Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

Finnish

### Returning from an Action (-masta/-mästä)

Just as the elative case (*-sta/-stä*) is used to express coming *out of* a physical location, the **third infinitive elative** is used to express returning *from* an activity.

To create this form, take the action verb's strong stem and add **-masta** or **-mästä** (depending on vowel harmony).

- *uida* → *uimasta*
- *juhlia* → *juhlimasta*
- *pelata* → *pelaamasta*

This form is commonly paired with movement verbs like **tulla** (to come) to show what you were just doing. You can also add words like **suoraan** (straight) to emphasize coming directly from the activity.

{{item:904506}}

### Stopping an Activity

In Finnish, when you "stop" doing something, you are grammatically stepping out of or away from the action. Therefore, verbs like **lakata** (to stop / to cease) require the following action verb to be in the *-masta/-mästä* form.

{{item:904508}}

### Refusing an Action

Similarly, the verb **kieltäytyä** (to refuse) uses the *-masta/-mästä* form. Think of it as refusing to "step into" the activity in the first place, keeping yourself away from it.

{{item:904510}}

### Habits and Vices

You can use these verbs to describe breaking a habit (**tapa**), such as when someone stops or refuses to smoke (**tupakoida**).

{{item:904512}}

{{item:904524}}

### Finally Stopping and Arriving

Let's combine these grammar rules with some new action verbs like **valittaa** (to complain) and **huutaa** (to shout), as well as the adverb **vihdoin** (finally).

{{item:904522}}

When returning from an activity, you can also use verbs like **saapua** (to arrive). Note how Finnish smoothly connects the arrival destination (in the illative case) with the activity being returned from in a single sentence.

{{item:904527}}

Returning from an action (-masta/-mästä)

adjective

adposition

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

postposition

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Demonstrative pronouns (tämä, tuo, se)

Singular personal pronouns (minä, sinä, hän)

Plural personal pronouns (me, te, he)

Plural demonstratives (nämä, nuo, ne)

Coordinating conjunctions (ja, mutta, tai)

Yes/no questions (-ko / -kö)

Basic question words (kuka, mikä, missä)

Negation of to be (en ole, ei ole)

The inessive case (-ssa / -ssä)

Double consonant gradation (kk, pp, tt)

Consonant gradation (-ssa/-ssä)

Verb Type 1 (puhun, puhut, puhuu)

Verb Type 1 with consonant gradation

Negative verbs (en puhu, et lue)

External location (-lla/-llä)

There is / there are (kaupungissa on)

Possession (minulla on)

Numbers 1 to 10 (yksi, kaksi, kolme)

The partitive singular (-a/-ä, -ta/-tä)

Quantities with numbers (kaksi autoa)

Negative possession (ei ole)

Numbers 11 to 100 and 1000

Partitive verbs

Partitive personal pronouns (minua, sinua)

Verb Type 2 (-da/-dä)

Partitive for mass nouns (-a/-ä, -ta/-tä)

Partitive for negative objects

Adjective agreement

Verb Type 3

The elative case (-sta/-stä)

Negative possession (minulla ei ole…)

The illative case (-Vn, -hVn, -seen)

Numbers 21 to 99

Static vs. movement verbs

Verb Type 4 (-Vta / -Vtä)

Verb Type 5 (-ita / -itä)

Genitive singular for possession (-n)

Total object (-n)

Accusative personal pronouns (-t)

Obligation (täytyy)

Into places (-Vn, -hVn, -seen)

Postpositions with the genitive

My and your (-ni, -si)

Onto and to someone (-lle)

From someone or somewhere (-lta, -ltä)

Telling time (kello on...)

Months of the year (-ssa, -ssä)

Days of the week (-na, -nä)

When and why (milloin, miksi)

The illative case (mihin, -Vn, -hVn, -seen)

Past tense of to be (olin, olit, oli)

The seasons (kevät, kesä, syksy, talvi)

The imperative mood (lue!, syö!, mene!)

The past tense of to be (olin, oli)

The illative case (-hVn, -seen)

Greetings and goodbyes (hei, näkemiin)

Thank you and sorry (kiitos, anteeksi)

Liking things (pitää / tykätä + -sta/-stä)

Temporary states and roles (-na/-nä)

Change of state (-ksi)

Ongoing actions (-massa/-mässä)

Going to do an action (-maan/-mään)

Third-person possessives (-nsa/-nsä or -Vn)

Plural possessives (-mme, -nne)

Indefinite pronouns (joku, jokin, kaikki)

Negative indefinite pronouns (ei kukaan, ei mikään)

Commands for verb types 4 and 5

Adverb formation (-sti)

Past tense for verb type 1 (-i-)

Past tense vowel changes for verb type 1 (-o- / -i-)

Past tense for verb type 2 (-i-)

Past tense for verb type 3 (-i-)

Past tense for verb type 4 (-si-)

Past tense for verb type 5 (-itsi-)

Past tense consonant gradation

Past participles for verb types 1 and 2 (-nut / -nyt)

Past participle singular for verb types 3-5 (-nnut, -llut)

Active past participle plural (-neet)

Past tense negative (en mennyt, emme olleet)

The perfect tense (olen ollut)

The perfect tense negative (en ole nähnyt)

Total plural objects (-t)

Partitive plural (-ia / -iä)

Partitive plural (-ja / -jä)

Partitive plural (-ita / -itä)

Question	Answer
straight	suoraan
I am coming straight from swimming.	Minä tulen suoraan uimasta.
to stop	lakata
We stop playing in the park.	Me lakkaamme pelaamasta puistossa.
to refuse	kieltäytyä
The dog refuses to run in the forest.	Koira kieltäytyy juoksemasta metsässä.
to smoke	tupakoida
Why does the woman refuse to smoke?	Miksi nainen kieltäytyy tupakoimasta?
I do not have a car, because I refuse to drive.	Minulla ei ole autoa, koska kieltäydyn ajamasta.
bad (evil, severe)	paha
habit	tapa
to shout	huutaa
It is a bad habit to shout in the shop.	On paha tapa huutaa kaupassa.
The man sleeps in the church.	Mies nukkuu kirkossa.
Why does the child not stop shouting?	Miksi lapsi ei lakkaa huutamasta?
finally	vihdoin
to complain	valittaa
The student finally stops complaining.	Opiskelija lakkaa vihdoin valittamasta.
I refuse to complain!	Minä kieltäydyn valittamasta!
He stops smoking because it is a bad habit.	Hän lakkaa tupakoimasta, koska se on paha tapa.
to arrive	saapua
They finally arrive straight from swimming.	He saapuvat vihdoin suoraan uimasta.
The man arrives at the hotel from celebrating.	Mies saapuu hotelliin juhlimasta.