As described earlier in this book, both the stem of a word and its suffixes may take different forms. To describe the variation, a word may be described by showing some typical forms (anchor forms, thematic forms) from which all the other forms can be derived mechanically. Dictionaries of the Finnish language refer to the forms by numbers, with tables of inflection showing the meanings of the numbers.
Usually the typical (thematic) forms for a verb are as shown in the following table. The example words shown are uskoa “to believe” (with no variation in stem) and nähdä “to see” (with some variation in stem: näh-, näe-, näk-).
|
Form |
Example 1 |
Example 2 |
|
Infinitive |
uskoa |
nähdä |
|
Present tense, 1st person singular |
uskon |
näen |
|
Past tense, 3rd person singular |
uskoi |
näki |
|
Conditional, 3rd person singular |
uskoisi |
näkisi |
|
Imperative, 3rd person singular |
uskokoon |
nähköön |
|
Past participle |
uskonut |
nähnyt |
|
Past tense, 4th person |
uskottiin |
nähtiin |
In many contexts, shorter lists of typical forms are used, since they are often sufficient for constructing other forms. This could mean a list like nähdä, näen, näki, nähnyt.
There are 45 inflection types for verbs in Finnish according to Nykysuomen sanakirja, numbered from 1 to 45. There is newer system that has only 27 types, numbered from 52 to 78, since the numbering covers both nouns and verbs. The newer system is used in Suomen kielen perussanakirja and its successor Kielitoimiston sanakirja as well as the online word list Nykysuomen sanalista. The system uses somewhat different grouping, omits some outdated inflection types, and uses verbal descriptions for some special inflections. See appendix Inflection classes of verbs.