The First Infinitive: the Dictionary Form | Finnish Grammar

The first infinitive is the form you meet on day one: it is what a dictionary lists, what a textbook glosses, and what you say when you name a verb out of context — puhua "to speak," syödä "to eat," tulla "to come." It is the plainest of the five infinitives, and its two everyday jobs are simple: it follows modal-like verbs, and it can stand as the subject of a sentence.

But it hides one trap that trips up nearly every beginner, and getting it straight now will save you months of confusion: the dictionary form is not the stem you conjugate.

The ending tells you the verb type

Finnish sorts verbs into six types by how the first infinitive ends. Knowing the type is what lets you find the present stem, so the ending is genuinely load-bearing information — not decoration.

Type	Infinitive ends in	Examples
1	vowel + -a / -ä	puhua, asua, sanoa, ottaa
2	-da / -dä	syödä, juoda, tehdä, nähdä
3	-la/-lä, -na/-nä, -ra/-rä, -sta/-stä	tulla, mennä, purra, nousta
4	-ata / -ätä	tavata, haluta, osata
5	-ita	tarvita, valita, häiritä
6	-eta / -etä	vanheta, paeta, lämmetä

The verb types overview treats each in depth. For now, note that every ending comes in a back-vowel and a front-vowel version by vowel harmony: it is puhua but syödä, asua but elää.

The dictionary form is not the stem

Here is the trap. In English, "speak" is both the citation form and the stem — you conjugate straight off it (speak, speaks, speaking). In Finnish, the first infinitive carries an infinitive ending that you must peel off before you can conjugate anything.

puhua → present stem puhu- → puhun, puhut, puhuu
syödä → present stem syö- → syön, syöt, syö
tulla → present stem tule- → tulen, tulet, tulee
haluta → present stem halua- → haluan, haluat, haluaa

Notice that the stem can differ from the infinitive in more than just the ending: tulla grows a vowel (tule-), and gradating verbs may swap a consonant (tavata → tapaa-). This is why "just add the ending to the dictionary word" fails. Learning where the stem comes from is a topic of its own — see finding the stem.

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Never conjugate off the whole dictionary word. Puhua's stem is puhu-, not puhua-; the "I" form is puhun, not *puhuan. Treat the first infinitive as a label on the verb, and go find the stem before you inflect.

The first infinitive's main job is to be the bare complement of a small, high-frequency set of verbs — the ones that express wanting, being able, having to, and intending. This is exactly the "to do" of English "I want to do," "I can do," "I have to do."

Haluan puhua kanssasi hetken.

I want to talk with you for a moment.

Osaatko uida?

Can you swim? (do you know how to swim?)

Meidän täytyy mennä nyt.

We have to go now.

Voitko auttaa minua hetken?

Can you help me for a moment?

En jaksa enää odottaa.

I can't be bothered to wait any longer.

Aion soittaa hänelle illalla.

I intend to call him this evening.

The common members to memorise: haluta (want), voida (be able), osata (know how), saattaa / taitaa (may), täytyä / pitää (must), aikoa (intend), yrittää / koettaa (try), jaksaa (have the energy), viitsiä (bother to), saada (be allowed). String several together and you get a verb chain — see verb chains.

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Notice these verbs are exactly the ones that take a bare "to"-infinitive in English too: want to, can, must, intend to, try to. That overlap is a genuine shortcut — where English drops "to" or uses a plain infinitive after a modal, Finnish almost always wants the first infinitive. The mismatch comes elsewhere, with motion verbs (see below).

Job 2: as a subject

The first infinitive can be the subject of a sentence, usually with an evaluating predicate — "it is nice/hard/important to do X." Finnish has no dummy "it": the infinitive itself is the subject.

On mukava matkustaa yksin.

It's nice to travel alone.

Suomea on vaikea oppia, mutta ei mahdotonta.

Finnish is hard to learn, but not impossible.

Olisi kiva nähdä sinut taas.

It would be nice to see you again.

Do not confuse -a with -maan

The biggest structural error English speakers make is reaching for the wrong infinitive after a verb of motion. Haluta takes the plain first infinitive; but mennä, tulla, lähteä and other motion verbs take the third infinitive illative -maan/-mään instead. The two must not be swapped.

Haluan mennä ulos.

I want to go outside. (haluta → first infinitive mennä)

Menen ulos syömään.

I'm going out to eat. (motion verb → syömään, not syödä)

The pattern is symmetrical, which makes it memorable: use the first infinitive after haluta, and you will be tempted to keep it after mennä — but there you need -maan. Say haluan mennä and menen tekemään, never *haluan menemään or *menen tehdä.

Common Mistakes

❌ Minä puhuan suomea vähän.

Incorrect — the stem is puhu-, so 'I speak' is puhun; puhuan mixes the infinitive into the finite form.

✅ Minä puhun suomea vähän.

I speak a little Finnish.

❌ Haluan menemään kotiin.

Incorrect — haluta takes the plain first infinitive, not -maan: haluan mennä.

✅ Haluan mennä kotiin.

I want to go home.

❌ Osaan syömään puikoilla.

Incorrect — osata takes the first infinitive: osaan syödä. -maan belongs after motion/learning verbs, e.g. opin syömään.

✅ Osaan syödä puikoilla.

I can eat with chopsticks.

❌ On mukava matkustan yksin.

Incorrect — the subject slot needs the infinitive, not a finite verb: On mukava matkustaa yksin.

✅ On mukava matkustaa yksin.

It's nice to travel alone.

Key Takeaways

The first infinitive is the dictionary form; its ending (-a, -da, -la, -ata, -ita, -eta) tells you the verb type.
It is not the stem — peel off the infinitive ending (and often adjust a vowel or consonant) before conjugating: puhua → puhu- → puhun.
Its two jobs: complement of modal-like verbs (haluan puhua, osaan uida, täytyy mennä) and subject (On mukava matkustaa).
Do not swap it for -maan: haluta
- -a, but motion verbs + -maan (menen ostamaan).

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