersonal" 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:
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").
Imperative
The imperative mood is used to express commands.
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.
Infinitives
First infinitive
This corresponds to the English 'to' form, for example:
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 a limited number of cases. It is quite rare, especially in the spoken language, except in certain set phrases (for example 'toisin sanoen' = 'in other words').
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.
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.
Fifth infinitive
This is a fairly rare form which has the meaning 'on the point of ...ing / just about to ...'
Verb Conjugation
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:
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:
Passive
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':
'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:
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'.
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.
Passive
Passives in this group are formed in the same way as for group II verbs:
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'.
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:
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'
Imperfect indicative
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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 be commonly used. However, it is a reasonably common route for turning adjectives into verbs (for example 'kylmä' = 'cold', 'kylmetä' = 'to get cold')
Imperfect indicative
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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 'jousta' = 'to run'. Their present indicatives go as follows:
Participle[?]
Finnish verbs have present and past participles, both with active and passive forms, and an 'agent' participle.
Present participle, active
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Present participle, passive
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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 'puhua' -> 'puhunut', 'syödä' -> 'syönyt'
Past particple, passive
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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:
Negation
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:
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):
Interrogatives (questions)
Imperatives
Imperatives are the forms of the verb used for giving commands. In Finnish, there is only one tense form (the present-future). The possible variants of Finnish imperatives are:
Active, 2nd person imperatives
These are the most common forms of the imperative: "Do this", "Don't do that".
Passive, 2nd person imperatives
3rd person imperatives
1st person plural imperatives
The 1st person imperative sounds archaic, and present passive is often used instead: 'mennään!' = 'let's go!'
Adverbs Comparative formation
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Superlative formation
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Irregular forms
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Numbers Cardinal numbers
Numbers in Finnish are highly systematic. Here are 1 to 10:
To get 'teen's, 'toista' is added to the base number: yksitoista, kaksitoista ... yhdeksäntoista
Ordinal numbers
Ordinal numbers are formed by adding an '-s' ending (with some irregularities):
Names of numbers
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Sentence structure Existential sentences
These are sentences which introduce a new subject - they often begin 'there is' or 'there are' in English.