The Past Passive Affirmative
To talk about actions that "were done" in the past by an unspecified person or group, Finnish uses the past passive (imperfect). It is perfect for recounting events like a crime or an investigation.
To form the past passive, swap the present passive ending for its past equivalent (-ttiin or -tiin):
- -taan / -tään becomes -ttiin (varastetaan → varastettiin)
- -daan / -dään becomes -tiin (tehdään → tehtiin)
- -llaan / -llään becomes -ltiin (kuullaan → kuultiin)
| The painting was stolen from the museum. | Taulu varastettiin museosta. |
| The window was broken at night. | Ikkuna rikottiin yöllä. |
| The alarm was raised immediately. | Hälytys tehtiin heti. |
| An alarm was heard in the museum. | Museossa kuultiin hälytys. |
The Object in the Past Passive
As in the present passive, the total object of an affirmative past passive sentence is usually in the nominative case (the basic dictionary form).
| An important piece of evidence was found in the cabinet. | Kaapista löydettiin tärkeä todiste. |
However, there are two important exceptions:
1. Personal Pronouns Personal pronouns (like "he", "she", or "we") use their special accusative forms ending in -t (such as hänet and meidät).
| He was arrested on the street. | Hänet pidätettiin kadulla. |
| We were locked in the cellar. | Meidät lukittiin kellariin. |
2. Partitive Verbs If a verb inherently requires a partitive object (like kuulustella, to interrogate), the object remains in the partitive case.
| The criminal was interrogated at the station. | Rikollista kuulusteltiin asemalla. |