Type 5 is the smallest verb class in Finnish — only a few dozen verbs belong to it — but several of them are words you cannot get through a single conversation without: tarvita (to need), valita (to choose), häiritä (to disturb), mainita (to mention). Their dictionary form ends in -ita/-itä, and they all conjugate in exactly the same way, so learning one means learning the whole class. The signature move is unmistakable: the ending -ita/-itä becomes -itse-.
Building the stem: -ita/-itä → -itse-
Drop the final -ita/-itä and replace it with -itse-. That is the entire rule — there is no gradation and no vowel-lengthening to worry about.
| Infinitive | Present stem | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| tarvita | tarvitse- | to need |
| valita | valitse- | to choose |
| häiritä | häiritse- | to disturb |
| mainita | mainitse- | to mention |
Once you have the -itse- stem, you add the ordinary personal endings. The third person singular lengthens the final -e- to -ee.
tarvita (to need) — the model verb
Because every Type 5 verb behaves identically, one full paradigm teaches you all of them. Stem: tarvitse-.
| Person | Form | English |
|---|---|---|
| minä | tarvitsen | I need |
| sinä | tarvitset | you need |
| hän | tarvitsee | he/she needs |
| me | tarvitsemme | we need |
| te | tarvitsette | you (pl.) need |
| he | tarvitsevat | they need |
Tarvitsen apua tämän kaapin kokoamisessa.
I need help assembling this cabinet.
Tarvitsetko sinä kyydin asemalle?
Do you need a ride to the station?
Lapsi tarvitsee unta enemmän kuin aikuinen.
A child needs more sleep than an adult.
Emme tarvitse enää mitään, kiitos.
We don't need anything else, thank you. (negative: connegative tarvitse)
valita (to choose) — same pattern
Valita works exactly like tarvita. Stem: valitse-.
| Person | Form | English |
|---|---|---|
| minä | valitsen | I choose |
| sinä | valitset | you choose |
| hän | valitsee | he/she chooses |
| me | valitsemme | we choose |
| te | valitsette | you (pl.) choose |
| he | valitsevat | they choose |
Valitsen mieluummin junan kuin lennon.
I'd rather choose the train than the flight.
Kumman värin sinä valitset, sinisen vai vihreän?
Which color do you choose, the blue or the green?
Vowel harmony: only -vat/-vät shows it
The -itse- stem itself never changes — it has no a or o that harmony could flip. Harmony only surfaces in the third-person plural ending -vat/-vät. A back verb like tarvita takes -vat (tarvitsevat); a front verb like häiritä takes -vät (häiritsevät).
| Person | tarvita (back) | häiritä (front) |
|---|---|---|
| minä | tarvitsen | häiritsen |
| hän | tarvitsee | häiritsee |
| he | tarvitsevat | häiritsevät |
Anteeksi, häiritsenkö minä sinua?
Sorry, am I disturbing you?
Naapurit häiritsevät melullaan lähes joka ilta.
The neighbors cause a disturbance with their noise almost every evening.
Mainitsit eilen jonkin hyvän kirjan — mikä se oli?
You mentioned some good book yesterday — what was it?
The -tse- carries beyond the present
The -tse- is not just a present-tense quirk; it belongs to the verb. It also drives the past tense, where the -e- becomes -i-: tarvita → tarvitsin (I needed), valita → valitsin (I chose). So the effort of internalizing the -itse- stem pays off across the whole conjugation — get it automatic now and the past tense of these verbs will cost you nothing later.
How this differs from English
English "need," "choose," and "mention" are among the most regular verbs imaginable — you add -s for the third person and you are done. Finnish, by contrast, buries a two-consonant cluster in the middle of the word that has no counterpart in the dictionary form's surface. The trap for an English speaker is to treat tarvita like a plain Type 1 verb and produce *tarvin — dropping precisely the piece that identifies the class. Say the -ts- out loud a few times (tarvitsen, valitsen, häiritsen) until it feels automatic.
Common Mistakes
❌ Tarvin uuden puhelimen.
Incorrect — the stem keeps -itse-: tarvitsen, not tarvin.
✅ Tarvitsen uuden puhelimen.
I need a new phone.
❌ Kumman sinä valit?
Incorrect — 2nd person of valita is valitset (with -tse-), not valit.
✅ Kumman sinä valitset?
Which one do you choose?
❌ He tarvitsevät apua, mutta minä en tarvitse.
Incorrect — tarvita is a back verb; the 3rd plural is tarvitsevat, not tarvitsevät.
✅ He tarvitsevat apua, mutta minä en tarvitse.
They need help, but I don't.
❌ Häiritä minä sinua?
Incorrect — you can't use the bare infinitive as a finite verb; the 1st person is häiritsen.
✅ Häiritsenkö minä sinua?
Am I disturbing you?
Key Takeaways
- Type 5 verbs end in -ita/-itä. Replace that ending with -itse- to get the stem: tarvita → tarvitse-, valita → valitse-.
- There is no gradation and no vowel-lengthening — only the third person singular lengthens the final -e- to -ee (tarvitsee).
- The class is small but very frequent, so make the -tse- automatic. The single biggest error is dropping it (*tarvin for tarvitsen).
- Harmony shows up only in the 3rd plural: back tarvitsevat, front häiritsevät.
- The -itse- stem carries into the past as -itsi- (tarvitsin, valitsin), so learning it now pays off twice.
Now practice Finnish
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Start learning Finnish→Related Topics
- Present: Types 4–6A2 — The three smaller verb classes in the present: Type 4's long-vowel stem (tapaan), Type 5's -tse- stem (tarvitsen), and Type 6's -ene- stem (pakenen).
- tarvita ('to need')A2 — Full conjugation of tarvita ('to need'), a Type 5 verb whose -ita infinitive hides a -tse- present stem, plus its aspectual object and the 'ei tarvitse' construction.
- Verb Type 6: -eta/-etä Verbs (vanheta, paeta)B1 — The rarest class: -eta/-etä verbs replace the ending with -ene- — vanheta → vanhenen, paeta → pakenen (k appears).
- Finding the Verb Stem from the InfinitiveA2 — A practical decision procedure: read the infinitive's ending, identify the verb type, and derive the present stem — with a one-glance table of all six types.