Forming the Potential: lienee, tullee, nähnee | Finnish Grammar

The potential mood is built by inserting the marker -ne- between the stem and the personal ending: puhu- + -ne- + -n → puhunen ("I may well speak"). That is the whole idea. The complication — and the reason this page exists — is that after a consonant the -ne- assimilates, so tulla gives tullee, not tulnee, and nousta gives noussee, not nousnee. The good news is that these changes follow one familiar pattern you have already met in the past participle. What the mood means and where to use it is on the potential overview; this page is pure mechanics.

The basic build: -ne- plus endings

On a stem ending in a vowel, the marker is a clean -ne-, and the ordinary personal endings follow. The only quirk is the third person singular, where the vowel lengthens to -nee:

Person	puhua (speak)	sanoa (say)
minä	puhunen	sanonen
sinä	puhunet	sanonet
hän	puhunee	sanonee
me	puhunemme	sanonemme
te	puhunette	sanonette
he	puhunevat	sanonevat

Hän puhunee totta.

He's probably telling the truth.

Kukaan ei tiedä, mutta hän sanonee jotain kokouksessa.

Nobody knows, but he'll presumably say something at the meeting.

💡

The -ne- marker itself never changes for harmony — its e is a neutral vowel. Only the personal endings harmonise: puhunevat (back), tehnevät (front). So you never have to choose between "-ne-" and some "-nä-"; there is only -ne-.

The assimilation: consonant stems

When the stem ends in a consonant — the type-3 verbs (tulla, purra, mennä) and the -sta/-stä verbs (nousta, pestä, juosta) — the n of -ne- assimilates to that consonant, doubling it. The result is a geminate you can hear:

Stem ends in	-ne- becomes	Verb	3sg potential
l	-le- (ll)	tulla	tullee
r	-re- (rr)	purra	purree
n	-ne- (nn)	mennä	mennee
s	-se- (ss)	nousta	noussee
s	-se- (ss)	pestä	pessee

Juna tullee myöhässä lumimyrskyn takia.

The train will probably be late because of the snowstorm.

Hinta noussee taas ensi vuonna.

The price will presumably rise again next year.

So the potential of tulla runs tullen, tullet, tullee, tullemme, tullette, tullevat, and nousta runs noussen, nousset, noussee… — the doubled consonant carries all the way through the paradigm, not just in the third person.

The shortcut: it mirrors the past participle

Here is the pattern worth teaching alongside the participle rather than in isolation. The -ne- assimilates by exactly the same phonology as the active past participle -nut / -nyt. So if you can form the participle, you already know the potential:

Verb	Past participle (-nut/-nyt)	3sg potential (-nee)
puhua	puhunut	puhunee
tulla	tullut	tullee
nousta	noussut	noussee
mennä	mennyt	mennee
tehdä	tehnyt	tehnee
nähdä	nähnyt	nähnee

The rule in one line: take the past participle, drop -nut/-nyt, add -nee and you have the third-person singular potential. tullut → tullee, noussut → noussee, nähnyt → nähnee. They move in lockstep. (For the participle itself, see the past participle page.)

Hän tehnee parhaansa, vaikka aikaa on vähän.

He'll presumably do his best, even though there's little time.

He nähnevät eron heti.

They'll probably notice the difference at once.

The special cases: tehdä, nähdä, and olla

Two everyday verbs have consonant stems ending in -h-: tehdä → teh- and nähdä → näh-. Here the -ne- does not assimilate — the cluster hn is allowed — so you simply get tehnen, tehnee and nähnen, nähnee, matching tehnyt / nähnyt.

The genuine irregular is olla. Its potential is suppletive — built on an ancient separate root lie-, never ollee:

Person	olla → potential
minä	lienen
sinä	lienet
hän	lienee
me	lienemme
te	lienette
he	lienevät

Se lienee vain väärinkäsitys.

It's probably just a misunderstanding.

Sää lienee huomenna parempi kuin tänään.

The weather will presumably be better tomorrow than today.

Note the one place the participle shortcut breaks: olla has a perfectly regular participle ollut, but its potential is lienee, not ollee. Learn lienee as its own word — it is, after all, the one potential form you will actually use (see olla).

The negative potential

To negate, use the ordinary negative verb ei plus the connegative — the -ne- stem with no personal ending (the short form, without the third-person lengthening):

Se ei liene totta.

That's probably not true.

Ei liene tarpeen huolestua vielä.

There's probably no need to worry yet.

So ei liene, ei tulle, ei nousse, ei tehne — the negator carries the person, the connegative carries the -ne-.

Common Mistakes

❌ Hän tulnee huomenna.

Un-assimilated — after a consonant stem the -ne- doubles the consonant: tulla → tullee, not *tulnee.

✅ Hän tullee huomenna.

He'll probably come tomorrow.

❌ Se ollee auki.

olla is suppletive in the potential — the form is lienee, never *ollee.

✅ Se lienee auki.

It's probably open.

❌ Hinta nousnee.

s-stem assimilation missed — nousta gives noussee (s+n → ss), like the participle noussut.

✅ Hinta noussee.

The price will probably rise.

❌ Hän puhunevat asiasta.

Agreement error — a singular subject takes -nee, not the plural -nevat: hän puhunee.

✅ Hän puhunee asiasta.

He'll presumably speak about the matter.

Key Takeaways

Build the potential with stem + -ne- + personal ending; the 3sg lengthens to -nee (puhunee).
After a consonant the -ne- assimilates and doubles it: tulla → tullee, purra → purree, nousta → noussee, mennä → mennee.
The assimilation is identical to the past participle -nut/-nyt: drop -nut/-nyt, add -nee → the 3sg potential (tullut → tullee).
tehdä and nähdä keep hn (tehnee, nähnee); olla is suppletive: lienee, not ollee.
The -ne- marker never harmonises (neutral e); the personal endings do (puhunevat vs tehnevät). Negate with ei
- connegative: ei liene.

Now practice Finnish

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Finnish→