Finnish Grammar: 4. Past tense

4. Past tense

In Finnish, the past tense is used when you speak about things that happened in the past: for example, yesterday, last week or in the year 1917:

Tulin Suomeen vuonna 2001.
I came to Finland in 2001.
Asuin aluksi Helsingissä ja opiskelin suomea.
At first I lived in Helsinki and studied Finnish.

The past tense form of a verb is created with the sign i, which is added to the present tense form of the verb.

Present tense:

Nyt minä asun Oulussa.
Now I live in Oulu.

Past tense:

Vuonna 2001 minä asuin Helsingissä.
In 2001 I lived in Helsinki.

Etsin töitä.
I was looking for a job.

Puhuin kaikille englantia.
I spoke English to everyone.

Stem	Past tense marker	Personal ending
Asu	i	n

The last vowel of the verb stem can change when the past tense sign i is added. Often the vowel disappears:

Present tense:

pidän I like
tulen I come
saan I get
juon I drink

Past tense:

pidin I liked
tulin I came
sain I got
join I drank

Or the vowel can change to another: maksan (I pay) -> maksoin (I paid)

In verb type 4, the past tense sign is –si:

haluan (I want) -> halusin (I wanted)

siivoan (I clean) -> siivosin (I cleaned)

Past tense consonant gradation is similar to that in the present tense, since the present tense form is used to create the past tense form:

minä nukun (I sleep) -> minä nukuin (I slept)

hän nukkuu (he/she sleeps) -> hän nukkui (he/she slept)

In the negative form, the past tense sign is -(n)nut/(n)nyt in singular and -(n)neet in plural forms:

Aluksi en puhunut suomea enkä ymmärtänyt, mitä ihmiset puhuivat.
At first I didn’t speak Finnish and couldn’t understand what people were saying.

PUHU/A = Minä en puhunut. I didn’t speak.

YMMÄRTÄ/Ä = Sinä et ymmärtänyt. You didn’t understand.

HALU/TA = Hän ei halunnut. He/She didn’t want.

JUO/DA = Me emme juoneet. We didn’t drink.

SIIVO/TA = Te ette siivonneet. You didn’t clean.

NUKKU/A = He eivät nukkuneet. They didn’t sleep.

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