1. What are Participles?

A participle is a specific form of the verb, used to either turn a verb into an adjective, noun or to replace a subordinate clause. That’s a pretty broad description. All these participles can be used in a multitude of different ways.

Often participles are used as verbal adjectives which can be formed from all verbs. Like ordinary adjectives, they are declined in all cases and agree with the noun which they qualify. They can be in active (-VA or -NUT) and passive form (-TAVA or -TU), and there is also an ‘agent’ participle. On this page you find just the active present participle.

If you’re looking specifically for “oleva”, you can read this article.

2. The Use of the Active Present Participle

There are three parts to this word construction:

1. It’s active: there is a subject and someone is doing the action
2. It’s present: it’s happening right now, or in the future
3. It’s a participle: it’s derived from a verb

2.1. Example sentences

The following example sentences display the most common usages of the active present participle. The number in the first column directs you towards the chapters below this table where you can learn more about the construction used.

2.2. The active present participle as an adjective

The active present participle can be used as a adjective – thus replacing a joka-sentence, e.g. lapsi joka itkee (the child who cries) → itkevä lapsi (the crying child); mies joka laulaa (the man who sings) → laulava mies (the singing man). In the song Tavallinen päivä, Edu Kettunen uses the phrases särkevä selkä “hurting back” and saapuva talvi “approaching winter”. If you like music, you could check out the analysis of that song here.

When the VA-participle is used as an adjective, it has the following characteristics:

• It’s based on a verb (e.g. lukeva ← lukea)
• It answers the question “millainen” (what kind?)
• It’s inflected in the same case as its main word (e.g. lukevat lapset)
• It can also be expressed with a joka-sentence (e.g. lapset, jotka lukevat)

2.3. In the quasi construction (kvasirakenne)

There is a construction that uses the active present participle in order to express that you’re pretending to do something. This construction consists of the (plural) active present participle + the essive + a possessive suffix. The main verb of the sentence is always “olla”!

2.4. When you’re unsure about an observation

There’s another minimal use for the active present participle, which expresses that you think you experienced/observed something, but you’re not sure about it. This form is rarely used, and only with verbs that are related to perception. This construction also consists of the active present participle + the plural essive + a possessive suffix.

2.5. When using the “että construction” (referatiivirakenne)

The sentence “Luulen, että hän tulee myöhässä.” can be replaced by a reference structure (referatiivirakenne) which means the same thing: “Luulen hänen tulevan myöhässä.” We have an article on the referatiivirakenne here.

3. The Formation of the Active Present Participle

The active present participle’s marker is –va/-vä. You add it to the strong stem for each verbtype. This is quite simple because it’s the same form you would use for the third person plural (-vat/-vät) except you don’t add the -t.

4. The Inflection of the Active Present Participle

The participles can be inflected in all the Finnish cases.

Check out the other Finnish participles here!

Related posts:

Agent Participle – Agenttipartisiippi The Active Past Participle – NUT-Partisiippi Present Passive Participle Sentence Constructions Positive Emotions – Positiiviset tunteet