Type 2 verbs — the ones whose infinitive ends in -da/-dä after a long vowel or diphthong (saada, syödä, juoda, viedä, tuoda, myydä) — form some of the most common past forms in the language, and also some of the most compressed. When the past marker -i- meets their long-vowel or diphthong stem, the stem contracts: it cannot hold three vowels in a row, so the first one is squeezed out, leaving a short vowel plus -i-. The result is tiny, high-frequency words like sai ("got"), söi ("ate"), join ("I drank"), vei ("took").
Because these verbs are everyday vocabulary — to get, to eat, to drink, to bring, to take — their past forms come up constantly, and getting the contraction wrong is instantly noticeable. This page drills each one and the exact vowel that survives.
The contraction principle
The Type 2 present stem is the long vowel or diphthong itself: saa-, syö-, juo-, vie-, tuo-, myy-. Adding -i- would give an impossible saa-i, syö-i. Finnish resolves this two ways, depending on the stem:
- Long vowel (aa, yy, ää, oo): it shortens to a single vowel, then -i- attaches. saa- → sa- + i → sai; myy- → my- + i → myi.
- Diphthong (uo, yö, ie, öy…): the first vowel drops and the second survives, then -i- attaches. juo- → jo- + i → joi; syö- → sö- + i → söi; vie- → ve- + i → vei.
The critical detail is which vowel is left standing. In a diphthong it is always the second one — so juo and tuo both keep their o (→ joi, toi), syö keeps its ö (→ söi), and vie keeps its e (→ vei). The outcome is never simply "stem vowel + i"; you must know which vowel wins.
The full paradigm: saada
Take saada ("to get, to receive"), stem saa-, contracting to sa-:
| Person | Past form | English |
|---|---|---|
| minä | sain | I got |
| sinä | sait | you got |
| hän | sai | he/she got |
| me | saimme | we got |
| te | saitte | you (pl.) got |
| he | saivat | they got |
Every Type 2 verb follows this shape — a short vowel + -i- + the ordinary endings -n, -t, -(∅), -mme, -tte, -vat/-vät.
Sain eilen kirjeen vanhalta ystävältä.
Yesterday I got a letter from an old friend.
Saimme lopulta liput viime hetkellä.
We finally got the tickets at the last minute.
The core six side by side
| Verb | Stem | Past 1sg | Past 3sg | Vowel kept |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| saada (get) | saa- | sain | sai | a (shortened) |
| myydä (sell) | myy- | myin | myi | y (shortened) |
| jäädä (stay) | jää- | jäin | jäi | ä (shortened) |
| juoda (drink) | juo- | join | joi | o (2nd of uo) |
| tuoda (bring) | tuo- | toin | toi | o (2nd of uo) |
| syödä (eat) | syö- | söin | söi | ö (2nd of yö) |
| viedä (take away) | vie- | vein | vei | e (2nd of ie) |
Söimme ulkona koko illan, koska sää oli niin kaunis.
We ate outside all evening because the weather was so beautiful.
Join aamulla liikaa kahvia enkä saanut nukuttua.
I drank too much coffee in the morning and couldn't sleep.
Vein roskat ulos ja toin postin sisään.
I took the trash out and brought the mail in.
Myin vanhan autoni ja ostin polkupyörän.
I sold my old car and bought a bicycle.
The -k- irregulars: tehdä and nähdä
Two extremely common verbs, tehdä ("to do/make") and nähdä ("to see"), are Type 2 in appearance but hide a -k- stem (teke-, näke-). In the past, the e drops before -i- and the k gradates — surviving only in the open-syllable 3sg and 3pl:
| Person | tehdä (teke-) | nähdä (näke-) |
|---|---|---|
| minä | tein | näin |
| sinä | teit | näit |
| hän | teki | näki |
| me | teimme | näimme |
| te | teitte | näitte |
| he | tekivät | näkivät |
So the k appears in teki, tekivät, näki, näkivät but disappears everywhere else (tein, näit, teimme…). This is why näin means both "I saw" (past of nähdä) and "in this way" (the adverb) — length and context keep them apart.
Tein kaiken itse, koska halusin oppia.
I did everything myself because I wanted to learn.
Näin unta, jossa lensin kaupungin yllä.
I had a dream in which I flew over the city.
Emme nähneet toisiamme vuosiin, mutta tunnistin hänet heti.
We hadn't seen each other in years, but I recognised him at once.
Two more to know: käydä and voida
Käydä ("to visit, to go") is Type 2 but grows a -v- in the past: kävin, kävit, kävi, kävimme, kävitte, kävivät. It is one of the most-used past verbs in daily speech ("I went to the shop / dropped by").
Voida ("to be able, may") ends in -oi, which already contains an i, so present and past collapse together: voin is both "I can" and "I could," voi both "can" and "could." Only context separates them.
Kävin eilen kaupassa ja ostin illalliseksi kalaa.
Yesterday I went to the shop and bought fish for dinner.
En voinut tulla, koska jäin kotiin sairaana.
I couldn't come because I stayed home sick.
Common Mistakes
❌ Minä saain uuden työn viime kuussa.
Incorrect — the long vowel contracts; don't keep both a's: sain.
✅ Sain uuden työn viime kuussa.
I got a new job last month.
❌ Me syöimme ravintolassa eilen.
Incorrect — syö- contracts to sö- before -i-: söimme, not syöimme.
✅ Söimme ravintolassa eilen.
We ate at a restaurant yesterday.
❌ Hän teki... minä tekin kaiken valmiiksi.
Incorrect — the k drops in the closed-syllable forms: tein, not tekin.
✅ Tein kaiken valmiiksi ajoissa.
I got everything ready in time.
❌ Hän soi omenan nopeasti.
Incorrect — 'eat' keeps the front ö: söi. (*soi would be 'it rang/sounded'.)
✅ Hän söi omenan nopeasti.
He ate the apple quickly.
Key Takeaways
- Type 2 stems contract before -i-: long vowels shorten (saa- → sai), diphthongs keep their second vowel (juo- → joi, syö- → söi, vie- → vei).
- The surviving vowel is not predictable as "stem vowel + i" — memorise sai, myi, jäi, joi, toi, söi, vei.
- Tehdä and nähdä hide a k-stem: tein/teki, näin/näki — the k shows only in 3sg/3pl.
- Käydä → kävin (a v appears); voida → voin (present and past coincide).
- Mind the front vowel: söi (ate) is distinct from soi (rang), and its plural is söivät.
Now practice Finnish
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Start learning Finnish→Related Topics
- When -i- Changes the Stem: otti, antoi, halusiB2 — The past -i- reshapes a/ä stems: antoi (a→o) vs otti (a drops) vs tiesi/halusi (t→s). The full table of stem-vowel outcomes.
- Verb Type 2: -da/-dä Verbs (syödä, juoda)A1 — Drop -da/-dä and the stem already ends in a long vowel, so the third person adds nothing: syön, syöt, syö. Tehdä and nähdä are irregular.
- syödä ('to eat')A1 — Full conjugation of syödä (to eat), a Type 2 verb: bare 3sg syö, contracting past söi, and the total-vs-partitive object it governs.
- tehdä ('to do / make')A1 — The full paradigm of tehdä, an irregular verb whose one lemma surfaces as three stems — tee-, teke-, teh- — with the -ke- appearing only where you least expect it.