The Finnish "passive" is one of the most useful forms in the language and one of the most mislabelled. It is not the English passive at all. It is an impersonal: a single verb form that means one does, they do, people do, you (in general) do — an unspecified human subject doing something, with no one named. Suomessa puhutaan suomea means "Finnish is spoken in Finland," yes, but more literally "one speaks Finnish in Finland." This page sets up the whole idea; the individual tenses each have their own page: the present, the past, and the perfect.
What it is: a fourth person
Finnish verbs have first, second and third persons (minä puhun, sinä puhut, hän puhuu). The passive behaves like a fourth person — the "someone / people" person. It has:
- no expressed subject — you cannot say who does it,
- exactly one invariant form for all would-be subjects — there is no agreement,
- an implied human doer — it is always people, never the wind or the rain.
Suomessa puhutaan suomea ja ruotsia.
In Finland they speak Finnish and Swedish. / Finnish and Swedish are spoken in Finland.
Täällä tehdään hyvää kahvia.
They make good coffee here.
Kesällä uidaan järvessä joka päivä.
In summer we/people swim in the lake every day.
Notice how English keeps changing its pronoun — "they," "we," "people," "you" — to translate the very same Finnish form. That fluidity is the whole point: the passive deliberately leaves the doer unspecified.
The one rule English speakers must unlearn: no agent
In English you can bolt an agent onto the passive: "Finnish is spoken by many people." The Finnish passive cannot do this. It has no slot for a "by X." The moment you know and want to name who did it, you must switch to a normal personal sentence.
| English | Finnish | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The house was built (by someone) | Talo rakennettiin. | agent unknown/irrelevant → passive |
| The house was built by my grandfather | Isoisäni rakensi talon. | agent named → active, personal |
It still takes an object — often the partitive
Because the passive is really "one does something," it is a transitive verb missing only its subject. The object stays — and it keeps object case. In Suomessa puhutaan suomea, the word suomea is the partitive object of puhutaan, not a subject. This is the clearest proof that the passive is not the English passive: an English passive turns the object into the subject ("Finnish is spoken"), but Finnish leaves it sitting in the partitive.
Kaupassa myydään tuoreita mansikoita.
They sell fresh strawberries at the shop.
Kokouksessa juotiin paljon kahvia.
A lot of coffee was drunk at the meeting.
The finer points of object case and word order in the passive have their own page; the short version is: treat the passive like a normal verb that has simply lost its subject.
Mapping the tenses
The passive exists in every tense, each formed on the same impersonal principle. Here is the map, so you know where each piece lives:
| Tense | Marker | Example (puhua) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| present | -taan / -tään | puhutaan | one speaks / is spoken |
| past (imperfect) | -ttiin / -tiin | puhuttiin | one spoke / was spoken |
| perfect | on + -ttu / -tu | on puhuttu | one has spoken / has been spoken |
| pluperfect | oli + -ttu / -tu | oli puhuttu | one had spoken / had been spoken |
| negative present | ei + connegative | ei puhuta | one doesn't speak |
The present marker -taan/-tään follows vowel harmony — back -taan in puhutaan, front -tään in mennään. You will meet a public sign built on the negative passive everywhere in Finland:
Täällä ei polteta.
No smoking here. (literally: here one doesn't smoke)
That ei polteta is the negative of the present passive poltetaan — the impersonal doer, negated. The negative passive, colloquial me + passive ("we"), and word-order details each get a dedicated page; start with the present passive to learn how the form is built across verb types.
Common Mistakes
❌ Suomea puhutaan monen ihmisen toimesta.
Incorrect — the passive cannot take a 'by X' agent (toimesta is bureaucratic calque). Name the doer with an active sentence instead.
✅ Moni ihminen puhuu suomea.
Many people speak Finnish. (active, with a named subject)
❌ Suomessa puhutaan suomi.
Incorrect — the object stays in object case; here it should be the partitive suomea, not the nominative suomi.
✅ Suomessa puhutaan suomea.
Finnish is spoken in Finland.
❌ Me puhutaan suomea koulussa opettajan.
Incorrect — the passive has no subject slot and no agent; you can't append a doer in the genitive.
✅ Koulussa puhutaan suomea.
At school people speak Finnish.
❌ Sataa passiivissa: 'sadetaan'.
Incorrect — the passive needs a human doer, so weather verbs like sataa (to rain) have no passive.
✅ Ulkona sataa.
It's raining outside. (weather verbs stay impersonal in their own way, not passive)
Key Takeaways
- The Finnish passive is an impersonal fourth person — "one/they/people do" — not the English "is done by X."
- It has no subject and no agent slot: never add "by X." If you can name the doer, use an active sentence.
- It always implies a human doer, so weather and other agentless verbs have no passive.
- It keeps its object, frequently in the partitive: puhutaan suomea.
- One invariant form per tense: present puhutaan, past puhuttiin, perfect on puhuttu — start with the present.
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.
- Passive Word Order and the ObjectB2 — Why 'Talo rakennetaan' has no subject — the fronted noun is really the object, in the nominative or partitive, sharing the imperative's object rule.
- 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.
- Nominative Objects: Imperatives and PassivesB1 — After an imperative, passive, or necessive verb the singular total object is the bare nominative, not -n — these clauses have no nominative subject.