Passive

The general concept of passive

Passive forms are verb forms that indicate that the grammatical subject of a clause is the target (patient) of the action, instead of being the agent as in active forms. For example, in the sentence “A stone hit the car”, the subject “a stone” is the agent and the object “the car” is the target. In the cor­re­spond­ing passive-form sentence “The car was hit by a stone”, the subject “the car” is the target and the agent is expressed using an agent construction: an expression with the preposition “by”. The agent construction can be absent, leaving the agent unspecified; “The car was hit” basically corresponds to “Something hit the car”.

Finite passive forms in Finnish

Finnish has passive participles of verbs (e.g. pudotettu, pudottamani, pudotettava), but it lacks passive finite forms of verbs, except for some special constructs. For example, the English active form “dropped” can be translated as pudotti, but the passive form “was dropped” has no verb form equivalent in Finnish. Verb forms such as pudotettiin, though very often called passive forms in grammars, are 4th person forms, though with some features of passive forms. Forms like pudotettiin imply a personal agent, so it would be inappropriate to use when the wind or an animal dropped something.

However, there are some constructs based on passive participles and an auxiliary verb, creating expressions that might be regarded as finite passive forms. They are normally used only when the agent is human.

We can say tuli sanotuksi, in some contexts, as a special use of the translative case. We can ask Joko tämä tuli sanotuksi? meaning “Was this already said?”, but this differs from the more normal Joko tämä sanottiin? in style. The expression tuli sanotuksi (literally “became said”) may mean that something was waiting to get said and was now said, or it can mean that something was said more or less accidentally, perhaps against one’s intentions.

However, such constructs can also be used in contexts where they appear rather purely as passive forms, such as Hän tuli valituksi suurella enemmistöllä (He was elected with a large majority). This does not mean that the election was accidental. Rather, Hän tuli valituksi is used instead of the 4th person construct Hänet valittiin to make him more clearly the topic of the sentence: this is not about who was elected but what happened to him, to a person who has already been mentioned. Such use of tuli valituksi may reflect foreign influence, but it is accepted usage.

The special constructs are also used in present tense, normally with a future meaning, e.g. Työ tulee varmasti tehdyksi (The work will surely be done). In such usage, the construct is rather purely passive and does not imply similar nuances like the past tense tuli tehdyksi.

It is debatable whether these constructs can be used when the agent is not human. Since passive partiples like sanottu and tehty imply a human agent in principle, it can be argued that the same applies to future forms that use such participles. An expression like Talo tuli hävitetyksi (The house was destroyed) seems to imply a human agent, instead of e.g. an earthquake.

Equivalents of English passive forms in Finnish

Generally, when English uses a predicate in a passive form, Finnish uses different approaches:

• If the English expression has an agent construction, with “by”, Finnish normally uses just a statement in the active form. This means that normally “The car was hit by a stone” would be translated the same as “A stone hit the car”, but using a different word order, namely Autoon osui kivi.
• If the English expression lacks an agent construction, Finnish normally uses a statement in the active form in the 4th person, if the agent is human. Thus, The house was built in 1980 is translated as Talo rakennettiin vuonna 1980. However, in some contexts, we can alternatively use passive forms formed using the auxiliary verb tulla as described above, e.g. Ehdotukset tulivat hyväksytyiksi (The proposals were approved), instead of the somewhat more natural Ehdotukset hyväksyttiin.
• Otherwise, various strategies are applied. We cannot translate “The car was hit” as Autoon osuttiin, unless we know that the sentence is about people hitting the car e.g. with rifles. However, we can say Autoon osui, using an active form in the 3rd person singular without any subject, thereby with a generic meaning. Such expressions are not very typical. Instead, other methods are used more often:
  • If the verb has a passive counterpart in Finnish, it can often be used. The sentence “My glass was filled” can be translated as Lasini täytettiin, if the agent is known to be human. But if the agent can be an automatic system, we can say Lasini täyttyi. The verb täyttyä (to be filled) is a passive derivation of täyttää (to fill). Unfortunately, an entry for a verb in a Finnish dictionary does not show whether a passive derivation or other passive counterpart exists and what it is. The list Passive counterparts of some common verbs in this book should help in such issues.
  • If there is a suitable different verb that expresses the same thing as the English passive construct, it can be used. The expression “He was killed” can be translated the same way as “He died”, namely Hän kuoli. This loses information, since “was killed” and ”died” are not equivalent in English, but using the 4th person form, Hänet tapettiin, would mean “He was killed by some person or some people”.
  • Sometimes some circumlocution is needed. For example, if a computer program displays a message the “The files are being removed” in the English version, the Finnish version could display Tiedostot poistuvat (using the verb poistua, the passive counterpart to poistaa “to remove”), but it really sounds like “The files are going away”. A better formulation might be Tiedostojen poisto käynnissä (Removal of files in operation).