Finnish

Conjugate Verbs

Introduction

Finnish (suomi, or suomen kieli) is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland (91.7%) and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. It is one of the official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden and Norway. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a Finnish dialect, are spoken. The Finnish dialect Kven is spoken in Norway.

Finnish is a member of the Uralic language family and is typologically between inflected and agglutinative languages. It modifies and inflects the forms of nouns, adjectives, pronouns, numerals and verbs, depending on their roles in the sentence.

The Verb

Verbs gain personal suffixes for each person; these suffixes are grammatically more important than pronouns, which are often not used at all in standard Finnish. There are four persons, first ("I, we"), second ("you, you"), third ("s/he, they") and indefinite (often called impersonal or "passive", similar to e.g. English "people say/do/…"). There are four tenses, namely present, past, perfect and pluperfect; the system mirrors the Germanic system. The future tense is not needed due to context and the telic contrast. For example, luen kirjan "I read a book (completely)" indicates a future, when luen kirjaa "I read a book (not yet complete)" indicates present.

The Negative Verb

The negative in Finnish is actually another verb form, although this one doesn't change for tense or mood. Each grammatical person, singular and plural, has its own form.

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	en	emme
2nd	et	ette
3rd	ei	eivät

Conjugation groups of Finnish verbs

Finnish verbs can be divided into following groups according to the verbal ending:

1. Verbs ending in 2 vowels (vowel + a/ä)
   • puhua , pyöriä
2. Verbs ending in -da/-d

   • soida , myydä

3. Verbs ending in -la/-lä, -na/nä or -sta/-stä
   • nuolla , kävellä
   • panna , mennä
   • lakaista , inistä
4. Verbs ending in -ata/-ätä, -ota/-ötä or -uta/-ytä
   • palata , pörrätä
   • raivota , löhötä
   • kaluta , älytä
5. Verbs ending in -ita/-itä
   • harkita , hillitä
6. Verbs ending in -eta/-etä
   • tummeta , himmetä

Verbs with changes between weak and strong grade

There are almost no irregular verbs in Finnish. However, the change between strong and weak grade of inflected verb forms might appear as irregularities for students of the Finnish language.

The change between weak and strong grade occurs in between 2nd and 3rd syllable from the end of the verb.

Group A

Only verbs belonging to the 1st conjugation can have this kind of change of weak/strong forms. The change occurs in indicative present and imperfect in all forms but the 3rd persons.

strong	weak	example
kk	k	haukkua
pp	p	leppyä
tt	t	tuottaa
k	Ø	hakea
p	v	sopia
t	d	hoitaa
nk	ng	tunkea
mp	mm	ampua
lt	ll	suoltaa
nt	nn	juontaa
rt	rr	nakertaa
lke	lje	polkea
rke	rje	särkeä

Group B

Verbs belonging to the 3rd (ending in -lla/-llä), 4th and 6th conjugation can have this change. The change takes place in the 3rd persons in indicative present and imperfect.

strong	weak	example	Conjugation
k	kk	lakata	4
p	pp	napata	4
t	tt	ajatella	3
Ø	k	taata	4
v	p	kaveta	6
d	t	madella	3
ng	nk	kangeta	6
mm	mp	kammata	4
ll	lt	vallata	4
nn	nt	kannella	3
rr	rt	kerrata	4
lje	lke	rohjeta	6
rje	rke	tarjeta	6

Irregular verbs

There are some verbs that don't follow the verb patterns described above. Here are some of them:

Irregularities in Present

• olla 'to be'.
• nähdä 'to see'.
• conjugation according to the meaning
  • aueta
  • tavata
• seistä (defective, most forms substituted with verb seisoa)
• keritä
• iljetä
• lohkoa

Irregularities in Imperfect

• t > s in imperfect: kaivertaa
• add 'o' in the stem: virkkaa
• irregular imperfect: käydä

See also

• All the forms of a Finnish verb
• Regional verbs and conjugation
• Karelian dialect verbs

The Noun

Kotimaisten kielten keskus (KOTUS, officially translated as Institute for the Languages of Finland) lists 51 declension types for Finnish nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and numerals, as listed below. Verbix displays the declension type for the word in the declension table.

• 1 valo Ending in -o, -u, -ö, -y, 2 syllables, and past passive participles with any number of syllables. With final-syllable gradation.
• 2 palvelu Ending in -o, -u, -ö, -y, 3+ syllables. No gradation.
• 3 valtio Ending in -ao, -eo, -io, -iö, -ie, -oe. No gradation.
• 4 laatikko Ending in -kko, -kkö, -tto, 3+ syllables. With final-syllable gradation.
• 5 risti Ending in -i (possibly no vowel in the nominative singular), 2 syllables. With final-syllable gradation.
• 6 paperi Ending in -i (possibly no vowel in the nominative singular), 3+ syllables. No gradation.
• 7 ovi Ending in -e (-e > -i in the nominative singular), 2 syllables. With final-syllable gradation.
• 8 nalle Ending in -e, 2 syllables. With final-syllable gradation.
• 9 kala Ending in -a, 2 syllables. Non-rounded vowel (a, e, i) in first syllable. With final-syllable gradation.
• 10 koira Ending in -a or -ä, 2 syllables. If ending in -a, rounded vowel (o, u) in first syllable. With final-syllable gradation.
• 11 omena Ending in short consonant + -a or -ä, 3+ syllables. No gradation.
• 12 kulkija Ending in -a or -ä, 3+ syllables. No gradation.
• 13 katiska Ending in -a or -ä, 3+ syllables. No gradation.
• 14 solakka Ending in long consonant + -a or -ä, 3+ syllables. With final-syllable gradation.
• 15 korkea Ending in -ea, -eä, -oa. No gradation.
• 16 vanhempi Comparative adjectives. Ending in -mpa, -mpä (-a/-ä > -i in the nominative singular). With final-syllable gradation.
• 17 vapaa Ending in -aa, -oo, -uu, rarely -ee, -yy, 2+ syllables. No gradation.
• 18 maa Ending in a long vowel or -oi, 1 syllable. No gradation.
• 19 suo Ending in -ie, -uo, -yö, 1 syllable. No gradation.
• 20 filee Ending in -ee, -öö, -yy, rarely -aa, -oo, -uu, 2+ syllables. No gradation.
• 21 rosé Foreign words ending in a vowel. No gradation.
• 22 parfait Foreign words ending in a vowel, but a written with a final consonant (mostly French loanwords). No gradation.
• 23 tiili Ending in -he-, -le-, rarely -ne- (-e > -i in the nominative singular), 2 syllables. No gradation.
• 24 uni Ending in -he-, -le-, -ne-, -re-, -se- (-e > -i in the nominative singular), 2 syllables. No gradation.
• 25 toimi Ending in -me- (-e > -i in the nominative singular), 2 syllables. No gradation.
• 26 pieni Ending in -le-, -ne-, -re- (-e > -i in the nominative singular), 2 syllables. No gradation.
• 27 käsi Ending in -te- (-te > -si in the nominative singular), 2 syllables. With final-syllable gradation.
• 28 kynsi Ending in -lte-, -nte-, -rte- (-te > -si in the nominative singular), 2 syllables. With final-syllable gradation.
• 29 lapsi Ending in -pse-, -kse- (-e > -i in the nominative singular), 2 syllables. With final-syllable gradation.
• 30 veitsi Ending in -tse- (-e > -i in the nominative singular), 2 syllables. No gradation.
• 31 kaksi Ending in -hte- (-hte > -ksi in the nominative singular), 2 syllables. With final-syllable gradation.
• 32 sisar Ending in -le-, -ne-, -re- (no vowel in the nominative singular), 3+ syllables. With penultimate-syllable gradation.
• 33 kytkin Ending in -me- (-me > -n in the nominative singular), 3+ syllables. With penultimate-syllable gradation.
• 34 onneton Ending in -toma-, -tömä- (-ma/-mä > -n in the nominative singular), 3+ syllables. With penultimate-syllable gradation.
• 35 lämmin The word lämmin only. Ending in -mä- (-mä > -n in the nominative singular), 3 syllables. With penultimate-syllable gradation.
• 36 sisin Superlative adjectives. Ending in -impa-, -impä- (-mpa/-mpä > -n in the nominative singular), 2+ syllables. With penultimate-syllable gradation.
• 37 vasen The word vasen only. Ending in -mpa- (-mpa > -n in the nominative singular), 3 syllables. With penultimate-syllable gradation.
• 38 nainen Ending in -se- (-se > -nen in the nominative singular), 2+ syllables. No gradation.
• 39 vastaus Ending in -kse- (-kse > -s in the nominative singular), 3+ syllables. No gradation.
• 40 kalleus Ending in -te- (-te > -s in the nominative singular), 3+ syllables. With final-syllable gradation.
• 41 vieras Ending in long vowel (long vowel > short vowel + -s in the nominative singular), 2+ syllables. With penultimate-syllable gradation.
• 42 mies The word mies only. Ending in -he- (-he > -s in the nominative singular), 2 syllables. No gradation.
• 43 ohut Ending in -ue-, -ye- (-e > -t in the nominative singular), 3+ syllables. With penultimate-syllable gradation.
• 44 kevät Ending in -ää- (-ä > -t in the nominative singular), 2+ syllables. No gradation.
• 45 kahdeksas Ordinal numbers. Ending in -nte- (-nte > -s in the nominative singular), 3+ syllables. With final-syllable gradation.
• 46 tuhat The word tuhat only. Ending in -nte- (-nte > -t in the nominative singular), 3 syllables. With final-syllable gradation.
• 47 kuollut Active past participles. Ending in -ee- (-ee > -ut/-yt in the nominative singular), 2+ syllables. No gradation.
• 48 hame Ending in -ee- (-ee > -eˣ in the nominative singular), 2+ syllables. With penultimate-syllable gradation.
• 49 askel/askele As either hame or sisar.
• 50 isoäiti A pseudo-type for compounds in which only the final part is inflected.
• 51 nuoripari A pseudo-type for compounds in which all parts are inflected.

Verbix adds the following two additional types for numerals above:

• 52 satakaksikymmentäkolme Numeral written as text.
• 53 123 Numeral written as a number.

In numerals, each part is inflected and follows a type 1-48.