Third infinitive with leaving and staying (-maan/-mään)

Going and Leaving (-maan/-mään)

In English, you might say "I went to forge a blade." In Finnish, when you use a verb of motion like mennä (to go) or lähteä (to leave) to express going somewhere to do something, the following verb takes the third infinitive illative form.

You form this by adding the suffix -maan or -mään to the verb's strong stem. For example, hakea (to fetch) becomes hakemaan, and takoa (to forge) becomes takomaan.

Staying to Do Something

This same rule applies to the verb jäädä (to stay or remain). When someone stays somewhere to do an action, the action verb takes the -maan/-mään ending.

Leaving and Forgetting

Finally, this structure is used with verbs like jättää (to leave behind) and unohtaa (to forget). If you leave someone to complete a task, or forget an object while it is doing something, that ongoing action takes the -maan/-mään suffix.

Notice how hehkua (to glow) becomes hehkumaan, and karkaista (to temper) becomes karkaisemaan.