Verbs: Present Tense — Finnish Grammar

The present tense describes what is happening now, what happens regularly, and very often what is going to happen in the near future. Finnish has a single present tense covering everything English divides between "I speak", "I am speaking", and frequently "I will speak"; context tells you which meaning applies, not the verb form.

The defining feature of a Finnish verb is that its ending identifies the subject. Each person has its own ending, and because that ending already carries the information, the first- and second-person pronouns (, , , ) are routinely left out. The third-person pronouns and are normally kept, because the third-person endings alone do not always make the subject clear.

The Personal Endings

-n - I ()
-t - you, singular ()
the stem's last vowel written twice - he / she ()
-mme - we ()
-tte - you, plural or polite ()
-vat / -vät - they ()

Puhun suomea.
I speak Finnish.

puhu- the stem, speak
-n the ending for I — and the only thing in the sentence that says who
suome-a Finnish, with the ending for an open amount: you speak some of a language, never all of it

Asutko Helsingissä?
Do you live in Helsinki?
Me asumme täällä.
We live here.
He puhuvat englantia.
They speak English.

Finding the Stem: Verb Types

An ending needs something to attach to, and that is the stem — what is left of the dictionary form once its own ending comes off. How much comes off depends on how the verb ends:

Verbs ending in two vowels, e.g. (to speak), (to live): drop the final -a/-ä → , .
Verbs ending in -da/-dä, e.g. (to drink), (to eat): drop the -da/-dä → , .
Verbs ending in -la/-lä, -na/-nä, -ra/-rä, e.g. (to come), (to go): the stem gains an e → , .
Verbs ending in -ta/-tä after a vowel, e.g. (to meet): these change more and are best learned individually.

Tulen kohta.
I'm coming soon.
Syön aamiaista.
I'm eating breakfast.

The Third-Person Singular

The "he/she" form adds no consonant. Instead the stem's final short vowel is written twice, which is why so many third-person forms end in a doubled vowel. A stem already ending in a long vowel or a vowel pair takes nothing at all.

asua → hän asuu
to live → he/she lives
puhua → hän puhuu
to speak → he/she speaks
Hän juo kahvia.
He/she drinks coffee. (stem already long, no change)

Two Sound Rules That Affect the Forms

Two regular changes reshape these forms, and both have topics of their own.

A k, p or t in the stem often softens once an ending arrives — is to sleep, but has only one k.
Every ending with an a in it has a twin with ä. A verb containing a, o or u takes the a version, and one without takes the ä version — hence -vat against -vät.

He ottavat kahvia.
They take coffee.
He syövät leipää.
They eat bread.

A Few Essential Irregulars

The two most common verbs are slightly irregular and worth memorising whole. (to be) gives , and (to do/make) gives .

Minä olen opettaja.
I am a teacher.
Mitä sinä teet?
What are you doing?

Using the Present for the Future

Finnish has no separate future tense. The present form covers future events, and a time word makes the timing clear where needed.

Huomenna menen töihin.
Tomorrow I'll go to work.
Ensi viikolla matkustamme Suomeen.
Next week we'll travel to Finland.

In the course

Sentences from Lingora’s Finnish course

407 of the course's 500 sentences use this, the first in lesson 1. A few of them, with the words “Verbs: Present Tense” is about in bold:

Tämä on ystäväni Anna. Hän on opiskelija.
This is my friend, Anna. She is a student.
Lesson 2
Hän nukkuu myös. Hän ei nuku.
He is also sleeping. She isn't.
Lesson 16
Rakastan heitä ja he rakastavat minua.
I love them and they love me.
Lesson 32

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