1. Personal forms of verbs
In the Finnish language, verbs are conjugated in agreement with person. This means that the same verb gets a different ending depending on who is doing the action. Verb forms express person through six personal endings.
| PUHUA | TO SPEAK | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Minä | puhu | n | I speak |
| stem | personal ending |
The verb ending expresses person like personal pronouns (you, I) do in English. In Finnish, the personal pronoun can sometimes be left out, but the personal ending cannot. The personal ending is added to the verb stem, and the endings are the same in all tenses and verb types.
Kuka puhuu? = Who speaks?
Minä puhun = I speak
Sinä puhut = You speak
Hän* puhuu = He/she speaks
Me puhumme = We speak
Te puhutte = You speak
He puhuvat = They speak
*The Finnish pronoun hän is used to refer to both men and women.
In Finnish, the negative word ei is actually a verb. Thus, in the negative verb form, the personal endings are added to the word ei rather than the verb stem.
Kuka ei puhu? = Who doesn’t speak?
Minä en puhu = I don’t speak
Sinä et puhu = You don’t speak
Hän ei puhu = He/she doesn’t speak
Me emme puhu = We don’t speak
Te ette puhu = You don’t speak
He eivät puhu = They don’t speak