Passive Participles: -tava and -tu | Finnish Grammar

A participle is a verb wearing an adjective's clothes. Finnish has four of them, two active and two passive; this page is about the two passive participles. They matter far beyond the passive itself, because they are the words behind "drinking water," "a broken window," "the work to be done," and the whole perfect tense. Both behave as ordinary adjectives — they decline, they agree — and once you can tell them apart, a large slice of written Finnish opens up.

Present passive participle: -tava / -ttava

This participle points forward: it describes something to be done, able to be done, or that must be done. English has no single word for it; it splits the meaning across "-able," "to be -ed," and "must be -ed."

The ending harmonizes and doubles by verb type exactly like the other passive forms — -ttava/-ttävä for types 1 and 4–6, -tava/-tävä for types 2 and 3:

Verb	Participle	English reading(s)
lukea (read)	luettava	to be read / that must be read
juoda (drink)	juotava	drinkable / to be drunk
syödä (eat)	syötävä	edible / to be eaten
tehdä (do)	tehtävä	to be done (also the noun "task, exercise")
maksaa (pay)	maksettava	to be paid, payable
tarvita (need)	tarvittava	needed, required

Onko tämä sieni syötävä vai myrkyllinen?

Is this mushroom edible or poisonous?

Hanavesi on Suomessa puhdasta ja juotavaa.

Tap water in Finland is clean and drinkable.

Tässä on lista tehtävistä asioista.

Here's a list of things to be done.

Notice tehtävistä in that last example — the participle is declined into the plural elative, agreeing with asioista, because it is functioning as a full adjective.

The necessive edge: "must be done"

The most important thing an English speaker must absorb is that -tava carries obligation. Placed after a form of olla, it builds the standard "must / has to be done" construction — the passive counterpart of on tehtävä obligation (the full construction is covered under the necessive participle).

Lasku on maksettava kuun loppuun mennessä.

The bill must be paid by the end of the month.

Kaikki lomakkeet on täytettävä huolellisesti.

All the forms must be filled in carefully.

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One suffix, two readings. Syötävä is at once an adjective ("edible") and a necessive ("to be eaten / must be eaten"): syötävä sieni = "an edible mushroom," but sieni on syötävä can mean "the mushroom must be eaten." Context decides — an attribute in front of a noun leans adjectival; standing after olla it leans obligational.

Past passive participle: -tu / -ttu

This participle points backward: it describes something that has been done — "broken," "taken," "closed." It is the passive twin of the active -nut participle, and it is the word that builds the perfect passive (on puhuttu) and the negative past passive (ei puhuttu).

Same harmony and doubling logic — -ttu/-tty for types 1 and 4–6, -tu/-ty for types 2 and 3:

Verb	Participle	English
ottaa (take)	otettu	taken
rikkoa (break)	rikottu	broken
sulkea (close)	suljettu	closed
tehdä (do)	tehty	done
syödä (eat)	syöty	eaten
paistaa (fry)	paistettu	fried

Seinällä roikkui vasta otettu valokuva.

A freshly taken photograph hung on the wall.

Lattialla oli rikottua lasia.

There was broken glass on the floor.

Suljetun oven takaa kuului musiikkia.

Music could be heard from behind the closed door.

Again the participle declines to agree: otettu → rikottua (partitive) → suljetun (genitive). It is a full adjective.

-tu is passive; don't confuse it with active -nut

Because English "done" covers both, learners routinely collide these two words:

Form	Voice	Meaning
tehty	passive	done (by someone unnamed)
tehnyt	active	having done

Työ on tehty = "the work has been done"; hän on tehnyt työn = "he has done the work." The -tu/-ttu word looks at the thing acted upon; the -nut/-nyt word looks at the doer. Mixing them produces sentences that are not just wrong but comically wrong: hän on tehty would mean "he has been made/done."

-tava vs. -tu: forward vs. backward

The two passive participles are mirror images in time. -tava is prospective (not yet done, still to do); -tu is retrospective (already done).

Pöydällä oli sekä juotavaa vettä että jo juotua kahvia.

On the table there was both water to drink and coffee that had already been drunk.

Juotavaa vettä = water waiting to be drunk; juotua kahvia = coffee already consumed. Same verb juoda, opposite time orientation.

Common Mistakes

❌ Hän on tehty työnsä.

Incorrect — 'he has done' is the ACTIVE participle tehnyt. Tehty is passive ('been done').

✅ Hän on tehnyt työnsä.

He has done his work.

❌ Lasku on maksettu kuun loppuun mennessä.

Incorrect if you mean obligation — maksettu is 'has been paid' (past). 'Must be paid' needs the -tava form maksettava.

✅ Lasku on maksettava kuun loppuun mennessä.

The bill must be paid by the end of the month.

❌ Pidän otettu kuvasta.

Incorrect — the participle must agree in case with its noun: elative kuvasta needs otetusta.

✅ Pidän otetusta kuvasta.

I like the photo that was taken.

❌ Onko tämä sieni syöty?

Wrong meaning — syöty asks 'has it been eaten?'. To ask 'is it edible?' use the -tava participle syötävä.

✅ Onko tämä sieni syötävä?

Is this mushroom edible?

Key Takeaways

Present passive participle -tava/-ttava points forward: "-able / to be -ed / must be -ed" (juotava, tehtävä, tarvittava).
After olla it turns necessive: lasku on maksettava "the bill must be paid."
Past passive participle -tu/-ttu points backward: "-ed, done" (otettu, rikottu, tehty); it also builds the perfect passive.
Both decline and agree like adjectives (otettu → otetun → rikottua).
Keep passive -tu apart from active -nut: tehty "done" ≠ tehnyt "having done."

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