From WikiLang
Suomen kieli
Finnish
|
| Family |
Sub-family |
Language of |
Script |
| Finno-Ugric |
Baltic-Finnic |
 Finland
 European Union
Minority In:  Sweden |
Extended Latin |
The Finnic languages are unique in that they have a special verb whose only purpose is to negate another verb. It is special and is used in a variety of different ways which will be covered in greater detail here.
Active Indicative
To provide a comparison of the positive and negative versions of verbs in their most basic form, I will provide an identical set of conjugation tables for the copula verb olla as is available in the main verbs page.
| Active Indicative
|
| olla "to be"
| Singular
| Plural
|
| First Person
| minä olen
| me olemme
|
| Second Person
| sinä olet
| te olette
|
| Third Person
| hän, se on
| he ovat
|
|
| Negative Active Indicative
|
| ei olla "to not be"
| Singular
| Plural
|
| First Person
| minä en ole
| me emme ole
|
| Second Person
| sinä et ole
| te ette ole
|
| Third Person
| hän, se ei ole
| he eivät ole
|
|
Passive
To form the passive construction, you add the 3rd person conjugation of the negative verb ei then there are two forms, one for type 1 verbs and one for every other type of verb. If it's a type 1 verb and it does not end in -aa then you would take the weak stem of the verb (the one found by taking the 1st person conjugation and removing the n) and add ta or tä following vowel harmony. If it's a type 1 verb and it does end in -aa, then the weak stem's a ending changes to e before the ta/tä is added. Otherwise, for all other verbs, it will be identical to the first infinitive.
This can be used in the following situations:
- When the subject isn't known, or not important
- In spoken language, the 1st person plural form of a verb is replaced by the passive form
- Used by itself at the beginning of a sentence it indicates a suggestion not unlike the let's construction in English.
Examples:
- Ei mennä minun kotiin! Let's not go to my house.
Imperfect
The negative imperfect form uses the conjugated form of the negative verb followed by the participle form specialized for use with verbs. It is formed on type 1 and type 2 verbs by taking the infinitive stem and adding nut/nyt in the singular and neet in the plural. Type 3 verbs double the consonant after the infinitive stem and add ut/yt and eet for singular and plural respectively. Types 4, 5, and 6 all add nnut/nnyt and nneet to the endings.
| Imperfect Indicative
|
| puhua "to speak"
| Singular
| Plural
|
| First Person
| minä olen puhunut
| me olemme puhuneet
|
| Second Person
| sinä olet puhunut
| te olette puhuneet
|
| Third Person
| hän, se on puhunut
| he ovat puhuneet
|
|
| Imperfect Negative Indicative
|
| puhua "to speak"
| Singular
| Plural
|
| First Person
| minä en ole puhunut
| me emme ole puhuneet
|
| Second Person
| sinä et ole puhunut
| te ette ole puhuneet
|
| Third Person
| hän, se ei ole puhunut
| he eivät ole puhuneet
|
|
Estonian · 
Ingrian · 
Karelian · 
Livonian · 
Veps · 
Votic · 
Võro
Komi · 
Udmurt
Hungarian · 
Khanty · 
Mansi
Erzya · 
Mari · 
