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.
EXAMPLE:
| 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.
EXAMPLE:
Kuka puhuu?
Minä puhun
Sinä puhut
Hän puhuu
Me puhumme
Te puhutte
He puhuvat
Who speaks?
I speak
You speak
He/she speaks
We speak
You speak
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.
EXAMPLE:
Kuka ei
puhu?
Minä en puhu
Sinä et puhu
Hän ei puhu
Me emme puhu
Te ette puhu
He eivät puhu
Who doesn’t speak?
I don’t speak
You don’t speak
He/she doesn’t speak
We don’t speak
You don’t speak
They don’t speak
