Shortened verbs

If you've been studying Finnish for a while, you probably have noticed that verbs tend to shorten sometimes.

”Oon suomalainen.” (I'm Finnish. Olen suomalainen.) Random side note: ”Olen suomalainen” is an Italian song translated into Finnish, performed by Kari Tapio. Many say it captures what being Finnish really is. Go and listen to it.

Back into business. In this post I'll show you how some of the most common shortened verbs work. For simplicity's sake, let's just take the present tense.

Be- olla

Go- mennä

Come – tulla

Let's start with the verb to be. The first phrase is in standard Finnish and the last spoken Finnish.

I am - minä olen - (mä) oon

you are - sinä olet - (sä) oot

he/she/it is - hän/se on - (hän)/ se on

we are - me olemme - (me) ollaan

you are - te olette - (te) ootte

they are - he/ne ovat - (he) ne on

If you're an advanced learner, you know that Finns very often leave out the pronouns as they are already conjugated into the verb. Hence the brackets.

Moving on to the verb to go.

I go - minä menen - (mä) meen

you go - sinä menet - (sä) meet

he/she/it goes - hän/se menee - (hän) / se menee

we go - me menemme - (me) mennään

you go - te menette - (te) meette

they go - he/ne menevät - (he) / ne menee

And finally to come.

I come - minä tulen - (mä) tuun

you come - sinä tulet - (sä) tuut

he/she/it comes - hän tulee - (hän)/ se tulee

we come - me tulemme - (me) tullaan

you come - te tulette - (te) tuutte

they come - he tulevat - (he) ne tulee

There you go. When you learn to use those short forms, your spoken language will sound a lot more natural.

Nähdään taas!

- Kaisa