The Verb Reference is the part of this guide you come back to for the rest of your life. The type-model pages print full paradigms for one representative verb of each of the six Finnish verb types; the individual verb pages do the same for the highest-frequency irregulars. This page explains how to read those tables so that a single glance tells you everything — and, more importantly, so that you can generate a form that isn't printed. Every model page shares the same skeleton, so learning it once pays off across hundreds of verbs.
The skeleton every page follows
Finnish stacks its finite verb forms along two axes: person (who) down the rows, tense and mood (when and how real) across the columns. Six persons never change label — minä, sinä, hän, me, te, he — so once you know where a row sits, you know it everywhere. Here is the present of puhua ("to speak"), the shape you will see repeated on every model page:
| Person | Form | English |
|---|---|---|
| minä | puhun | I speak |
| sinä | puhut | you speak |
| hän | puhuu | he/she speaks |
| me | puhumme | we speak |
| te | puhutte | you (pl.) speak |
| he | puhuvat | they speak |
The endings -n, -t, -(vowel), -mme, -tte, -vat/-vät are the same in every tense and mood — they ride on top of whatever stem the tense builds. So the whole system reduces to: find the tense stem, then bolt on the familiar six endings. Learn the columns once and the rows come for free.
The five principal parts
You do not need to store a hundred cells per verb. Five forms — the principal parts — let you regenerate the entire paradigm. Every model and verb page prints them in a highlighted box at the top:
| Principal part | Example (puhua) | What it unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| puhua | the headword; tells you the type | |
| puhun | the weak present stem → most present/imperfect persons, connegative |
| puhuu | the strong stem → 3sg/3pl, exposes gradation |
| puhuin | the imperfect stem |
| puhunut | every compound tense: perfect, pluperfect, conditional perfect, negatives |
Why these five and not others? Because each one exposes a stem that the others hide. The 1sg shows the weak grade (annan, pidän); the 3sg shows the strong grade (antaa, pitää) and whether the vowel doubles; the past 1sg shows how the -i- reshapes the stem (puhuin but söin, antoi); and the past participle is the ingredient of every perfect and every negative past. If you can say those five, you can build the rest.
Sanakirja antaa vain perusmuodon, mutta preesensin yksikön ensimmäinen paljastaa vartalon.
The dictionary gives only the base form, but the first-person singular present reveals the stem.
The 3sg is your diagnostic
Of the five, the third-person singular does the most work, because it is the one form that reliably shows the strong grade. Consonant gradation weakens the stem in the "closed" persons (1sg, 2sg, 1pl, 2pl) but leaves it strong in 3sg and 3pl. So the 3sg tells you what the underlying strong stem is:
| Verb | 1sg (weak) | 3sg (strong) | Gradation |
|---|---|---|---|
| antaa | annan | antaa | nt ↔ nn |
| ottaa | otan | ottaa | tt ↔ t |
| pitää | pidän | pitää | t ↔ d |
| lukea | luen | lukee | k ↔ – |
Read those two columns together and the whole consonant-gradation system becomes visible at a glance. The notation on each page marks gradation with an arrow between the strong and weak partners: tt ↔ t, nt ↔ nn, k ↔ – (the dash means the consonant disappears entirely).
Notation you will see
- Type number (1–6): the conjugation class, decided by the infinitive ending. Type 1 = puhua; Type 2 = syödä; Type 3 = tulla; and so on. Every model page is named for its type.
- Harmony marker (-a/-ä): endings are written with a slash because they obey vowel harmony. A back-vowel stem takes -a (puhutaan, antavat); a front-vowel stem takes -ä (syödään, menevät). The endings are otherwise identical.
- The gradation arrow (↔): points from strong to weak grade so you can see which persons weaken.
What has no equivalent in English
Two habits from English will trip you up, so the tables are built to break them. First, there is no to. The infinitive puhua already is "to speak" — you never add a separate particle, and there is no place in any table for one. Second, there is no auxiliary do. English builds negatives and questions with a helper verb ("I do not speak", "do you speak?"). Finnish has no such helper. Instead, negation is itself a conjugated verb: en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät, followed by the connegative:
En puhu ranskaa, mutta ymmärrän vähän.
I don't speak French, but I understand a little.
Etkö sinä tule mukaan? — En ehdi tänään.
Aren't you coming along? — I don't have time today.
That is why every model page devotes a column to the negative and prints the connegative separately: the negative auxiliary agrees with the person, while the main verb sits frozen in its bare stem. Read the negative verb page alongside the models once, and the pattern will feel automatic.
How to map a new verb onto a model
- Look at the infinitive ending and read off the type (or use the Verb Index).
- Open that type-model page and read its five principal parts.
- Compare the model's 1sg and 3sg with your verb's to see whether — and how — it gradates.
- Substitute your stem into the model's columns. The endings never change.
Katsotaanpa uutta verbiä: jos se taipuu kuin malli, sinun ei tarvitse opetella yhtään uutta päätettä.
Let's look at a new verb: if it inflects like the model, you don't have to learn a single new ending.
Common Mistakes
❌ Minä to puhua suomea.
Incorrect — there is no 'to'; the infinitive already carries it, and here you need a finite verb anyway.
✅ Minä puhun suomea.
I speak Finnish.
❌ En puhun englantia.
Incorrect — after the negative verb the main verb must be the connegative (bare stem), not a conjugated form.
✅ En puhu englantia.
I don't speak English.
❌ Sinä et do tietää.
Incorrect — Finnish has no auxiliary 'do'; the negative verb 'et' already does that job.
✅ Sinä et tiedä.
You don't know.
❌ He puhuu kovaa.
Incorrect — 'he' (they) takes the -vat ending, not the 3sg -uu; only 'hän' uses puhuu.
✅ He puhuvat kovaa.
They speak loudly.
Keep these four axes in mind — person on the rows, tense/mood on the columns, five principal parts at the top, and a conjugated negative instead of do — and every table in the Verb Reference will read the same way.
Now practice Finnish
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Finnish→Related Topics
- Verb Index and Type FinderB1 — Read a verb's conjugation type straight off its infinitive ending, then look up 40 of the most common Finnish verbs with their type, present 1sg, and gradation notes.
- Model Verb Type 1: puhua — Full ConjugationA2 — The complete paradigm of the Type 1 model verb puhua, plus the gradating verb antaa, across every tense, mood, voice, and non-finite form.
- The Six Verb TypesA1 — Finnish verbs fall into six types by their infinitive ending; the type tells you how to build the present stem — the key to all conjugation.
- The Connegative StemA2 — After en/ei the Finnish main verb drops to the connegative — the personless present stem, identical to the singular imperative: en puhu, et ota, ei anna.
- The Present TenseA1 — One Finnish present form covers 'I speak', 'I am speaking' and 'I will speak' — stem plus a personal ending, no auxiliary, no separate future tense.