In many Indo-European languages, especially Romance languages, it is the verbs that are most difficult. But the verbs are the back-bone of all languages; without them it is not possible to form a single sentence, by definition.

Finnish verbs are not as difficult to grasp as nouns and adjectives. But they are more difficult to grasp than in any of the Indo-European languages I know, including Latin and Greek. In addition, in Finnish there is the often used possibility of using nominal forms of verbs, which means that verbs, on an advanced level, also include all the intricacies of nouns and adjectives. I will not explain more about the nominal use in this context because I would just be confusing you all.

Theoretically, it seems grammarians have divided Finnish verbs to six conjugations, each of which includes sub-conjugations. As there are thus very many conjugations, I think it is quite unreasonable to start with them and supply some thousand five hundred grammar rules. What I think we should lean on is the wonderful capacities of memory - learning by heart, that is.

Each verb, in I think all of the languages, has a basic form, i.e., an infinitive. In English, most verbs are just one single word that can be as such attached to any persona. For example the verb "drive" can be as such attached to the persona "I" as well as "you." But as we know, in most languages it is never this simple, even in the present tense. In Finnish, like in German, French, Spanish, Latin, Swedish, Norwegian, Russian - you name it, the verb infinitive can only be used as infinitive and the verb is inflected not only by tempus (time) but also person.

In this lecture, I will present the present indicative forms, the very basic forms we use in language. (There are four modi in Finnish: indicative, conditional, potential, imperative; and four tempi, as in all other languages, the present, imperfect, perfect, and pluperfect tenses.)

As we all know, there are six person forms in all languages (apparently). From now on, I will be using the following shortenings: sg. for singlular and pl. for plural. In Finnish, the pronomins, that is, the person names are as follows:

sg. 1. minä (I)
sg. 2. sinä (you, singular)
sg. 3. hän (he or she - it is a very equal language!)

pl. 1. me (we)
pl. 2. te (you, plural)
pl. 3. he (they)

The infinitive forms of Finnish verbs - that is, those that dictionaries give you, mainly - always end with an "a" or "ä." Now, there seems to be some regularity between infinitive forms and the forms which are used in forming the different person forms, but as I said, it is quite complex, so I think that if someone really wishes to learn Finnish, he or she should learn both the infinitive form and the inflection form of the verb. That is, one should remember two words for each verb to get the forms correct. (This, as we will see if I continue this series, goes to the nouns and adjectives as well.) From this point on, I will mark the form of the verb to which the endings are added "Z."

Now, if one remembers the two forms of a verb, one has to use endings which are added to the Z to specify which persona is in question. There is a specific ending for each of the six persona words.

minä -n
sinä -t
hän -double vowel

me -mme
te -tte
he -vat/vät

As you can see, there are two possible endings to the "he" form. I will return to this in a bit.

Now I will give you some examples. The verb "go" is in Finnish "mennä," and it's Z form is "mene." (As an aside, note that all the Z forms of the verbs are also singular imperative forms - for example, "mene" means "go!" when said to one person only. The imperative plural has another, more complex form.)

"Mene" is thus the form of the verb "mennä" to which the endings are added. Now, if we add the endings according to the list, we get:

minä menen
sinä menet
hän menee (double e as double vowel)

me menemme
te menette
he menevät

Now, can anyone guess why exactly the last form, pl. 3., "he," got the ending -vät instead of -vat? The choice between "a" and "ä" in this ending can be based on the infinitive form of the verb (in this case "mennä," which has "ä" as its last letter - as I said, it is always either "a" or "ä").

Another example. "Tulla" (come). Z form, that is, singular imperative, is "tule." So we get:

minä tulen
sinä tulet
hän tulee

me tulemme
te tulette
he tulevat

(Note that "tulla" ends in "a," and there is "a" also in the last form "tulevat!" This all is based on the vowel sound rules that there are, automatically, inside every Finn. I will explain it at length in an appendix to this lecture.)

As there are distinctive forms for each and every one of the persons, we Finns very often use (like in Latin) only the verb itself, without the pronoun (such as minä) in both speech and writing. "I come" can simply be "tulen" as it can be "minä tulen." Often "minä tulen" already somehow stresses the pronoun "minä" - there is something specific about ME coming.

As a last item, the verb "be," which has two irregular forms in present tense. The infinitive is "olla" and the Z form is "ole."

minä olen
sinä olet
hän on

me olemme
te olette
he ovat

As visible, the "hän" and "he" forms are not regular, but the other forms are.