-n / -t / -mme / -tte / -vat/-vät

Personal Endings

Level 1

Finnish verbs change their endings based on the subject: -n (I), -t (you), vowel lengthening (he/she), -mme (we), -tte (you all), and -vat/-vät (they).

How It Works

Personal endings are attached to the inflectional stem of a verb. Here is the breakdown for Standard Finnish:

  • -n: 1st person singular (minä / I)
  • -t: 2nd person singular (sinä / you)
  • Vowel lengthening: 3rd person singular (hän / he, she). For example, asua becomes hän asuu. Note: If the stem already ends in a long vowel or a diphthong (like syö-), no lengthening is added.
  • -mme: 1st person plural (me / we)
  • -tte: 2nd person plural (te / you all)
  • -vat / -vät: 3rd person plural (he / they). The choice depends on vowel harmony.

Consonant Gradation:
In Verb Type 1, verbs undergo consonant gradation where the 1st and 2nd persons (singular and plural) use the weak grade (e.g., auttaa → autan), while the 3rd person forms use the strong grade (hän auttaa). Other verb types, like Verb Type 3 or Type 4, follow different rules such as inverse gradation.

Spoken Language (Puhekieli):
In everyday speech, the 1st person plural (-mme) is almost always replaced by the passive form. Additionally, the 3rd person plural (-vat) is often replaced by the singular form when using the pronoun ne.

Examples (6)

  1. Minä puhun suomea.

    I speak Finnish.

    Word by Word: I speak Finnish.

    The ending -n corresponds to 'minä' (I).

  2. Puhutko sinä englantia?

    Do you speak English?

    Word by Word: Speak-you-? you English?

    The ending -t corresponds to 'sinä' (you).

  3. Hän asuu Helsingissä.

    He/she lives in Helsinki.

    Word by Word: He/she lives Helsinki-in.

    The 3rd person singular is marked by lengthening the final vowel (asua -> asuu).

  4. Me asumme täällä.

    We live here.

    Word by Word: We live here.

    The ending -mme corresponds to 'me' (we).

  5. He puhuvat englantia.

    They speak English.

    Word by Word: They speak English.

    The ending -vat corresponds to 'he' (they) and follows vowel harmony.

  6. Minä autan sinua.

    I help you.

    Word by Word: I help you.

    Notice the weak grade 't' -> 'tt' (auttaa -> autan) used in the 1st person.

Common Mistakes

  • Using the English '-s' for the 3rd person singular.

    Hän puhuus suomea.
    Hän puhuu suomea.

    Finnish marks the 3rd person by lengthening the vowel, not by adding an 's'.

  • Adding a vowel lengthening to stems that already end in a long vowel or diphthong.

    Hän syöö.
    Hän syö.

    If the verb stem already ends in a long vowel or a diphthong (like in 'syödä'), no additional lengthening is added for the 3rd person singular.

  • Ignoring vowel harmony in the 3rd person plural.

    He puhuvät.
    He puhuvat.

    Because 'puhua' contains back vowels (u, a), the ending must be -vat, not -vät.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

-n / -t / -mme / -tte / -vat/-vätLevel 1Personal Endings

Learn This First

To learn personal endings, you must first understand which pronoun each ending represents. You also need to know how to find the verb stem and apply Finnish vowel harmony rules to choose between the -vat and -vät endings for the 'they' form.

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.

And 9 more in the full list.

Words in This Pattern

-n-t-mme-tte-vat