The basic referative folds an että-clause into a present participle: Sanoin tulevani ("I said I'd come"). That covers reports whose embedded event is simultaneous with the main verb and whose embedded clause is active. This page takes the construction to the two places the base page defers: reporting an event that had already happened (anteriority), and reporting a clause that is itself passive — including the elegant frame where the reporting verb is passive too (Sanotaan hänen olevan rikas, "He is said to be rich"). This is high-register, edited Finnish (formal / literary / academic); you will meet it in news, law and scholarship far more than in speech.
Anteriority: the past participle for "had done"
English backshifts with an auxiliary — "he said he had done it". Finnish carries the same tense relation inside the participle: the present participle -va/-vä marks simultaneity, and the past active participle -nut/-nyt (in its oblique -nee- shape) marks a prior event. No "had", no auxiliary — the participle choice does everything.
| Reported relation | Same subject | English |
|---|---|---|
| Simultaneous / later | sanoo tekevänsä | says he is doing it |
| Prior (anterior) | sanoi tehneensä | said he had done it |
Hän sanoi tehneensä kaiken itse.
He said he had done everything himself.
Todistaja väitti nähneensä auton.
The witness claimed to have seen the car.
Muistan lukeneeni tästä jo jotain.
I remember having read something about this already.
Compare the tense contrast directly: Hän sanoo tekevänsä työn ("He says he is doing the work", the work is under way) versus Hän sanoi tehneensä työn ("He said he had done the work", the work was finished before he spoke). The only signal is tekevänsä vs tehneensä.
As with the present participle, a different embedded subject takes the genitive and drops the possessive suffix, leaving the bare genitive -neen:
Poliisi epäili miehen valehdelleen.
The police suspected the man had lied.
Hän kertoi vieraiden jo lähteneen.
He said the guests had already left.
Passive embedded clauses: "that X had been done"
When the reported event was done to something, with the doer unexpressed, the embedded clause is passive. Finnish then reaches for the past passive participle — tehty, myyty, rakennettu — and puts it in the genitive (tehdyn, myydyn), with the patient as the genitive "subject". There is no possessive suffix here at all, because a passive has no personal subject to agree with.
Luulin asian jo tehdyn.
I thought the matter had already been dealt with.
Naapuri kuuli talon myydyn.
The neighbour heard the house had been sold.
Lehti kertoi tehtaan suljetun.
The paper reported that the factory had been shut down.
Here asian, talon, tehtaan are genitive; tehdyn, myydyn, suljetun are the genitive of the past passive participles tehty, myyty, suljettu. English is forced into a full finite passive with a backshifted "had been"; Finnish compresses the whole thing into two words. (For the passive verb system itself, see the passive overview.)
When the reporting verb is passive too
Finnish loves to make the matrix verb impersonal as well — sanotaan ("it is said / people say"), kerrottiin ("it was reported"), väitetään ("it is claimed"). The embedded referative slots in exactly as before, with a genitive subject and a participle. This is the natural Finnish rendering of English "X is said to…", "X was reported to have…".
Sanotaan hänen olevan kaupungin rikkain mies.
He is said to be the richest man in town.
Kerrottiin talon palaneen maan tasalle.
The house was said to have burned to the ground.
Uutisissa väitettiin hallituksen tienneen asiasta.
The news claimed the government had known about it.
The matrix verb being passive changes nothing downstream: hänen olevan (simultaneous, present participle), talon palaneen and hallituksen tienneen (anterior, past participle). The predicate complement stays nominative — olevan rikkain, not a genitive.
Common Mistakes
❌ Hän sanoi tekevänsä sen eilen.
Incorrect for a completed past event — 'yesterday' forces the anterior participle: tehneensä.
✅ Hän sanoi tehneensä sen eilen.
He said he had done it yesterday.
❌ Sanotaan, että hänen olevan rikas.
Incorrect — the referative replaces että; you can't keep both the conjunction and the participle.
✅ Sanotaan hänen olevan rikas.
He is said to be rich.
❌ Naapuri kuuli talo myydyn.
Incorrect — the patient of a passive referative is genitive: talon.
✅ Naapuri kuuli talon myydyn.
The neighbour heard the house had been sold.
❌ Poliisi epäili miehen valehdelleensa.
Incorrect — a different subject takes the bare genitive -neen, no possessive suffix.
✅ Poliisi epäili miehen valehdelleen.
The police suspected the man had lied.
❌ Muistan lukenut tästä jo.
Incorrect — same subject needs the participle stem + possessive: lukeneeni.
✅ Muistan lukeneeni tästä jo.
I remember having read about this already.
Key Takeaways
- Tense lives in the participle: -va/-vä = simultaneous (tekevänsä), -nut/-nyt → -nee- = prior (tehneensä). No "had"-auxiliary is ever added.
- The -nut participle weakens to -nee- before the ending, with harmony intact: tehneensä, nähneensä, syöneensä.
- A passive embedded clause uses the past passive participle in the genitive — tehdyn, myydyn — with the patient as a genitive subject and no possessive suffix.
- A passive matrix verb (sanotaan, kerrottiin) attaches the same referative unchanged: Sanotaan hänen olevan rikas.
- The whole construction is (formal / literary / academic); in speech the että-clause with a finite verb is normal.
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- The Referative Construction: Sanoin tulevaniB2 — Compress an että-clause into a participle after verbs of saying and thinking: Sanoin tulevani ('I said I'd come'), Luulen hänen tulevan ('I think he's coming').
- 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.
- Past Active Participle -nut/-nytA2 — The -nut/-nyt participle (plural -neet) builds the perfect, pluperfect and negative past — puhunut, tullut, mennyt — and modifies nouns: mennyt viikko.
- The Passive (Impersonal): 'one, they, people'A2 — Finnish's so-called passive is really an impersonal 'one/they/people do' — it names no agent, always implies a human doer, and keeps object case.