1. The Use of the Potential Mood

The potential is often described as the “mode of probability”. It’s used to express that an action or state is likely but not certain. The potential doesn’t exist in English, but can be translated by adding “probably” to the verb.

In normal speech, you’ll seldom hear the potential. Most commonly it is used in the news and in official written proposals in meetings. It’s much more common to use adverbs of probability or verbs like mahtaa, saattaa and taitaa .

You are most likely to come across the potential of these verbs: voida (voinee), joutua (joutunee), täytyä (täytynee) and pitää (pitänee).

1.1. With uncertain current or future events

The potential can express that something happening is likely but not certain. It can do so:

• for current events (“Anja lienee väsynyt” – “Anja is probably tired”) or
• for future events (“Anja tullee kohta” – “Anja is probably coming soon”).

You can have the potential both:

• in the active form (“Minä rakentanen koko talon” – I will probably build the whole house”) and
• in the passive form (“Talo rakennettaneen kesällä” – “The building will probably be built in summer”).

1.2. With uncertain past events

There is no imperfect version of the potential, but there is the perfect form, which expresses that something probably happened in the past.

1.3. In doubtful questions

In questions, the potential can express reflection, hesitation, uncertainty or doubt. These questions are rhetorical. So for all the following examples, you could add “I assume not” to the English translation.

1.4. As a polite request or requirement

This is especially common with the verbs saada, sopia and suoda.

• “Tytöllä oli ollut flunssa ja nyt [mikä lie uusi virus].”
• Translation: The girl had had the flu and now [some new virus or something].
• “Tori.fi:ssa myydään [mikä lie] varaosat ja tarvikkeet. “
• Translation: On tori.fi they sell [all kinds of] replacement parts and essentials.

In question type sentences it expresses uncertainty or wonder. These sentences are mainly rhetorical.

• “[Mitä lie] siellä tapahtuu?”
• Translation: [I wonder what could] be happening there.
• “[Mistä lie] johtuu, että lamppu sammuu aina välillä?”
• Translation: [I wonder what could] be the cause of the lamp turning off sometimes.

2. The Formation of the Potential Mood

The potential mode’s marker is –ne– and it conjugates in the present and perfect tense, both active and passive.

2.1. The Active Present Potential

Looking at the formation of the perfect tense will help you, as the –ne– marker will undergo the same changes in verbtype 3 (–se-, –le-, –re–) and in verbtype 4, 5 and 6 (–nne–).

2.2. The Verb Olla

The verb olla has its own little quirks. In fact, when conjugating the verb olla in the potential, historically speaking, you’re using a different verb, which has disappeared from Finnish, but that had the stem lie–. When conjugating verbs in the past potential, you will always use “lienee” as the auxiliary verb.

You can use lienee on its own in sentences like “Hän lienee liian väsynyt lähteäkseen lenkille.” (He’s probably too tired to go for a jog) and “Maija lienee ollut Amerikassa viime vuonna.” (Maija was probably in America last year).

2.3. The Active Past Potential

This active past potential is made up of two parts: the auxiliary verb “lienee“, combined with the past participle form (–nut/neet) of the main verb (aka the same for as for the perfect tense).

2.4. The Passive Present Potential

At the end of the stem of the verb, you will have the passive marker –(t)ta-, followed by the potential marker –ne-, with the third person’s possessive suffix. Simple put, you can have one of the two following options:

–ta/-tä + ne + Vn -> –taneen/-täneen
-tta/-ttä + ne + Vn -> –ttaneen/-ttäneen

The number of t‘s depends on the verbtype. If you’ve studied the past passive already, you can use that as a reference. In short: you will use -taneen for verbtype 2 and 3, and -ttaneen for verbtype 1, 4, 5 and 6.

2.5. The Passive Past Potential

Just like in the active past potential (see 2.2), the passive uses the verb lienee (unconjugated). Please note that you can’t put this verb in the past! The passive past potential uses the past passive participle (TU-participle) to express the passivity of the phrase rather than the auxiliary verb.

3. The Negative Potential

All the forms up to now have been affirmative phrases. However, you can just as easily form negative sentences with the passive.

4. Extra Sentences

Below, you can find some extra example sentences for the tenses and voices of each participle, just to give you more of a feel of how the potential is used.

Related posts:

Lie Lienee – Expressing probability – Potential Adverbs that Express Certainty, Probability and Unlikelihood Taitaa Saattaa Mahtaa – Verb Differences