Finnish sentence types

You've probably heard of the verb types and the noun types, but how about the Finnish sentence types? If you want to have a full lesson about them, I recommend reading Leila White's grammar book, pages 300-323. Here's my short version of the most useful sentence types.

The ones where the verb conjugates according to the person:

1. Minä asun tuossa kerrostalossa. - I live in that apartment building. (The simple sentence. Nothing special here.)
2. Me olemme opiskelijoita. - We are students. (A predicative sentence. Might cause confusion because of the occasional plural partitive.)
3. Minä juon nyt kahvia. - I'm drinking coffee now. (A sentence with an object.)
4. Minä tykkään opiskella suomea.  - I like to study Finnish. (Two verbs, the second one in the basic form.)
5. Minä menen nyt nukkumaan. - I'm going to sleep now.  (Two verbs, the second one in ma-infinitive.) (Oh, you might like my post about the English -ing form.)

The ones where the verb is always in the same (3rd person singular) form. It's the personal pronoun that changes:

1. Minulla on kokous neljältä. -  I have a meeting at four o'clock. (Having something.)
2. Baarissa oli paljon ihmisiä. - There were many people in the bar. (An existential clause, as in There is something somewhere. Again, you might need plural partitive.)
3. Minun täytyy maksaa tämä lasku. -  I have to pay this bill. (Having to do something.)
4. Sinun kannattaa nyt lähteä. - You should leave now. (A sentence with kannattaa.)
5. Tämä elokuva itkettää minua. - This movie makes me cry. (Sentences with feeling verbs.)

The sentences that express a change or a result can be in either category:

1. Tulin äidiksi 31-vuotiaana. - I became a mother when I was 31 years old.
2. Minusta tuli äiti 31-vuotiaana. - I became a mother when I was 31 years old.

Read more about this topic here: https://randomfinnishlesson.blogspot.com/2014/02/how-to-become-something-in-finnish.html 

These ones have no personal pronoun at all:

1. Ota lisää! - Take more! (This verb form is called imperative.)
2. Saako täällä syödä omia eväitä? - Is it ok to eat your own food here? (A generic sentence, the subject could be anyone.)
3. (On) tosi tylsää, että teidän pitää jo lähteä. - (It's) super lame, that you have to leave already. (Expressing your opinion with an adjective in the beginning of the sentence.)
4. Suomessa juodaan paljon kahvia. - They drink a lot of coffee in Finland. (A passive sentence.)

If you want to read about forming questions, which you can do with all the sentence types, I have a post about the question words and another about the questions ending with ko or kö.

Lue lisää: 

• Generic sentences in Finnish
• Pitää - täytyy - on pakko
• Minulla on
• Passive in a nutshell

About the author of Random Finnish Lesson: 

My name is Hanna Männikkölahti. I am a professional Finnish teacher who gives private online lessons and simplifies books into easy Finnish. Follow this blog, if you want to be the first one to know when I post something new.  If you want to subscribe to my newsletter, you can do it here.