Finnish makes adjectives out of verbs on an industrial scale. Every verb yields four participles, and each one can drop into the slot in front of a noun and behave exactly like an ordinary adjective: it declines through the cases and it agrees with its head noun in case and number. English does the same thing on a much smaller scale ("the coming week," "a broken window"), but where English has to fall back on relative clauses ("a mushroom that you can eat"), Finnish packs the whole idea into a single agreeing word — syötävä sieni. This page treats the participles purely as adjectives; how they are built from each verb, and how they anchor whole participial clauses, belongs to the verb chapter.
Present active: -va / -vä ("…-ing")
The present active participle ends in -va or -vä (harmony copies the stem) and describes the noun as doing the action right now: tuleva "coming," juokseva "running," puhuva "speaking."
Ensi viikko on kiireinen, mutta tuleva viikko on rauhallisempi.
Next week is busy, but the coming week is calmer.
Kadulla oli laulava katusoittaja.
There was a singing busker on the street.
Because it is an adjective, it takes the case of its noun. Tuleva viikko in the adessive becomes tulevalla viikolla "next week" — the ending lands on the participle just as it lands on the noun:
Tapaan hänet tulevalla viikolla.
I'll meet him next week.
Annoin karkkia itkevälle lapselle.
I gave sweets to the crying child.
Past active: -nut / -nyt ("having …-ed")
The past active participle ends in -nut / -nyt (plural -neet) and marks a noun that has done or has become something: väsynyt "tired (having tired)," mennyt "past/gone," kadonnut "lost."
Väsynyt lapsi nukahti heti autossa.
The tired child fell asleep in the car straight away.
Mennyt viikko oli rankka.
The past week was rough.
Its oblique stem is -nee-, so it declines like any consonant-stem adjective: väsynyt → väsyneen, väsyneelle, väsyneet; mennyt → menneellä.
Näin sen menneellä viikolla.
I saw it last week.
Poliisi etsii kadonnutta koiraa.
The police are looking for the lost dog.
Past passive: -tu / -ttu ("having been …-ed")
The past passive participle ends in -tu / -ttu / -ty / -tty and describes a noun that has had the action done to it: tehty "done," otettu "taken," rikottu "broken," kirjoitettu "written." This is Finnish's exact counterpart of the English past participle in "a broken window, a stolen car."
Ikkunassa oli rikottu lasi.
There was a broken pane in the window.
Hyvin tehty työ tuntuu palkitsevalta.
Work well done feels rewarding.
It gradates when it declines — the t softens to d in the closed syllable: tehty → tehdyn, tehdyssä; rikottu → rikotun, rikotussa.
Tehdyssä työssä on aina jälki tekijästään.
In work that has been done there is always a trace of its maker.
Poliisi löysi varastetun auton metsästä.
The police found the stolen car in the forest.
Present passive: -tava / -ttava ("to be …-ed / …-able")
The present passive participle ends in -tava / -ttava / -tävä / -ttävä and marks a noun as something that is to be, or can be, acted upon: syötävä "edible / to be eaten," luettava "to be read," maksettava "to be paid," tehtävä "to be done" (also a noun meaning "task, exercise").
Tämä on syötävä sieni, tuo on myrkyllinen.
This is an edible mushroom; that one is poisonous.
Pöydällä oli iso pino luettavia papereita.
There was a big pile of papers to be read on the desk.
Maksettava lasku odottaa vielä pöydällä.
The bill to be paid is still waiting on the table.
The switch that matters: active vs passive
The single most important thing an English speaker has to internalise is that the active/passive contrast is a meaning switch, not just a spelling difference. A present active participle says the noun does the action; a present passive participle says the action is done to the noun. Compare:
| Active (does) | Passive (is done to) |
|---|---|
| syövä "eating" | syötävä "edible / to be eaten" |
| lukeva "reading" | luettava "to be read" |
| tekevä "doing" | tehtävä "to be done" |
| rakastava "loving" | rakastettava "lovable" |
Syövä lapsi is a child who is eating; syötävä sieni is a mushroom you can eat. Get the direction backwards and you say the opposite of what you mean.
Rakastava äiti katsoi rakastettavaa vauvaansa.
The loving mother looked at her lovable baby.
They inflect and agree — that's what makes them adjectives
An attributive participle is not frozen. It copies its noun's case and number exactly the way iso does in isossa talossa. This is the point English speakers forget, because English participles never inflect. When tuleva viikko goes into the adessive, both words take the ending; leaving the participle bare (*tuleva viikolla) is wrong.
Käydään kahvilla ensi viikolla tai sitä seuraavalla viikolla.
Let's grab coffee next week or the week after that.
Puhuin juoksevalle miehelle, mutta hän ei pysähtynyt.
I spoke to the running man, but he didn't stop.
In the plural the participle pluralises too: väsyneet lapset "the tired children," rikotut ikkunat "the broken windows," syötäviä sieniä "edible mushrooms" (partitive plural).
Kaupassa myydään vain syötäviä sieniä.
The shop sells only edible mushrooms.
Common mistakes
Every error here is a transfer from English, where participles are short, invariant words.
❌ Tapaan hänet tuleva viikolla.
Incorrect — the participle must copy the adessive: tulevalla viikolla.
✅ Tapaan hänet tulevalla viikolla.
I'll meet him next week.
❌ Tämä on syövä sieni.
Incorrect — this says 'an eating mushroom'; edible is the passive syötävä.
✅ Tämä on syötävä sieni.
This is an edible mushroom.
❌ Poliisi etsii kadonnut koiraa.
Incorrect — the participle must agree in the partitive: kadonnutta.
✅ Poliisi etsii kadonnutta koiraa.
The police are looking for the lost dog.
❌ Hän korjasi rikottu ikkunan.
Incorrect — agree in the genitive/accusative: rikotun ikkunan.
✅ Hän korjasi rikotun ikkunan.
He fixed the broken window.
Key takeaways
- All four participles can stand attributively and behave like adjectives, agreeing in case and number: tulevalla viikolla, tehdyssä työssä.
- Present active -va/-vä = "…-ing" (the noun does it); past active -nut/-nyt = "having …-ed."
- Past passive -tu/-ttu = "having been …-ed" (a broken window); present passive -tava/-ttava = "to be …-ed / …-able" (an edible mushroom).
- The active/passive pair syövä vs syötävä is a meaning switch — decide who does the action before you choose the ending.
- Never leave an attributive participle bare: it takes the same ending as its noun, exactly like any agreeing adjective.
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Start learning Finnish→Related Topics
- Participles: An OverviewB1 — The map of Finnish participles — verbal adjectives that decline and agree: present/past active, present/past passive, agent (-ma) and negative (-maton).
- Present Active Participle -va/-väB1 — The -va/-vä participle turns a verb into an agreeing adjective — lähtevä juna 'the departing train' — compressing a whole relative clause into a single word.
- Past Passive Participle -tu/-ttuB2 — The -tu/-ttu participle means 'X-ed' — tehty, rikottu 'broken', suljettu 'closed'. It builds the passive perfect (on tehty) and modifies nouns: rikottu ikkuna.
- Adjective Agreement in Case and NumberA2 — The attributive adjective copies its head noun's case AND number — isossa talossa, pienten lasten, kauniita kukkia — with every stacked adjective agreeing too.