Finnish can stack its two impersonal-and-hypothetical machineries on top of each other: the passive (no named doer) and the conditional (not asserted as fact). Put them together and you get the passive conditional — puhuttaisiin "one/they/we would speak," tehtäisiin "would be done," mentäisiin "would go." It says an unspecified someone would do the action, if only some condition held. And in everyday speech it does one more job the textbooks under-advertise: it is the softest, friendliest way to propose "shall we…?"
How it is built
The recipe is the present passive stem, the conditional marker -isi-, and the passive ending -in. In practice the ending you hear and write is -ttaisiin / -taisiin (back vowels) or -ttäisiin / -täisiin (front vowels).
The single most reliable way to get the consonants right is to start from the past passive and swap the tail. Take the past passive, drop its -iin, and add -aisiin / -äisiin:
| Type | Verb | Present passive | Past passive | Conditional passive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | puhua (speak) | puhutaan | puhuttiin | puhuttaisiin |
| 1 | ottaa (take) | otetaan | otettiin | otettaisiin |
| 1 | antaa (give) | annetaan | annettiin | annettaisiin |
| 2 | syödä (eat) | syödään | syötiin | syötäisiin |
| 2 | tehdä (do) | tehdään | tehtiin | tehtäisiin |
| 3 | mennä (go) | mennään | mentiin | mentäisiin |
| 3 | tulla (come) | tullaan | tultiin | tultaisiin |
| 4 | haluta (want) | halutaan | haluttiin | haluttaisiin |
Notice the double vs. single t is not random: it is exactly the same doubling you already met in the past passive. Types 1 and 4–6 give a double -tt- (puhuttaisiin, otettaisiin, haluttaisiin); types 2 and 3 give a single -t- (tehtäisiin, mentäisiin, tultaisiin). If you can form the past passive, you can form the conditional passive for free.
The core meaning: an impersonal "would"
Like every conditional, this form lives in the world of what if rather than what is. Because it is passive, no one is named as the doer — the "would-be" action just floats there impersonally.
Jos olisi enemmän aikaa, mentäisiin ulos kävelylle.
If there were more time, one would go out for a walk.
Näin isoa taloa ei ostettaisi ilman pitkää harkintaa.
A house this big wouldn't be bought without long consideration.
Ehdotettiin, että kokous pidettäisiin verkossa.
It was proposed that the meeting be held online.
That last example shows a favourite home of the passive conditional: the that-clause after a verb of proposing, wishing or requiring. English uses a bare subjunctive there ("that the meeting be held"); Finnish reaches for the passive conditional pidettäisiin.
The everyday job: a gentle "shall we…?"
Here is where the form earns its keep in real speech. Add the question clitic -kö / -ko and you get a soft, inclusive proposal — noticeably warmer than the blunt present passive question mennäänkö?
Mentäisiinkö kahville?
Shall we go for a coffee?
Otettaisiinko taksi, kun sataa noin kovaa?
Should we take a taxi, since it's raining so hard?
Katsottaisiinko joku elokuva tänä iltana?
How about we watch a film tonight?
Both mennäänkö kahville? and mentäisiinkö kahville? are perfectly good, but they are not identical. Mennäänkö? is a plain "are we going?"; mentäisiinkö? wraps the suggestion in a conditional cushion — "would we go, do you think?" — which reads as more tentative and polite. It is the tone you use with someone you don't want to pressure.
"We would" in speech
Because spoken Finnish uses the passive as its ordinary first-person plural (see the colloquial passive), the passive conditional doubles as the colloquial "we would." With the pronoun me in front, mentäisiin means specifically "we would go," not the impersonal "one would go."
Me lähdettäisiin heti, jos auto olisi kunnossa.
We'd leave right away if the car were in working order.
Drop the me and the very same lähdettäisiin slides back to the impersonal reading. The pronoun is the only thing that pins down "we."
To negate it
The negative simply puts ei in front and strips the final -in off, giving the connegative -taisi / -ttaisi: ei puhuttaisi, ei mentäisi, ei tehtäisi. The full picture is on the negative passive page.
Ilman sinun apuasi tätä ei saataisi ikinä valmiiksi.
Without your help this would never get finished.
Common Mistakes
❌ Auto olisi ostettu Matin toimesta.
Incorrect — English 'would be done by X' tempts a passive + agent, but the Finnish passive names no doer. Say it actively: Matti ostaisi auton.
✅ Matti ostaisi auton.
Matti would buy the car.
❌ Mentäisin kahville?
Incorrect — this is not a personal 'I would go'; the passive has no personal ending. There is no -n of 'minä' here.
✅ Mentäisiinkö kahville?
Shall we go for a coffee?
❌ Jos olisi aikaa, puhutaisiin enemmän.
Incorrect — single t is the present passive stem; the conditional of type-1 puhua doubles the t: puhuttaisiin.
✅ Jos olisi aikaa, puhuttaisiin enemmän.
If there were time, we'd/one would talk more.
❌ Tehtäisiin sinä sen?
Incorrect — you can't attach a subject pronoun; the passive is subjectless. For a personal 'would you do it', use the active tekisitkö.
✅ Tekisitkö sen? / Tehtäisiinkö se?
Would you do it? / Shall we do it?
Key Takeaways
- The passive conditional stacks the passive on the conditional: an impersonal "would" with no named doer.
- Build it from the past passive: drop -iin, add -aisiin / -äisiin — the t-doubling comes along automatically (puhuttiin → puhuttaisiin, mentiin → mentäisiin).
- -kö / -ko turns it into a soft, inclusive "shall we…?" — mentäisiinkö? is gentler than mennäänkö?
- With me it is the colloquial "we would"; without a pronoun it is impersonal "one would."
- Negate with ei
- connegative: ei puhuttaisi, ei tehtäisi.
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
- Present Passive: puhutaanA2 — How to build the present passive across all verb types — -taan/-tään with harmony — as a single invariant impersonal form: puhutaan, otetaan, syödään, mennään.
- The Conditional -isi-: 'would'A2 — Meet the Finnish conditional mood — the -isi- marker that packs English 'would' inside the verb (puhuisin, tulisi, olisi) for hypotheticals, wishes and politeness.
- The Colloquial Passive: me mennäänB1 — Spoken Finnish uses the passive as its everyday 'we' — me mennään = 'we go' — and mennään! alone = 'let's go'. Puhekieli, but near-universal in speech.
- Negative Passive: ei puhutaB1 — Negating the passive across tenses — ei puhuta, ei puhuttu, ei ole puhuttu — with the always-third-person negator ei and the passive connegative.