Sentence types with verb in the third person singular - Incongruence

The following sentence types (lausetyypit) always have their verb in the third person singular, the hän/se form.

In most regular sentences, the subject and the verb will be in agreement. This is something you learn as soon as you learn your first sentences: Minä olen Inge. Sinä olet mies. Hän on kanadalainen. There are some sentence types where this is not the case. This is called “syntactic incongruence” (inkongruenssi). We’ll take a look at those special types in this article.

Table of Contents

Existential sentences
Possessive sentences
Necessity sentences
Result sentences
Generic sentences
On hauskaa- sentences
Sentences expressing states
Causative feeling sentences

Small caveat for linguists

The slightly problematic nature of this article

The main topic of this article is simple: it contains sentence types that always have the verb in the third person singular. As such, if you’re a beginner or intermediate language learner, don’t stress about this small caveat! This note is meant for those who have a background in linguistics.

The problematic issue is that the term “subject” in Finnish is quite ambiguous. Semantically, it is usually clear, but linguists don’t all agree on which clause member should syntactically be called the subject and/or object in some of these sentence types. This is in part due to the exact topic we’re dealing with: a regular subject does require the verb to be in agreement with it. You can read more about the problematic nature of the “subject” in these Finnish sources:

I will be covering this issue in depth in a separate article eventually, but it’s a complex issue which requires research.

Another note for grammar enthusiasts, I use the term “sentence” to mean both “sentence” and “clause”. I find it unimportant to make the distinction in an article like this.

1. Existential sentences

An existential sentence (eksisentiaalilause, also called paikkalause in some sources) will typically have its verb in the third person singular. Read more about existential sentences here, and about word order in existential sentences here.

Finnish	English
Luokassa on opettaja.	There is a teacher in the classroom.
Luokassa on opiskelijoita.	There are students in the classroom.
Luokassa on kolme opiskelijaa.	There are three students in the classroom.
Luokassa ei ole opettajaa.	There isn’t a teacher in the classroom.
Luokassa ei ole opiskelijoita.	There are no students in the classroom.
Luokassa oli eilen opettaja.	There was a teacher in the classroom yesterday.
Luokassa on ollut opettaja.	There has been a teacher in the classroom.
Luokissa on opettajia.	There are teachers in the classrooms.
Luokissa ei ole opiskelijoita.	There are no students in the classrooms.
Luokassa istuu opiskelijoita.	There are students sitting in the classroom.
Luokkaan tuli sijainen.	A substitute teacher came to the classroom.

Features of a typical existential sentence in a nutshell

The prototypical existential sentence consists of:

A location at the beginning of the sentence
- Typically, this location is either in the S-missä (e.g. metsässä) or L-missä (e.g. torilla) form).
- The location can be both singular and plural. For example, metsässä (in the forest) and metsissä (in the forests).
The verb olla in the third person singular
- The verb can be conjugated in any of the tenses and moods (e.g. on, oli, ei ole, olisi, ei ole ollut).
- We will have the third person singular of the verb regardless of whether the location is singular or plural, or if the thing that exists in the place is singular or plural. Neither clause member will affect the verb.
- Less prototypical verbs in existential sentences are the type that express the existence of something somewhere, or a verb like tulla (to come) or saapua (to arrive). With these verbs, it is possible for the location to be inflected in a different location case (e.g. Metsään tuli mies).
The thing located in the place will be placed at the end of the sentence
- The cases you will typically use in an existential sentence are:
  – the nominative: “Metsässä on karhu.” (There is a bear in the forest),
  – the singular partitive: “Metsässä ei ole karhua.” (There is no bear in the forest), or
  – the plural partitive: “Metsässä on karhuja.” (There are bears in the forest).
- Most linguists currently have adopted the term e-subjekti (where the e- means eksistentiaalilauseen). This deviation from calling it a “regular” subject is necessarily because this sentence type doesn’t have a prototypical subject. Prototypical subjects require the verb to agree with the subject, ie. to be conjugated in the personal forms (e.g. Kirja on pöydällä. Kirjat ovat pöydällä.) It’s also not prototypical because it will be inflected in the partitive case in a negative sentence of this type.

2. Possessive sentences

Possessive sentences (omistuslause or “minulla on” -lause) also have the verb conjugated in the third person singular. Both a singular possessor and a plural possessor will be followed by the singular form of olla. For example, “Opiskelijalla on kynä” (The student has a pen) and “Opiskelijoilla on kynä” (The students have a pen) both have “on“. The thing that’s owned can also be both singular and plural. For example, “Opiskelijalla on kyniä” (The student has pens) and “Opiskelijalla on kynät” (The student has the pens).

Read more about possessive sentences here.

Finnish	English
Minulla on lapsi.	I have a child.
Minulla on kaksi lasta.	I have two children.
Minulla on lapsia.	I have children.
Meillä on lapsia.	We have children.
Minulla ei ole lapsia.	I don’t have children.
Minulla oli ennen lapsi.	I used to have a child.
Minulla ei ole ollut lapsia.	I haven’t had children.

Features of a typical possessive sentence in a nutshell

The prototypical possessive sentence consists of:

A “possessor” at the beginning of the sentence
- Typically a person, inflected in the adessive case, either singular (minulla, naisella, Saaralla) or plural (meillä, naisilla).
The verb olla in the third person singular
- The verb can be conjugated in any of the tenses and moods (e.g. on, oli, ei ole, olisi, ei ole ollut), but prototypically always in the third person singular.
- We will have the third person singular of the verb regardless of whether the location is singular or plural, or if the thing that exists in the sentence is singular or plural. Neither clause member will affect the verb in a prototypical possessive sentence.
The “owned thing” of the sentence will be placed at the end of the sentence
- Possessive sentences are often thought of by linguists as a subcategory of existential sentences because they have a lot in common with existential sentences: they start with a location case (in this case always -lla), then the verb olla in the third person singular, followed by the e-subject, which can be inflected in the nominative or partitive case.
- There are two things that set this sentence type apart from existential sentences. Firstly, it’s strange to think that the subject of the sentence “Liisa has a dog” would be the dog rather than Liisa. Secondly, if the owned thing is a personal pronoun, the pronoun will be inflected in the accusative case: “Luckily I have you” will be “Onneksi minulla on sinut“. These two reasons make it more natural to think of the owned thing as the object of the sentence. Most linguists still consider the dog the e-subjekti of the sentence though.
- The cases you will typically use in a possessive sentence are:
  – the singular nominative: “Minulla on omena.” (I have an apple),
  – the plural nominative: “Minulla on omenat.” (I have the apples),
  – the singular partitive: “Minulla ei ole omenaa.” (I don’t have an apple), or
  – the plural partitive: “Minulla on omenoita.” (I have apples).

3. Necessity sentences

Necessity sentences (nesessiivilause, täytyy-lause, nesessiivirakenne) will feature the third person singular of the necessity verb. The verb is not affected by the subject being one person or multiple people. For example, both the singular “Siivoojan täytyy siivota” (The cleaner must clean) and the plural “Siivoojien täytyy siivota” (The cleaners must clean) have the third person singular form of the verb täytyä.

Read more about necessity sentences here:

Necessity sentences
Syntax of necessity sentences
Necessity conjugation
Necessity sentences in spoken language

Finnish	English
Minun täytyy opiskella.	I must study.
Minun pitää opiskella.	I must study.
Minun on pakko opiskella.	I must study (stronger obligation).
Minun ei tarvitse opiskella.	I don’t have to study.
Minun ei ole pakko opiskella.	I don’t have to study.
Meidän täytyy opiskella.	We must study.
Meidän täytyi opiskella.	We had to study.
Meidän on ollut pakko opiskella.	We have had to study.
Opiskelijan ei tarvinnut opiskella.	The student didn’t have to study.
Opiskelijoiden ei tarvinnut opiskella.	The students didn’t have to study.

Features of a typical necessity sentence in a nutshell

The prototypical necessity sentence consists of:

A subject at the beginning of the sentence
- Typically refers to a person, inflected in the genitive case, either singular (minun, naisen, Saaran) or plural (meidän, naisten).
- The genitive is not the prototypical case for the subject of a sentence, so this type of subject is often referred to as genetiivisubjekti. Read more in English about the subject of a necessity sentence here.
A necessity verb in the third person singular
- Very common necessity verbs include: täytyä, pitää, olla pakko, kannattaa.
- Typically, the verb will appear in the third person. The number of the subject (e.g. naisen täytyy vs. naisten täytyy) has no effect on the verb.
- The verb can be conjugated in any of the tenses and moods (e.g. täytyy, täytyi, on täytynyt). Read more here.
A verb in the basic form
- The action you must do will generally appear in its infinitive form (the basic form of the verb).
- This second verb can have an object (Minun pitää opiskella suomea) or other words attached to it (Minun täytyy opiskella ahkerasti aamusta iltaan).

4. Result sentences

Leila White calls this sentence type “change + result clause” in English. In Finnish, it’s usually called a tuloslause. This sentence type expresses a change happening to a person or thing. It utilizes the -sta form (the elative case, mistä-muoto, S-mistä) of the thing that undergoes the change. The verb in these sentences is usually tulla, which is conjugated in the third person singular.

Finnish	English
Minusta tulee opettaja isona.	I will become a teacher when I grow up.
Minusta tuli opettaja.	I became a teacher.
Minusta voi tulla opettaja.	I can become a teacher.
Opiskelijasta tulee leipuri.	The student becomes a baker.
Opiskelijoista tulee leipureita.	The students will become bakers.
Minusta ei tule opettajaa.	I won’t become a teacher.
Minusta ei tullut opettajaa.	I didn’t become a teacher.
Meistä tulee opettajia.	We will become teachers.
Tytöistä tuli kuuluisia.	The girls became famous.

Features of a typical tuloslause in a nutshell

**The prototypical tuloslause consists of:**

The thing/person that changes inflected in the elative case
- This sentence type typically starts with the thing or person that undergoes a change/transformation in the elative case (the S-mistä form). Depending on the sentence, you’ll use either the singular (Miehestä tuli kuuluisa) or the plural form (Miehistä tuli kuuluisia).
The verb tulla in the third person singular
- The most common verb in this sentence type is tulla, but we can also use other verbs that clearly express a change happening such as kehittyä (to develop) and kasvaa (to grow).
- The verb can be conjugated in any of the tenses and moods (e.g. tulee, tuli, on tullut, tulisi, olisi tullut, etc.).
- The verb will always be in the third person singular form, independent of the person/thing that’s changing.
The thing/quality the person/thing turns into
- Last in the sentence, we can have either a noun (Minusta tuli lääkäri “I became a doctor”) or an adjective (Minusta tuli kuuluisa “I became famous”).
- The cases used for this element are:
  – the nominative (basic form), when a single person or countable thing changes,
  – the partitive case, when the sentence is negative or the thing that changes is uncountable, or
  – the plural partitive (when the person/thing is plural).

Read more about “change and result” sentences here:

This is another sentence type where there has been a lot of discussion about what a “subject” is in Finnish. Some sources say that this sentence type consists of “adverbiaali + predikaatti + subjekti”, while others analyze it as “elatiivi-NP + predikaatti + predikatiivi”. Read more here in Finnish: Mikä subjekti on? – Marja-Liisa Helasvuo and Tuomas Huumo (especially pages 148-149).

5. Generic sentences

A generic sentence (nollapersoonalause = “zero person sentence”) expresses that the sentence applies/doesn’t apply to anyone. The verb in these sentences will always be inflected in the third person singular.

Finnish	English
Täällä voi maksaa myös käteisellä.	One can also pay with cash here.
Kirjastosta voi lainata kirjoja.	One can borrow books from the library.
Kirjastossa ei saa juosta.	One is not allowed to run in the library.
Kirjat saa lukea myös kotona.	One can also read the books at home.
Kirjastossa sai käyttää tietokonetta.	One could use a computer in the library.
Kirjastossa ei saanut huutaa.	One wasn’t allowed to shout in the library.
Keksit saa syödä loppuun.	It’s allowed to eat all the cookies.
Apua saa, kun sitä pyytää.	You can get help if you ask for it.
Asioita voi oppia, kun harjoittelee.	One can learn things when one practices.
Jos ei tee töitä, ei tule tehtyä virheitä.	If you don’t work, you don’t make mistakes.
Mitä pitäisi tehdä, jos ei tiedä mitä haluaa?	What should you do if you don’t know what you want?

Features of a typical generic sentence in a nutshell

The prototypical generic sentence consists of:

A verb inflected in the third person singular
- It can be any verb (within reason), but very typical are the verbs saada “to be allowed to do”, voida “to be able to, one/you can”. These verbs are common because they are often used to express what “people” (ie. anyone) can or can’t do in a location.
No subject of any kind
- This is this first sentence type on the page that has no element at all that could be construed as a subject in Finnish.
- In English, these sentences usually do have a subject: you can use “one” for this, or more commonly the “you passive”. Finnish also has a sinä-passiivi which has become more common partly through the influence of English. However, the “you passive” in Finnish is considered to only be suitable for colloquial Finnish. I’ve touched on this topic in this article, but intend to expand on that eventually.
The sentence generally starts with either the object or a location

6. On hauskaa -sentence

This sentence type always starts with the verb, which will be inflected in the third person singular. In English you will add a subject to this sentence: “it”.

Finnish	English
On hauskaa voittaa.	It is fun to win.
Ei ole hauskaa hävitä.	It is not fun to lose.
On ollut hauskaa voittaa.	It has been fun to win.
On helppoa unohtaa säännöt.	It is easy to forget the rules.
Ei ole helppoa unohtaa tätä.	It is not easy to forget this.
Ei ollut helppoa unohtaa tätä.	It wasn’t easy to forget this.
On tärkeää, että lääkärit osaavat kuunnella.	It‘s important that doctors know how to listen.
On hyvä, että on sääntöjä.	It‘s good that there are rules.
On tärkeää, että vaaleista tulee rehelliset.	It‘s important that the elections are fair.
On ihmeellistä, miten nopeasti aika kuluu.	It‘s amazing how quickly time flies.
On epävarmaa, miten nopeasti toivun tästä.	It‘s uncertain how quickly I will recover from this.

Features of a typical On hauskaa sentence in a nutshell

**The prototypical “On hauskaa” sentence consists of:**

The verb olla at the start of the sentence
- The verb will be conjugated in the third person singular, but can be any tense or mood (e.g. on, oli, on ollut, ei ole ollut, olisi).
Followed by an adjective
- The partitive case is the most prototypical form this adjective will appear in.
- For the most common adjectives it is possible to lose the partitive (on hauskaa – on hauska). This is the case for: hyvä, paha, kiva, turha, varma, mukava, hankala, ihana, helppo, vaikea, parempi, helpompi, vaikeampi and paras.
- The verb can (although much more rarely) also be followed by a noun such as ihme (On ihme, että… “it’s a miracle that…”) or onni (Oli onni, että… “It was fortunate that…”).
Followed by a verb in its infinitive form, OR a subordinate clause
- The minimum requirement to finish this sentence is to add a verb in its infinitive form: “On hauskaa lukea” (It’s fun to read). You can keep adding words though, for example “On hauskaa lukea satuja lapsilleni” (It’s fun to read stories to my children).
- Also common are subordinate clauses starting with että: “On hauskaa/surullista/ymmärrettävää, että…” (It’s fun/sad/understandable that…”.

7. Sentences expressing states

A tilalause (I don’t have a good translation for this word) is a clause describing the state of the weather or certain natural or temporal conditions. For the purpose of you as a language learner, I’ve separated this section into some subsections. Grammatically, many types of sentences are bundled up under the term tilalause, and different linguists may have different views on what type of sentence is considered to belong to this sentence type.

I will be making a separate article that goes into more details about the types of clauses that express states that exist, but you should consider this term a “nice to know” thing rather than a necessary term for learning Finnish. The basics of this type of sentence are important though, because as an English speaker, you will probably feel the need to add se (the Finnish word for “it”) to these sentences. This would be incorrect in Finnish, as you can see from the examples below.

The three main things that are expressed in a tilalause are:

The state of the weather
The time of day or the year it is
The sensations of people in a place

#	Finnish	English
1	Sataa.	It is raining.
1	Ulkona satoi koko yön.	It rained outside the whole night.
1	Tuuleeko huomenna?	Will it be windy tomorrow?
1	Yöllä ukkosti ja salamoi voimakkaasti.	At night ~~there~~ was strong thunder and lightning.
1	Ei tuullut, kun sinä tulit.	It wasn’t windy when you came.
2	On aamu. Koko perhe herää.	It is morning. The whole family is waking up.
2	Nyt on torstai.	It is Thursday now.
2	Onneksi oli kesä.	Luckily it was summer.
3	On liian kuuma.	It is too hot.
3	Asunnossa oli siistiä.	It was clean in the apartment.
3	Täällä on kivaa / lämmintä / valoisaa / kylmä.	It is nice / warm / bright /cold here.

1. Features of weather sentences

The prototypical weather sentence contains:

Never “se”!
- In Finnish, “It rains” will just be “Sataa”.
Weather sentences only have one obligatory clause member: a weather verb in the third person singular.
- Finnish has verbs for most of the common weather phenomena, while English only has some (e.g. “to thunder” and “to rain” exists in English). “To lightening” and “to wind” sound odd.
- These weather verbs (sataa, tuulla, ukkostaa, salamoida, myrskytä) never have a subject in Finnish. Rather than “it rains”, you will just say “rains” (Sataa). You can learn more weather related vocabulary here.
- The verb can be any tense or mood (e.g. sataa, satoi, on satanut, sataisiko, ei sada).
While this is the only obligatory sentence member, you can of course add more words like “today” or “strongly” or “outside” to further specify the situation.

2. Features of temporal clauses expressing a state

The prototypical temporal clause contains:

Never “se”!
- In Finnish, “It is Tuesday” will just be “On tiistai“.
The verb olla in the third person singular
- The verb can be any tense or mood (e.g. on, oli, on ollut, ei ole ollut, olisi).
A temporal noun, in the nominative case (basic form), e.g. torstai, kesä, aamu.

3. Features of clauses expressing sensations/feelings

Typical features of clause that expresses a state include:

Never “se”!
- In Finnish, “It is cold” will just be “On kylmä“.
The verb olla in the third person singular
- The verb can be any tense or mood (e.g. on, oli, on ollut, ei ole ollut, olisi).
An adjective describing the sensation
- The adjective can be in the nominative case or the partitive case. The partitive is more common, but for the most common adjectives it is possible to lose the partitive (on kuumaa – on kuuma). More about this when I publish a separate article on this sentence type.
- Making the sentence negative will not influence the case the adjective appears in. For example, “Ulkona on kylmä” will become “Ulkona ei ole kylmä”, with kylmä in its basic form regardless of the partitive case. This makes this sentence type different from an existential sentence (Ulkona on pöytä. vs. Ulkona ei ole pöytää).
- Another, rarer possibility is to use an adjective and a noun (e.g. Tänään ei ole raikas talvipäivä).
A natural possibility to add a location to the sentence
- For sentences expressing the feelings of people regarding a place, these will naturally allow you to add a location. For example, “On kylmä” (It’s cold) can easily become “Täällä/Ulkona/Asunnossa on kylmä” (Here/Outside/In the apartment it is cold).
- You are not obligated to add any such element. The sentences work fine just with the verb olla and an adjective.

Someday soon I hope to get around to writing a whole article on this sentence type used to express a state but, for now, this is just a short version. I’m glancing over some of the details and less prototypical sentences belonging to this type.

8. Causative feeling sentences

Sentences with a feeling verb can be called tunnelause, or tunnekausatiivilause. These sentences can have the verb inflect in other forms than the third person singular under certain conditions, which is why it is the very last sentence type on this page. Read more about this sentence type here.

Finnish	English
Minua pelottaa.	I’m afraid.
Näin, että poikaa suututti.	I saw that the boy was feeling angry.
Väsyttääkö sinua?	Are you feeling tired?
Potilaita pyörrytti.	The patients were feeling dizzy.
Meitä huolestuttaa ilmastonmuutos.	We are worried about climate change.
Ilmastonmuutos huolestuttaa meitä.	Climate change worries us.
Muutos huolestuttaa asiantuntijoita.	The change worries the experts.
Muutokset huolestuttavat asiantuntijoita.	The changes worry the experts.

Features of a typical causative feeling sentence in a nutshell

The prototypical causative feeling sentence consists of:

The person who is experiencing the feeling in the partitive case
- There can be both one person (Poikaa pelottaa “The boy is afraid”) and multiple people (Poikia pelottaa “The boys are afraid”), so you will use either the singular or the plural partitive accordingly.
- This element typically is placed at the beginning of the sentence.
A feeling verb in the third person singular
- Feeling verbs include pelottaa (to be afraid), suututtaa (to be angry), väsyttää (to be tired) and janottaa (to feel thirsty). You can find more verbs in the separate article I’ve written on the topic.
- The verb can be any tense or mood (e.g. minua pelottaa, pelotti, ei pelottaisi, on pelottanut).
You can include the cause of the feeling
- While these sentences often are used without mentioning the cause of the feeling, it is possible to include it.
- If you include a cause, it can appear at the end (Minua pelottaa sota) or at the beginning (Sota pelottaa minua) of the sentence.
- The cause will be inflected in the nominative case, either singular or plural (e.g. Uutinen järkytti minua vs. Uutiset järkyttivät minua).
- Note! If the cause is plural, you will inflect the verb accordingly. (e.g. Sinä suututit minua. Tapahtumat suututtivat minua). Thus, this sentence type doesn’t strictly belong here, because the focus of this article is specifically on sentences where the verb doesn’t inflect in any form other than the third person singular. I have included it because – if you’re studying sentence types on a Finnish course – you will likely find this sentence type in the list. These lists typically consist of sentence types where the subject doesn’t agree with the verb. However, the term “subject” is so ambiguous in Finnish that I will have to focus on it in another article. Linguists often avoid this issue in this sentence type by talking about “the experiencer” and “the stimulus” rather than using the terms “subject” and “object”.