Verbs in spoken Finnish

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Verbs in 1st person plural


  • In spoken Finnish, people almost solely use the passive to express action in the 1st person plural (we):


Me menemme Ranskaan -> Me mennään Ranskaan (We go to France)
Me osaamme puhua suomea -> Me osataan puhua Suomea (We know how to speak Finnish)
Me emme mene Ranskaan -> Me ei mennä Ranskaan (We don't go to France)


  • The passive is also used to express let's... in spoken Finnish:


Menkäämme Ranskaan! -> Mennään Ranskaan! (Let's go to France!)
Juokaamme kahvia! -> Juodaan kahvia! (Let's drink coffee!)


  • If we make the passive a question by adding -ko/-kö, it means shall we..?. This is also colloquial.


Mennäänkö Ranskaan? - Shall we go to France?
Juodaanko kahvia? - Shall we drink coffee?


To express this in official writing (kirjakieli), one should use the conditional (made into a question):


Menisimmekö Ranskaan? - Shall we go to France? (lit. would we go...?)
Joisimmeko kahvia? - Shall we drink coffee? (lit. would we drink...?)


However, to complicate things, there is also a colloquial version of this; by putting the passive in conditional and making it a question, we likewise get the meaning of shall we..?:


Mentäisiinkö Ranskaan? - Shall we go to France?
Juotaisiinko kahvia? - Shall we drink coffee?


BUT the above is only the grammatically correct way of writing it, used for example in written dialogues of spoken language. What people really say is an abbreviation (the 'iin' is dropped):


Mentäisiinkö? -> Mentäiskö? -> Mentäiskö Ranskaan? - Shall we go to France?
Juotaisiinko? -> Juotaisko? -> Juotaisko kahvia? - Shall we drink coffee?


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Conjugation of some verbs


It's mostly the most common verbs like olla (to be), tulla (to come) and mennä (to go) that have radical contractions in spoken language. Other verbs are to a large extent used as they are written. The major exceptions (also mentioned in the notes below), that affect all verbs equally, are the 1st person plural discussed above, and the use of the 3rd person singular instead of the 3rd person plural.


Notes:
1) 3rd sg. is often the same as in standard Finnish
2) 3rd pl. is identical with 3rd sg. (in any verb)
3) 1st pl. is identical with passive (in any verb)


Kirjakieli - Dialectal/Puhekieli - English


  • Katsoa - To look
katson - katon - (I) look
katsot - katot - (you sing.) look
katsoo - kattoo - (he/she/it) looks
katsomme - katotaan - (we) look
katsotte - katotte - (you pl.) look
katsovat - kattoo - (they) look
ei katso - ei kato - doesn't look


  • Mennä - To go
menen - meen - (I) come
menet - meet - (you sing.) come
menee - menee - (he/she/it) comes
menemme - mennään - (we) come
menette - meette - (you pl.) come
menevät - menee - (they) come
ei mene - ei mee - doesn't go


  • Olla - To be
olen - oon - (I) am
olet - oot - (you sg.) are
on - on - (he/she/it) is
olemme - ollaan - (we) are
olette - ootte - (you pl.) are
ovat - on - (they) are
ei ole - ei oo - is not


  • Panna - To put
panen - paan - (I) put
panet - paat - (you sing.) put
panee - panee - (he/she/it) puts
panemme - pannaan - (we) put
panette - paatte - (you pl.) put
panevat - panee - (they) put
ei pane - ei paa - doesn't put

(Note: this verb can also mean "to fuck" (to have sex), if the n is not removed and object is in partitive case).


  • Tarvita - To need
tarvitsen - tarviin /tartten - (I) need
tarvitset - tarviit /tarttet - (you sg.) need
tarvitsee - tarvii /tarttee - (he/she/it) need
tarvitsemme - tarvitaan - (we) need
tarvitsette - tarviitte /tarttette - (you pl.) need
tarvitsevat - tarvii /tarttee - (they) need
ei tarvitse - ei tarvii /tartte - doesn't need


  • Tietää - To know
tiedän - tiiän - (I) know
tiedät - tiiät - (you sg.) know
tietää - tietää - (he/she/it) knows
tiedämme - tiietään - (we) know
tiedätte - tiiätte - (you pl.) know
tietävät - tietää - (they) know
ei tiedä - ei tiiä - doesn't know


  • Tulla - To come
tulen - tuun - (I) come
tulet - tuut - (you sing.) come
tulee - tulee - (he/she/it) comes
tulemme - tullaan - (we) come
tulette - tuutte - (you pl.) come
tulevat - tulee - (they) come
ei tule - ei tuu - doesn't come


  • Examples
Oletko sinä? - Ootsä? - Are you?
En minä ole. - Emmä oo. - I am not
Et sinä ole. - Et sä oo. - You are not
Menkäämme! - Mennään! Mentiin! - Let's go!


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