Officialese Participles

The Passive Present Participle is a versatile tool in Finnish. It uses the strong passive formation with -tava/-tävä or -ttava/-ttävä; do not add a second passive marker to an already complete passive stem. A helpful shortcut is to take the passive past participle (e.g., tehty, luettu) and change the final -u/-y to -ava/-ävä (tehtävä, luettava).

It serves four main functions:

• Necessity (The 'Must' form): When used with the verb olla, it indicates that an action is mandatory. If the person performing the action is mentioned, they must be in the genitive case. Minun on tehtävä tämä (I must do this). To form the past tense, only the verb 'olla' changes: Minun oli tehtävä tämä (I had to do this). Do not assign every negative ei ole + -tava sentence a fixed prohibition or impossibility meaning. Negated necessity can express lack of obligation, but direct negation of this construction is uncommon in ordinary usage. For a clear everyday distinction, use Minun ei tarvitse tehdä tätä (I don’t have to do this), En saa tehdä tätä (I am not allowed to do this), or Tämä ei ole tehtävissä (This cannot be done). The last is the separate -tävissä possibility construction.
• Potentiality: It describes a quality of being 'able' to undergo an action. Syötävä (edible), luettava (readable).
• Attributive: It can condense a passive relative clause: talo, jota rakennetaan → rakennettava talo (a house being built). It describes a noun that is the target of an action. Käsiteltävä asia (The matter to be handled).
• Usage as a Noun: The participle is often lexicalized as a noun. Tehtävä (a task), syötävää (something to eat).

In the necessive construction (on tehtävä), the object usually takes the nominative form rather than the genitive (e.g., Lasku on maksettava vs. Maksan laskun). However, personal pronouns must take the -t accusative form (e.g., Minun on nähtävä hänet). Furthermore, the Partitive Object Rule still applies: if the verb is a partitive verb or the action is continuous/unbounded, the object must be in the partitive case (e.g., Minun on autettava häntä, Meidän on ostettava maitoa). Another critical rule is the 'Frozen' Singular Olla rule: the verb 'olla' never conjugates to match a plural subject/object in the necessive construction For “The windows must be washed”, use Ikkunat on pestävä. An agreeing adjectival predicative is a different construction: Ikkunat ovat helposti pestäviä means that the windows are easy to wash. A nominative plural such as pestävät can describe a bounded set; it is not the necessive form. Because it is a participle, when used as an adjective it must agree in case and number with the noun it modifies (e.g., etsittävässä tiedostossa - in the file to be searched).

This construction is highly common in official texts because it is inherently impersonal, addressing no one and everyone at once. In such contexts, the person (the genitive subject) is usually omitted entirely to state a general rule or requirement.