Finnish has exactly six personal endings, one for each grammatical person, and they never change from verb to verb. This is the single most reassuring fact in the whole verb system: once you know these six endings, the only thing that varies between one verb and the next is the stem they attach to. Learn the endings here, learn how to build the stem on the verb-type pages, and you can conjugate the present tense of almost any Finnish verb.
The six endings
Take the stem puhu- (from puhua, "to speak") and add each ending in turn:
| Person | Pronoun | Ending | Form |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st sg. | minä (I) | -n | puhun |
| 2nd sg. | sinä (you) | -t | puhut |
| 3rd sg. | hän (he/she) | ∅ (long vowel) | puhuu |
| 1st pl. | me (we) | -mme | puhumme |
| 2nd pl. | te (you) | -tte | puhutte |
| 3rd pl. | he (they) | -vat / -vät | puhuvat |
Notice that five of the six endings are pure consonants or consonant clusters — -n, -t, -mme, -tte, -vat — glued straight onto the stem vowel. Only the third-person singular breaks the pattern, and it is worth its own section.
Puhun vähän suomea, mutta paljon paremmin englantia.
I speak a little Finnish, but much better English.
Puhutko sinä ruotsia töissä?
Do you speak Swedish at work?
Kotona puhumme aina suomea, vaikka lapset vastaavat englanniksi.
At home we always speak Finnish, even though the kids answer in English.
The third person has no consonant
English marks the third person with an added -s: I speak → she speaks. Finnish does the opposite — it marks the third-person singular by adding nothing at all, and instead lengthens the final stem vowel. So puhu- becomes puhuu, with a long uu. There is no *puhus, no *puhut (that is the second person), just a stretched vowel.
Naapuri puhuu puhelimessa niin kovaa, että kuulen joka sanan.
The neighbor talks on the phone so loudly that I hear every word.
Why the lengthening? Historically the third person did have an ending; it eroded away over the centuries and left behind only the extra vowel length as its fossil. The practical rule for the two big vowel-stem types you meet first is simple: Type 1 verbs (puhua) and Type 3 verbs (tulla) double the final stem vowel in the third person. Long-vowel Type 2 stems (syödä → syö-) already end in a long vowel, so they add nothing more: hän syö, not *syöö.
A second full paradigm: tulla (to come)
To prove the endings really are identical across verbs, here is tulla with the stem tule-. The endings are exactly the same as for puhu-; only the stem has changed:
| Person | Form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| minä | tulen | I come |
| sinä | tulet | you come |
| hän | tulee | he/she comes |
| me | tulemme | we come |
| te | tulette | you (pl.) come |
| he | tulevat | they come |
Tuletko sinä mukaan kaupungille lauantaina?
Are you coming into town on Saturday?
Bussi tulee yleensä viiden minuutin myöhässä.
The bus usually comes five minutes late.
The plural third person harmonises: -vat vs -vät
The one ending with two shapes is the third-person plural -vat / -vät, and the choice is governed by vowel harmony. A back-vowel stem (containing a, o, u) takes -vat; a front-vowel stem (containing ä, ö, y, or only the neutral e, i) takes -vät. You must never mix them.
| Stem | Vowels | 3rd pl. |
|---|---|---|
| puhu- (speak) | back (u, a) | puhuvat |
| asu- (live) | back (a, u) | asuvat |
| mene- (go) | front (neutral e) | menevät |
| syö- (eat) | front (ö) | syövät |
Lapset menevät kouluun kahdeksalta ja tulevat kotiin kahdelta.
The kids go to school at eight and come home at two.
Vieraat syövät parhaillaan, joten soitan sinulle myöhemmin.
The guests are eating right now, so I'll call you later.
The pronoun is optional in the first and second person
Because -n, -t, -mme, -tte each point unambiguously to one person, standard Finnish routinely drops the subject pronoun for minä, sinä, me, te. The verb form alone tells you who acts. This is pro-drop, and it is the natural, unmarked way to speak and write: Puhun suomea ("I speak Finnish") is the default; Minä puhun suomea adds emphasis — "I speak Finnish (as opposed to you)."
Asun keskustassa ja käyn töissä pyörällä.
I live downtown and go to work by bike.
The third person is different. Hän and he are not freely dropped, because a bare third-person verb has no personal consonant to identify its subject — you usually need the pronoun or a noun to say who is meant. (In everyday speech hän and he are commonly replaced by the informal se and ne, but that is a vocabulary choice, not a dropping of the subject.)
Hän asuu Tampereella, mutta työskentelee Helsingissä.
She lives in Tampere but works in Helsinki.
Common Mistakes
❌ Hän puhuus englantia hyvin.
Incorrect — Finnish never adds an English -s to the third person.
✅ Hän puhuu englantia hyvin.
He speaks English well.
❌ Minä puhu suomea joka päivä.
Incorrect — the first person needs the ending -n.
✅ Puhun suomea joka päivä.
I speak Finnish every day. (pronoun dropped)
❌ Naapurit puhuvät liian kovaa.
Incorrect — a back-vowel stem (puhu-) takes -vat, not -vät.
✅ Naapurit puhuvat liian kovaa.
The neighbors are talking too loudly.
❌ Lapset menevat nukkumaan kymmeneltä.
Incorrect — a front-vowel verb (mene-) takes -vät, not -vat.
✅ Lapset menevät nukkumaan kymmeneltä.
The kids go to bed at ten.
Key Takeaways
- The six endings are constant across every verb: -n, -t, ∅, -mme, -tte, -vat/-vät. Only the stem differs.
- The third-person singular adds no consonant: it lengthens the stem vowel (puhuu, tulee) or, on an already-long stem, adds nothing (syö). There is never an -s.
- The third-person plural obeys harmony: -vat after back vowels, -vät after front or neutral ones.
- First- and second-person pronouns are usually dropped (pro-drop); third-person hän/he generally stay.
Now practice Finnish
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Start learning Finnish→Related Topics
- The Six Verb TypesA1 — Finnish verbs fall into six types by their infinitive ending; the type tells you how to build the present stem — the key to all conjugation.
- Verb Type 1: -Va Verbs (puhua, ostaa)A1 — The largest class: drop the final -a/-ä for the stem, add endings, double the vowel in the third person; consonant gradation weakens four of six forms.
- The Present TenseA1 — One Finnish present form covers 'I speak', 'I am speaking' and 'I will speak' — stem plus a personal ending, no auxiliary, no separate future tense.
- Dropping the Subject PronounA2 — 1st/2nd person subject pronouns drop because the verb ending shows the person; 3rd person hän/he must stay, and any pronoun kept signals emphasis.
- How Finnish Verbs WorkA1 — A map of the Finnish verb: six personal endings and pro-drop, six verb types that fix the stem, the tenses and moods, the separate negative verb, and non-finite forms.