Finnish NLP Grammar

Finite state and Constraint Grammar based analysers, proofing tools and other resources

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Verb inflection and derivation

The verbs’ conjugation includes voice (in Finnish grammars also verbal genus), tense/mood (tempus/modus), personal endings and negation marker The verbs also have productive derivations to defective nouns as infinitives, and to adjectives as participles, which are considered to be part of inflection and thus included in most versions (VISK § 105). The morphology of participles and historical 4th infinitive is further detailed in section Deverbal nouns’ morphology. The analysis strings of verb are not as systematic as nouns, as many categories collapse together in forms, e.g. the tense and mood are only distinct with indicative past and non-past, otherwise mood implies tense in semantic sense.

Verb stem variation

Verbs have no allomorphic variation per se, except for some assimilation and variation of ð forms, but the stem variation is the same as in nouns. The examples for verb stems are given for each class: A infinitive’s lative, e infinitive’s inessive, indicative present 1st singular, indicative present 3rd singular, indicative past 1st singular, indicative past 3rd singular, conditional past 3rd singular, imperative 2nd plural, potential 1st singular, present passive, past passive, nut participle passive

Verb stems without stem variation

The u stems have no stem variation:

The o stems have no stem variation:

The ö stems have no stem variation:

The y stems have no stem variation:

Verb stems with only gradation

Verbs with -a stems

Some of the a stems have t:s in past stems by ti>si variation.

In some cases t:s variation is optionally alongside the regular gradation:

Other a stems undergo a:o variation

In some of the a:o variations the t:s variant is also possible.

Verbs with e stems

Some of the e stems allow for optional t:s variation in past form.

The rare ht:ks kind of variation is also possible.

Verbs with i stems

Verbs with long vowel stem

These verbs also have da variant of a infinitive forms.

Monosyllabic verbs with widening diphthong

Widening diphthongs are simplified before past and conditional suffix i’s by removal of first component.

In past and conditional forms of käydä, the glide before suffix is marked even in normative orthography.

Verbs with consonant stems

Verbs with momentane derivation are common consonant stems.

Verbs with n, r, l, s stems

Notably, the a infinitive forms d assimilates to preceding consonant.

Frequentative derivations are most common source of l stemmed verbs.

tse stuff

Some verbs have possible optional heteroclitic indicative stems:

In these stems the tse formed stem is only one.

Few words have special consonant cluster simplification for ks forms.

nähdä has special h:k variation.

Verbs with -ne- stems

Vowel lengthening(?) stems

Vowel stems with t:s variation

Verbs with defective paradigms

For some verbs, the normative inflection does not allow full set of forms:

Verbs with exceptional inflection patterns

There is a handful of verbs that does not fit to the patterns of old dictionaries.

The verb olla has very peculiar and heteroclitic inflection with lot of common short forms in standard spoken Finnish:

Verb inflection proper

Present vowel stems

The strong form of present indicative endings in strong stems and ma infinitive, and maisilla derivation (nee infinitive).

Verb 3rd singular forms

The third singular form of present tense has few allomorphs according to preceding vowel context, either lengthening or zero after long vowel stem:

Past forms

Imperatives

Conditionals

Potentials

Passive forms

The passive forms usually contain -ta-, -tä-, -da-, -dä-, element in them. The variation between the realisations is one key factor of determining the classification of the verb roots.

The form of present passive assimilates leftwards, varying between -ta, -tä, -da, -dä, -la, -lä, -ra, -rä, -na, -nä.

Infinite verb forms

Participles

Possessives for infinite verb forms

Verb clitics

Deverbal derivations

Part of the deverbal derivation system in Finnish is so regular that it has been included as part of inflectional morphology in many traditional systems. These derivations are treated as inflection in our system as well.

-minen, “Fourth infinitive”

Participles


This (part of) documentation was generated from src/fst/morphology/affixes/verbs.lexc