One of the first patterns you need for real conversation is "I'm going to do something" — going out to buy food, coming over to watch a film, heading off to swim. In English you just stack "go" and a to-infinitive: "go to buy." Finnish does not allow the bare infinitive here. After a verb of motion, the second verb takes a special ending, -maan / -mään, the third infinitive in the illative case. Menen ostamaan ruokaa — "I'm going to buy food." Get this one pattern into your reflexes and a huge slice of everyday Finnish opens up.
The pattern: motion verb + -maan
Take a motion verb — mennä (go), tulla (come), lähteä (set off), jäädä (stay) — and add the activity in the -maan/-mään form. The ending marks motion toward an activity, matching the movement of the main verb.
Menen kauppaan ostamaan maitoa.
I'm going to the shop to buy milk.
Tuletko meille katsomaan elokuvaa?
Will you come over to our place to watch a film?
Lähden ulos juoksemaan, palaan noin tunnin päästä.
I'm heading out for a run, I'll be back in about an hour.
Jäin kotiin lepäämään, koska olin väsynyt.
I stayed home to rest because I was tired.
Notice jäädä ("stay") counts as a motion verb here even though nothing moves — what matters is that an activity follows, and the language treats it the same way.
Building the form: strong stem + -maan/-mään
Take the verb's present-tense stem (the part before the personal ending) and add -maan or -mään:
| Verb | Stem | -maan/-mään form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| ostaa (buy) | osta- | ostamaan | to buy |
| syödä (eat) | syö- | syömään | to eat |
| tehdä (do) | teke- | tekemään | to do |
| juosta (run) | juokse- | juoksemaan | to run |
| auttaa (help) | autta- | auttamaan | to help |
Two things to watch. Vowel harmony picks the ending: a verb with back vowels (a, o, u) takes -maan (ostamaan), a verb with front vowels (ä, ö, y) takes -mään (tekemään, syömään). And consonant gradation stays strong: juosta has the stem juokse-, so it is juoksemaan with -ks-, never *juomaan. If you know how to say hän tekee (stem teke-), you already have the stem.
Tule auttamaan minua hetkeksi!
Come and help me for a second!
Lapset juoksivat pihalle leikkimään.
The children ran out into the yard to play.
The three-way set: -maan, -massa, -masta
The -maan form is one of three siblings built on the same stem, and they answer three different "where" questions about the activity. Meet all three on one verb, syödä:
Menen syömään.
I'm going to eat. (motion TO the activity → -mään)
Olen syömässä, soitan ihan kohta takaisin.
I'm eating right now, I'll call you right back. (AT the activity → -mässä)
Tulen juuri syömästä, en ole yhtään nälkäinen.
I'm just coming from eating, I'm not hungry at all. (FROM the activity → -mästä)
- -maan / -mään = motion to the activity (used with mennä, tulla, lähteä, jäädä).
- -massa / -mässä = being at / in the middle of the activity (used with olla, käydä).
- -masta / -mästä = motion from / out of the activity (used with tulla, palata).
This mirrors the local cases on ordinary nouns exactly: kauppaan (into the shop), kaupassa (in the shop), kaupasta (out of the shop). The full trio and its case system are on the third infinitive page.
Not the English "going to" future
Here is a trap English speakers walk straight into. English "I'm going to …" often means the future — "I'm going to call him later" — with no real movement involved. Finnish does not use mennä + -maan for that. Plain future is just the present tense:
Soitan hänelle myöhemmin.
I'm going to call him later. (future — no motion, plain present tense)
Huomenna sataa lunta.
It's going to snow tomorrow. (future — plain present tense)
Use mennä + -maan only when someone physically goes somewhere in order to do the thing:
Menen ostamaan ruokaa.
I'm going (out) to buy food. (real movement to the shop)
Common Mistakes
❌ Menen ostaa ruokaa.
Incorrect — a motion verb needs the -maan form, not the bare infinitive.
✅ Menen ostamaan ruokaa.
I'm going to buy food.
❌ Tule auttaa minua.
Incorrect — after tulla the verb takes -maan: auttamaan.
✅ Tule auttamaan minua.
Come help me.
❌ Menen syömassa.
Incorrect — motion (menen) needs -mään ('into'), and harmony gives ä: syömään.
✅ Menen syömään.
I'm going to eat.
❌ Menen soittamaan hänelle huomenna.
Wrong for a plain future — no movement is involved, so use the present tense.
✅ Soitan hänelle huomenna.
I'll call him tomorrow.
❌ Lähden juomaan lenkille.
Incorrect — 'run' is juosta, stem juokse-, giving juoksemaan (juomaan would be 'to drink').
✅ Lähden juoksemaan lenkille.
I'm heading out for a run.
Key Takeaways
- After a motion verb (mennä, tulla, lähteä, jäädä), the following verb takes -maan / -mään, never the bare infinitive.
- The ending means motion into an activity; it belongs to the trio -maan (to), -massa (at), -masta (from).
- Harmony picks -maan (back) vs -mään (front); gradation stays strong (juoksemaan, not *juomaan).
- The English "going to" future with no movement is just the present tense in Finnish (soitan myöhemmin), not mennä + -maan.
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Start learning Finnish→Related Topics
- The Third Infinitive -ma-: An OverviewB1 — The -ma-/-mä- infinitive names an action as a place you are in, go into, or come from — the base for six case forms like syömässä, syömään and syömästä.
- The Third Infinitive in Cases: -massa, -maan, -malla, -mattaB1 — How each case of the -ma- infinitive works: -maan after motion verbs, -massa/-masta for activity and source, -malla 'by doing' and -matta 'without doing'.
- Motion Verbs and Their CasesA2 — Finnish motion verbs pick a direction case: goal (illative/allative), source (elative/ablative), place (inessive/adessive) — plus mennä + -maan for purpose.
- Which Infinitive? A GuideC1 — A decision guide to Finnish verb complementation: when to use the first infinitive, the -maan third infinitive, -minen, an että-clause, or the referative.