Simple tenses

The two simple tenses

By “simple tense”, we mean a tense formed with inflection of a verb only, without using an auxiliary verb.

Like English, Finnish has only two simple tenses, present and past, but there are differences in usage between the languages. The Finnish present tense is really “non-past tense”: it can also refer to the future as well as to indeterminate time. We normally say teen sen huomenna, “I will do it tomorrow”, using the present tense; a future form like tulen tekemään sen (I will do it) is used in some contexts, though.

The form called present tense is sometimes even used to refer to the past, especially in vivid story-telling. On the other hand, the form called past tense is sometimes used to refer to the present or the future, especially in questions like Tuliko vielä jotain muuta? (Will there be something else [for you]?). It is also used when asking about something that has been discussed previously, so that there is a reference to the past in a sense, e.g. Oliko Juha insinööri? (Was it so that Juha is an engineer?), though this can also be real past tense (Was Juha an engineer?).

Present tense forms

The present tense has no tense suffix, so a verb stem is immediately followed by a personal suffix, as described in section Personal forms, e.g. sano|a : sano|n : sano|t : sano|o etc.

Past tense forms

The past tense has the suffix i, before the personal suffix. Various changes in the word stem are common, e.g. loss of stem vowel in elä|ä : elä|n : el|i|n. In fact, the stem always changes some way, unless it ends with one of the vowels o, u, ö, y. Many of the changes were described in subsection Vowel changes before an i suffix, but there are some other changes as well.

The following list summarizes all the changes at the end of a verb stem before the past tense suffix i:

• A long vowel is shortened, e.g. myy|dä : my|i.
• The first vowel of a diphthong ie, uo, or yö is lost, e.g. juo|da : jo|i.
• The vowel a is changed to o, e.g. anta|a : anto|i, if the stem has two syllables and the first vowel is a.
• Otherwise, the vowel a is lost e.g. johta|a : joht|i and rakasta|a : rakast|i.
• The vowel e is lost, e.g. kulke|a : kulk|i.
• The vowel i is lost, e.g. voi|da : vo|i. This could alternatively be described so that the past tense suffix i is omitted. In any case, this change makes the past tense forms identical with present tense forms.
• The vowel ä is lost, e.g. estä|ä : est|i.
• The consonant t often changes to s before the past tense suffix i. This is regular in contraction verbs, i.e. verbs that end with AtA in the infinitive and with AA in the 3rd person singular, e.g. pelata (to play) : pelaa (plays). The basic stem is here pelat-, so the past tense forms are pelasin, pelasit, pelasi etc. The t → s change also takes place in some other verbs, e.g. huutaa (: huutaa : huusi), kiiltää, lentää, löytää, parantaa, piirtää, pyytää, rakentaa, rientää, tietää, tuntea, työntää, yltää. In some verbs, forms with t and forms with s are both in use, e.g. kiitää : kiiti ∼ kiisi.
• If the verb stem ends with ltA, ntA, or rtA in the strong grade, the A is lost and the t changes to s, e.g. rakenta|a : rakens|i. (In dialects, the t may be preserved, e.g. rakent|i.) In a few verbs of this type (kaataa, kaartaa, saartaa, taitaa), there are alternative forms where the a changes to o and the t is preserved, e.g. kaata|a : kaas|i ∼ kaato|i.
• The verb käydä has the stem käv- in the past tense (as well as in the conditional mood), e.g. käy|dä : käy|n : käv|i|n.
• The verb lähteä has the alternative stem läks-, e.g. lähte|ä : läht|i ∼ läks|i.

The personal suffixes in the past tense are the same as in present tense, with the following exceptions:

• The 3rd person singular form has no personal suffix, e.g. sano|a : sano|o : sano|i, where the i is the past tense suffix.
• The 4th person form has no i between stem and suffix, and the suffix is tiin (after a consonant stem) or ttiin (when the verb has only vowel stem). The t in this suffix is not assimilated, unlike in the present tense: tul|la : tule|n : tul|laan : tul|tiin.

The 4th person past tense form can be formed from the 4th person present tense form as follows:

• If the present tense has the suffix tAAn and the stem before it ends with a vowel, the suffix is changed to ttiin, e.g. sano|taan : sano|ttiin, pala|taan : pala|ttiin.
• Otherwise the present tense suffix is changed to tiin, e.g. juos|taan : juos|tiin, voi|daan : voi|tiin.

Basic use of simple tenses

The past tense is normally used when referring to something that took place in the past, unless the conditions for using the perfect or the pluperfect apply. The present tense is used otherwise, even for future events.

In Finnish, a distinction between current and future actions is often made by the choice of the case of the object of a verb, rather than verb form. For example, the clause kirjoitan kirjaa refers to current activity and would normally be translated as “I am writing a book”. The case of the object is here the partitive, with the a suffix, indicating non-completed, ongoing activity. If we change the case to the genitive, with the n suffix, the meaning changes: kirjoitan kirjan refers to future activity of writing that results in producing a book. From the viewpoint of the situation, it expresses intentions rather than what is being done right now.

Finnish grammars usually call the past tense imperfekti, which is rather misleading. (A more adequate linguistic term is preteriti.) The past tense differs from the imperfect tense of many languages (e.g. French) where it denotes a past action that has not been completed. The Finnish past tense may well refer to a completed action, too, e.g. in Kirjoitin viime vuonna kirjan (I wrote a book last year). If the object were in the partitive, kirjaa, the statement would refer to incompleted action, or at least it would not say that the book was completed.

In situations where we would use English expressions such as “I am watching” and “I was watching”, Finnish normally uses just present or past tense: katselen and katselin. If you wish to emphasize that you are describing a process or activity, you can use longer expressions (with a III infinitive form): olen katselemassa and olin katselemassa.

Special uses of paste tense

Paste tense forms are used independently of any time aspects in expressions like olipa se iso tai pieni (whether it is/was/will be large or small) and olipa se miten iso tahansa (no matter how big it is/was/will be). These expression types usually have the pA suffix on the verb, and they have either the conjunction tai or both a mi- adverb and a tahansa adverb or equivalent (hyvänsä, vain). The pA suffix is not necessary, especially if the adverb sitten is present, e.g. tapahtui se sitten missä tahansa (wherever it happens/happened/will happen).

In spoken language, past tense forms are sometimes used in future or present tense meaning in questions. Asking Tuliko muuta? rather than Tuleeko muuta? is common and may be understood as more polite. The question means “Will there be anything else for you”, while the literal meaning is “Did anything else come”. Similarly, while Oliko teillä S-Etukorttia literally means “Did you have an S-Etukortti bonus card?”, it actually asks whether you have it now (with you) and suggests that it be presented.