The Fourth Infinitive -minen Neljäs Infinitiivi
Finnish has five infinitives. This article focuses on the fourth infinitive, which is formed by adding -minen to the strong stem of verbs.
- The formation of the fourth infinitive
- The inflection of the fourth infinitive
- The use of fourth infinitive
- Fourth infinitive as a subject
- Fourth infinitive rections
- Fourth infinitive necessity
- Puhui puhumistaan
1. The Formation of the Fourth Infinitive
The fourth infinitive ends in -minen. You add this ending to the strong stem of the verb, which you can find by taking the third person plural form, and removing the -vat.
| Verb | Third person plural | Fourth infinitive |
|---|---|---|
| nukkua | he nukkuvat | nukkuminen |
| syödä | he syövät | syöminen |
| ajatella | he ajattelevat | ajatteleminen |
| tavata | he tapaavat | tapaaminen |
| häiritä | he häiritsevät | häiritseminen |
| rohjeta | he rohkenevat | rohkeneminen |
Some verbs also have a second noun describing the same action (e.g. juokseminen = juoksu, uiminen = uinti). These forms have the exact same meaning. Not all verbs can have both versions, but every single verb can be made into a –minen noun.
2. The Inflection of the Fourth Infinitive
The -minen ending can make a noun out of a verb. The result can be called a “nounalized” (nominalized) verb . Since you change verbs into substantives, the result can be inflected into all the cases! To do that, you treat the -minen form as a noun with ending -nen (like for example punainen or suomalainen). For example:
| Case | Nainen | Hevonen | Lukeminen | Saaminen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Partitive | naista | hevosta | lukemista | saamista |
| Genitive | naisen | hevosen | lukemisen | saamisen |
| Inessive | naisessa | hevosessa | lukemisessa | saamisessa |
| Elative | naisesta | hevosesta | lukemisesta | saamisesta |
3. The Use of the Fourth Infinitive
When using certain verbs in connection with other verbs, you sometimes have to turn them into a substantive. In English, you do this by adding -ing to the verb (e.g. I enjoy reading). In Finnish, you can recognise this specific form by the ending -minen. The –minen form of the verb is the “nounalized” verb!
3.1. Fourth Infinitive as a Subject
If you’d like to say “swimming is fun” or “cleaning is boring”, you will need the -minen form of the verb. These are all sentences with the verb olla, whose adjectives are always inflected in the partitive case. This is due to the complement rule (see 2.2.2) that says that subjects expressing an activity will have a partitive case complement.
| Verb | Finnish | English |
|---|---|---|
| nukkua | Nukkuminen on tärkeää. | Sleeping is important. |
| tupakoida | Tupakoiminen on epäterveellistä. | Smoking is unhealthy. |
| kävellä | Metsässä käveleminen on mukavaa. | Walking in the forest is pleasant. |
| siivota | Siivoaminen on tylsää. | Cleaning is boring. |
| potkia | Seinään potkiminen kielletty (pic). | Kicking the wall (is) forbidden. |
3.2. Fourth Infinitive Rections
There are certain verbs that require the -minen form for any verbs attached to them. The most common ones are probably harrastaa and pitää. Of those two, harrastaa requires the partitive form of the verb (harrastan lukemista) and pitää requires the -mistä form (pidän lukemisesta). You can read more about the verb harrastaa in our separate article.
In addition to harrastaa and pitää, there are quite a lot of verbs that require the inflected -minen form in sentences. Below are some examples, but you can find more of them in a separate article.
| Genitive | ||
|---|---|---|
| Verb | Example | Translation |
| aloittaa | Aloitan laihduttamisen huomenna. | I start dieting tomorrow |
| lopettaa | Lopetin vihdoin tupakoimisen. | I finally quit smoking. |
| Partitive | ||
| Verb | Example | Translation |
| rakastaa | Katri rakastaa laulamista. | Katri loves singing. |
| harrastaa | Venla harrastaa juoksemista. | Venla enjoys running. |
| inhota | Inhoan juoruilemista. | I hate gossiping. |
| vihata | Vihaatko lentämistä? | Do you hate flying? |
| pelätä | He pelkäävät ratsastamista. | They fear horse riding. |
| Mistä | ||
| Verb | Example | Translation |
| pitää | Pidättekö kokkaamisesta? | Do you like cooking? |
| tykätä | En tykkää tiskaamisesta. | I don’t like doing the dishes. |
| nauttia | Nautin saunomisesta. | I enjoy taking a sauna. |
3.3. Fourth Infinitive Necessity
This section of the page deals with what is linguistically seen as the true fourth infinitive. It’s extremely rare. It expresses that an action is preferable (or in a negative sentence that the action is not preferable).
| Fourth infinitive | More common way | English |
|---|---|---|
| Jos Anttia on uskominen. | Jos Anttia voi uskoa. | If Antti can be believed. |
| Sinne ei ole menemistä. | Sinne ei kannata mennä. | You shouldn’t go there. |
| Sitä ei käy kieltäminen. | Sitä ei voi kieltää. | It can’t/shouldn’t be denied. |
3.4. Puhui Puhumistaan
There is also a sentence construction that utilizes the fourth infinitive’s “nounalized” verb. With it, you can express a continual action. This construction consists of:
- a verb describing the action, followed by
- the “nounalized” version of the same verb. (the second part will be inflected into the partitive and be followed by a possessive suffix)
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| Hän puhui puhumistaan. | He talked and talked. |
| Hän juoksi juoksemistaan. | She ran and ran. |
| Myrsky yltyi yltymistään. | The storm kept getting stronger and stronger. |
It sounds weird(and looks weird) but in English this is called a gerund. Im referring to the ‘verbal noun’ part, not the ‘still a verb’ part .
“Gerund: a verb form which functions as a noun, in Latin ending in -ndum (declinable), in English ending in -ing (e.g. asking in do you mind my asking you?).” That does indeed sound like it, yes! Never heard that term before 🙂
I got the meanings of verbal noun and gerund mixed up and it is said to be a common error most people make. I have done further research and I stand corrected:
English: Verbal noun – a verb turned into a noun and retains none of its verbal properties.
English: Gerund – a verb turned into a noun and retains its verbal properties(takes objects, etc). Not every verb is capable of being turned into a gerund.
For this article it was a good idea to combine the two because that’s essentially what -minen is – both a verbal noun and a gerund depending on the role the verb needs to play in the sentence.
Thanks for clearing up the difference! This is very interesting.
It is quite confusing for me that what “infinitive” means in Finnish, so it is noun that originated from verb?
Sorry for the quite frequent comments recently, hopefully you guys do not get annoyed by me… these couple of days your replies do help me WAY MUCH!
Here is my my example for “minen”
A- Työtekijät vaativat palkan nostamista. Is palkojen nostamista also ok?
or Työtekijöitä vaatii palkojen nostamista?
B- Liisa tykkään 1.pallojen palaamisista? or 2.pallon palaamisesta? or even 3. pallojen palaamisesta?
1.All kind of ball games, 2.ball game in general and 3.just playing with ball but with different kind of balls…
Sorry they look a bit silly, I mean this language force me to think so differently than I used to with the others, just hoping by discussing I could know more both in grammar angle and content perspectives….
I guess my questions is the genitive in front of minen, when it is the objective of the original verb, do they always in the same singlar or plural or the content decides?
Best!
Liisa
The FOURTH infinitive is usually what we call a noun made from a verb by adding -minen to the stem. Finnish has 5 infinitives.
Yes, you can use the plural genitive as well; it’s based on what you’re trying to say.
A- “Työntekijät vaativat palkkojen nostamista” works very well, yes!
B-
1. “Liisa tykkää pallopelien pelaamisesta” = Liisa likes to play ball games.
2. “Liisa tykkää pallolla leikkimisestä” = Liisa likes to play WITH a/the ball.
3. “Liisa tykkää paloilla leikkimisestä” = Liisa likes to play WITH (the) balls.
For #1, we need to use the word pallopeli “ball game” here rather than just pallo “ball”. We’re trying to express that she likes [to play BALL GAMES], not just that she likes [to play balls]. For #2 and #3 we use -lla to express playing WITH balls. The verb pelata is used for “organized” games (the kind with rules), while what children do is leikkiä. Both are translated as “to play” in English.
Trying to put the fourth infinitive in the plural doesn’t work (no “pelaamisista” in this content).
Join us on Discord, Liisa! https://discord.gg/GSf9ydkF There are multiple people there to answer questions, I’d be glad to have you there.