The perfect and pluperfect passive are the impersonal "has been done" and "had been done." Like the active perfect, they are two-word tenses: an auxiliary from olla plus a participle. What makes the passive versions distinctive is that the auxiliary never changes — it is always the bare on (perfect) or oli (pluperfect) — and the participle is the past passive participle in -ttu / -tu. This page builds both. The simple past passive (puhuttiin) is the previous step.
The building blocks
| Tense | Formula | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| perfect passive | on + participle | on puhuttu | one has spoken / it has been spoken |
| pluperfect passive | oli + participle | oli puhuttu | one had spoken / it had been spoken |
The auxiliary is the invariant third-person singular on / oli. There is no olen puhuttu or olemme puhuttu — because the passive has no subject, there is nothing for the auxiliary to agree with.
Työ on tehty, voitte mennä kotiin.
The work has been done, you can go home.
Kun saavuimme, ruoka oli jo syöty.
When we arrived, the food had already been eaten.
Building the -ttu / -tu participle
The past passive participle is one short step from the past passive: take the -ttiin/-tiin form and replace -iin with -u / -y (chosen by harmony).
| Verb | Type | Past passive | Participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| puhua | 1 | puhuttiin | puhuttu |
| ottaa | 1 | otettiin | otettu |
| syödä | 2 | syötiin | syöty |
| tehdä | 2 | tehtiin | tehty |
| mennä | 3 | mentiin | menty |
| tarvita | 5 | tarvittiin | tarvittu |
So the double/single t you learned for the past carries straight over: -ttu/-tty for types 1, 4, 5 (puhuttu, otettu, tavattu, tarvittu) and -tu/-ty for types 2 and 3 (syöty, tehty, menty, tultu). Harmony picks the vowel: back -ttu/-tu (puhuttu, saatu), front -tty/-ty (tehty, syöty, menty).
Kaikki liput on jo myyty.
All the tickets have already been sold.
Tänä vuonna on rakennettu paljon uusia asuntoja.
A lot of new flats have been built this year.
Asiasta oli päätetty jo ennen kokousta.
The matter had already been decided before the meeting.
Perfect vs pluperfect
The difference is the same as in English and in the active: the perfect (on) links a past event to now; the pluperfect (oli) sets an event before another past point.
Tätä laulua on laulettu jo sadan vuoden ajan.
This song has been sung for a hundred years now. (perfect — up to the present)
Laulua oli laulettu jo kauan ennen kuin se levytettiin.
The song had been sung for a long time before it was recorded. (pluperfect — before a past point)
Don't confuse -ttu with the active -nut
This is the trap. Finnish has two past participles that both mean roughly "-ed / done," and they are not interchangeable:
| Participle | Verb puhua | Used in | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| active, -nut/-nyt | puhunut | hän on puhunut | he/she has spoken (a named subject did it) |
| passive, -ttu/-tu | puhuttu | on puhuttu | it has been spoken / people have spoken (no subject) |
Hän on puhunut asiasta monta kertaa.
He has spoken about the matter many times. (active — he did)
Asiasta on puhuttu monta kertaa.
The matter has been spoken about many times. (passive — someone did, unnamed)
One form, two jobs: the participle as an adjective
The -ttu/-tu participle isn't only for the perfect — it also works as a plain adjective meaning "…ed," agreeing in case and number like any modifier. This is why tehty työ means "finished work" and keitetty muna means "a boiled egg." One form, two jobs — its adjectival life is covered on the passive participles page.
Pöydällä oli vastaleivottua leipää.
On the table there was freshly baked bread.
Suljettu ovi ei ollut lukossa.
The closed door wasn't locked.
Common Mistakes
❌ Työ on tehnyt.
Incorrect — that's the active participle (as if the work did something). The passive perfect needs -ttu: on tehty.
✅ Työ on tehty.
The work has been done.
❌ Liput ovat myyty.
Incorrect — the passive auxiliary never agrees; it stays as the singular on. It's on myyty, not ovat myyty.
✅ Liput on myyty.
The tickets have been sold.
❌ Ruoka oli syönyt, kun tulimme.
Incorrect — food doesn't eat; you need the passive participle syöty, not the active syönyt.
✅ Ruoka oli syöty, kun tulimme.
The food had been eaten when we came.
❌ Me olemme puhuttu tästä.
Incorrect — mixing an agreeing auxiliary with a passive participle. Either active (olemme puhuneet) or passive (on puhuttu), never both.
✅ Tästä on puhuttu.
This has been talked about.
Key Takeaways
- Perfect passive = on
- -ttu/-tu participle
- participle
- The auxiliary is frozen as on/oli — it never agrees, because the passive has no subject.
- Build the participle from the past passive: -ttiin → -ttu/-tty, -tiin → -tu/-ty, with harmony (puhuttu, tehty, otettu, syöty, menty).
- Do not confuse the passive -ttu/-tu with the active -nut/-nyt: on puhuttu ("has been spoken") vs on puhunut ("has spoken").
- The same -ttu/-tu participle doubles as an adjective: tehty työ ("finished work").
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Start learning Finnish→Related Topics
- Past Passive: puhuttiinB1 — The past (imperfect) passive in -ttiin/-tiin — 'one did / people did', and in speech the ordinary way to say 'we did': mentiin, otettiin, syötiin.
- Passive Participles: -tava and -tuB2 — Finnish's two passive participles: present -tava ('to be done / must be done') and past -tu ('done, broken') — and how they differ from active -nut.
- The Perfect: olen tehnytA2 — The perfect is olla (present) + past active participle: olen puhunut, on tullut. The auxiliary is 'be', never 'have', and the participle agrees in number.
- 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.