Passive Voice in Finnish

In Brief

The Finnish passive usually describes an action by an unspecified person or group: Täällä puhutaan suomea means “Finnish is spoken here” or, more literally, “people speak Finnish here.” In everyday speech, the same form often stands for “we”: Mennään! means “Let’s go!” The verb has one impersonal form, not separate forms for different persons.

Overview

The Finnish term passiivi is traditionally translated as “passive,” but it does not match the English passive exactly. An English passive changes “Someone opens the door” into “The door is opened,” making the thing affected by the action the grammatical subject (the part that the sentence is about). Finnish normally uses a subjectless verb form instead: Ovi avataan. The person opening the door is left unidentified, but is usually understood to be human.

This construction is extremely common in instructions, signs, news, general statements, and ordinary conversation. It lets speakers focus on what happens rather than who does it. It also supplies one of the most frequent colloquial ways to express “we,” even though careful standard Finnish uses the first-person plural form with me: me menemme “we go.”

At B1, the essential skills are recognizing the present ending, making common present forms, forming the negative, and understanding whether a sentence means “people in general,” “someone,” or conversational “we.” Stem changes make formation look complicated at first, so it is best to learn common passive forms together with their verbs.

How It Works

One form for an unspecified human agent

A finite verb is a verb form that carries tense and can make the main statement of a sentence. In the passive, Finnish has one finite form rather than six person forms:

Active statement	Passive statement	Natural English meaning
Ihmiset puhuvat täällä suomea.	Täällä puhutaan suomea.	Finnish is spoken here.
Työntekijät sulkevat kaupan kuudelta.	Kauppa suljetaan kuudelta.	The shop is closed at six.
Me aloitamme nyt.	Aloitetaan nyt.	Let’s start now. / We’ll start now.

The passive sentence does not name an agent (the person carrying out the action). It usually suggests “someone,” “people,” or a group understood from the situation. Because the agent is normally human, Ovi avataan implies that someone opens the door. If the door opens by itself, Finnish instead uses Ovi avautuu “The door opens.”

Present passive endings

The present passive is often recognized by -taan/-tään or by a closely related ending such as -daan/-dään, -laan/-llään, -naan/-nnään, -raan/-rään, or -staan/-stään. The choice of a or ä follows vowel harmony: words with ä, ö, or y generally take ä in the ending.

The form is built from a verb stem (the part to which an ending is attached), but the exact stem depends on the verb type. These high-frequency patterns are more useful than one oversimplified rule:

Infinitive	Present passive	Pattern or change
puhua (to speak)	puhutaan	-a/-ä verb; add passive material to the stem
lukea (to read)	luetaan	consonant gradation: k disappears
ottaa (to take)	otetaan	strong tt becomes t in this form
syödä (to eat)	syödään	-da/-dä is replaced by -dään
tehdä (to do, make)	tehdään	irregular stem, worth memorizing
tulla (to come)	tullaan	the final consonant is doubled
mennä (to go)	mennään	the final consonant is doubled
pestä (to wash)	pestään	-sta/-stä pattern
haluta (to want)	halutaan	-ta/-tä verb pattern
tavata (to meet)	tavataan	stem change; learn the whole form

Consonant gradation means that consonants such as k, p, and t alternate when the grammatical form changes. It explains pairs such as lukea → luetaan and ottaa → otetaan. Since several verb classes and stem alternations are involved, check a dictionary when forming the passive of an unfamiliar verb.

Negative present

The negative uses ei followed by a special passive negative form, often ending in -ta/-tä. Do not keep -an/-än:

Affirmative	Negative	English
puhutaan	ei puhuta	is/are not spoken; people do not speak
luetaan	ei lueta	is/are not read
syödään	ei syödä	is/are not eaten
mennään	ei mennä	people do not go; we are not going
tehdään	ei tehdä	is/are not done

Unlike personal negatives, this form does not change for person: passive ei remains ei. In colloquial “we” usage, Me ei mennä is widespread in speech, while formal standard Finnish uses Me emme mene.

Questions and suggestions

Attach the question clitic -ko/-kö (a short ending that adds a question meaning) to the passive form:

• Puhutaanko täällä englantia? — Is English spoken here?
• Aloitetaanko? — Shall we start?
• Mennäänkö kahville? — Shall we go for coffee?

With conversational “we,” the question often works like English “Shall we…?” The affirmative can work as a suggestion or an inclusive command: Tehdään näin “Let’s do it this way.”

What happens to the object?

An object is the person or thing affected by the action. Because the Finnish passive has no grammatical subject, a complete object often appears in a nominative-looking form, the basic form used for dictionary entries:

• Kirja luetaan huomenna. — The book will be read tomorrow.
• Ovet suljetaan kello kuusi. — The doors are closed at six.

A partial, ongoing, or unbounded object commonly takes the partitive case (an ending that often presents an action as incomplete or an amount as unspecified):

• Kirjaa luetaan parhaillaan. — The book is being read right now.
• Täällä juodaan paljon kahvia. — A lot of coffee is drunk here.

Negation also normally requires the partitive:

• Kirjaa ei lueta tänään. — The book will not be read today.
• Ovea ei avata. — The door is not opened.

Personal pronouns are a special advanced case: a complete pronominal object uses forms such as minut and sinut: Minut kutsuttiin juhliin “I was invited to the party.”

Examples in Context

Finnish	English	Note
Täällä puhutaan suomea.	Finnish is spoken here.	General statement; the speakers are not named.
Suomessa juodaan paljon kahvia.	A lot of coffee is drunk in Finland.	A general habit.
Tässä ravintolassa tarjoillaan lounasta yhteentoista asti.	Lunch is served in this restaurant until eleven.	Typical service information.
Kengät jätetään eteiseen.	Shoes are left in the entrance hall.	An instruction or house rule.
Hakemus lähetetään sähköpostitse.	The application is sent by email.	Impersonal written instruction.
Ovi avataan kello yhdeksän.	The door is opened at nine.	An unnamed person will open it.
Asiaa käsitellään huomenna.	The matter will be dealt with tomorrow.	Partitive object; process-focused.
Täällä ei myydä alkoholia.	Alcohol is not sold here.	Negative passive.
Puhutaanko tästä myöhemmin?	Shall we talk about this later?	Question used as a suggestion.
Mennäänkö?	Shall we go?	Very common conversational “we.”
Otetaan bussi keskustaan.	Let’s take the bus downtown.	Inclusive suggestion.
Nyt aloitetaan.	Now we begin. / Let’s get started.	Context decides between statement and encouragement.
Sanotaan, että suomalaiset juovat paljon kahvia.	It is said that Finns drink a lot of coffee.	Reporting a common claim.
Talo rakennettiin viime vuonna.	The house was built last year.	Past passive.
Minut kutsuttiin haastatteluun.	I was invited to an interview.	Complete personal-pronoun object.

Common Mistakes

Treating the passive as a plural person form

• Wrong: He puhutaan suomea.
• Right: He puhuvat suomea. — They speak Finnish.
• Also right: Täällä puhutaan suomea. — Finnish is spoken here.
• Why: Puhutaan does not agree with he “they.” Use an active plural verb when a specific “they” is the subject.

Naming the agent as if the construction worked like English

• Wrong: Talo rakennettiin työntekijöiden toimesta in ordinary conversation when you simply mean “The workers built the house.”
• Right: Työntekijät rakensivat talon.
• Why: Finnish passive normally leaves the agent unnamed. A toimesta phrase (“by the agency of”) exists in administrative or formal language, but it is often heavy and unnatural where an active sentence is clear.

Keeping the affirmative ending after ei

• Wrong: Täällä ei puhutaan englantia.
• Right: Täällä ei puhuta englantia.
• Why: After ei, use the passive negative form without final -an/-än.

Using the colloquial passive as standard written “we”

• Informal speech: Me mennään kotiin.
• Standard writing: Me menemme kotiin.
• Why: The passive with me is normal in colloquial Finnish, but edited standard Finnish generally requires the first-person plural form.

Choosing the object form by copying English word order

• Wrong: Kirjan luetaan huomenna.
• Right: Kirja luetaan huomenna.
• Why: A complete noun object in a passive clause normally has the basic, nominative-looking form. Use the partitive when the action is incomplete or negative: Kirjaa luetaan; kirjaa ei lueta.

Assuming every non-agentive event uses the passive

• Wrong meaning: Ovi avataan for a door that opens by itself.
• Right: Ovi avautuu. — The door opens.
• Why: The passive normally implies an unnamed human actor. Use an intransitive verb (one that has no object) when an event happens without such an actor.

Usage Notes

Finnish uses the passive more broadly than English in generalizations: Suomessa saunotaan paljon is naturally “People use the sauna a lot in Finland,” not necessarily the stiff “The sauna is used a lot.” Translate according to the meaning, not word for word. English “you,” “we,” “people,” “they,” and an English passive can all be reasonable equivalents.

Instructions often use the present passive where English uses an imperative: Lomake täytetään huolellisesti means “Fill in the form carefully.” This style sounds neutral and process-focused. Recipes also use it frequently: Lisätään sokeri ja sekoitetaan “Add the sugar and stir.”

In conversation, passive forms are central to suggestions: Lähdetään! “Let’s leave!” When me is stated, me mennään is an established feature of colloquial Finnish, not random bad grammar. Still, learners should control the register: use me menemme in formal writing, academic work, and careful public communication unless reproducing speech.

The form itself does not explicitly say “we.” Context supplies that interpretation. Täällä syödään hyvin means “People eat well here,” while friends looking at a menu may say Nyt syödään with the sense “Now we eat/let’s eat.”

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

The passive occurs throughout the Finnish tense and mood system. You do not need every form at once, but recognizing the family helps you read authentic Finnish:

Category	puhua	tehdä	Typical meaning
Present	puhutaan	tehdään	people speak; is done
Past (imperfect)	puhuttiin	tehtiin	people spoke; was done
Present perfect	on puhuttu	on tehty	has been spoken/done
Pluperfect	oli puhuttu	oli tehty	had been spoken/done
Conditional	puhuttaisiin	tehtäisiin	would be spoken/done

The perfect forms use olla “to be” plus a passive past participle (a verb-based form such as puhuttu or tehty). Unlike an English passive, Finnish perfect on tehty has singular on, not plural ovat: the construction remains impersonal.

Finnish can also use the passive in subordinate clauses and with modal meanings:

• Jos lähdettäisiin nyt, ehtisimme junaan. — If we left now, we would catch the train.
• Työ pitää tehdä tänään. — The work must be done today.
• On tärkeää, että asiasta puhutaan. — It is important that the matter be discussed.

Very formal Finnish has additional forms, including passive imperatives such as tehtäköön “let it be done” and potential forms such as tehtäneen “it is probably done/people have probably done it.” They are useful to recognize in official, literary, or carefully written texts, but they are not core B1 production targets.

Finally, Finnish also has participial constructions that can express an agent, such as opettajan kirjoittama kirja “a book written by the teacher.” Here opettajan names the doer and kirjoittama is an agent participle. This is a different structure from the impersonal finite passive and belongs to more advanced study.

Practice Tips

1. Learn forms in sets of three. For each useful verb, record the infinitive, affirmative passive, and negative passive: lukea — luetaan — ei lueta. This makes stem changes easier to remember.
2. Sort examples by meaning. While listening or reading, label each passive as “general people,” “instruction,” “unnamed someone,” or conversational “we.” Context matters as much as morphology.
3. Turn everyday instructions into Finnish. Practice with signs and routines: Ovi suljetaan, Kengät jätetään tähän, Sitten lisätään vesi. Then make each one negative or a question.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Present Tense — provides the basic verb and tense concepts needed before learning the passive.
• Next step: Passive in Past Tenses — develops forms such as puhuttiin, on puhuttu, and puhuttaisiin in greater detail.