Reflexive forms

As described in the preceding section, many derived verbs have a reflexive meaning, such as heittäytyä (to throw oneself). There are also reflexive forms of verbs, such as heitätä (also appearing as heitäidä, heittäidä, heittäitä, and heitäitä, varying by dialect), which is the reflexive I infinitive of heittää. Such forms are linguistically interesting, but they have almost disappeared from the language, and they were never really an established, well-documented part of standard Finnish.

Even a native speaker has to consult suitable references in order to fully understand old poetry or other texts that use reflexive forms. Only the saying loihe lausumahan (started to speak), taken from Kalevala, is sometimes used in modern language, for stylistic effects. The form loihe is the reflexive 3rd person singular past tense form of luoda (to create, to make,…), so it means the same as loi itsensä.

Those who read Kalevala and similar old literature will find some reflexive forms, mostly indicative past tense 3rd person singular forms with the -he suffix, e.g. vetihe (= veti itsensä, drew himself). Such forms are also used for stylistic reasons without reflexive meaning.

Sometimes people try to use reflexive forms just to make a stylistic impression, but quite often both the form itself and its use are wrong, e.g. the intended meaning is not reflexive at all. For example, people may form the word loihesi, using si as past tense suffix, without realizing that loihe is a past tense form.

The following table that presents some reflexive forms of the verb heittää is shown only to help understanding old texts. Along with these forms, several other variants have been used. Past participle forms such as heitännyt ∼ heittäinyt ∼ heittäynnyt have also been used.

Many reflexive forms are confusingly similar or even identical to normal forms. The reflexive forms are so rare that any form like heitäme you might see is more probably a misspelling of a normal form like heitämme.

Suomen verbien refleksiivitaivutus.