Finnish has many adverbs ending in -sti. This is often comparable to the English suffix -ly as in “easily” and “quickly”. In this article, you can find 473 such adverbs, divided into many subgroups.

What are adverbs? They are words that express how something is done. The term “adjective” is used to express what something is like. Thus, we can create the sentences “Minä olen hidas” (“I am slow”, where hidas is an adjective) and “Minä juoksen hitaasti” (“I run slowly”, where hitaasti is an adverb. In general, you will use adjectives with the verb olla, and adverbs with tany other verb.

1. The challenges of this article

I haven’t kept track of the amount of time I’ve spent on this article, but I think I can safely say that we’re talking about more than a hundred hours. Multiple challenges presented themselves, which slowed my progress significantly.

1.1. Google is even less reliable than I thought

The full list of words ending in -sti, which I started this article with, had more than 3000 words, simply taken from käänteissanakirja. After getting rid of anything that wasn’t an adverb, I fed all the adverbs into Google to find out how common each of these adverbs were. The idea was that I would be able to rely on Google to tell me which adverbs were most used.

I did not expect Google to be accurate – I was just using it as a tool to get an approximate idea of whether the search results were in the thousands, the hundreds of thousands, or the millions. However, Google turned out even more unreliable than I expected. Depending on the day I looked them up, there was often a very large difference in the number of search results. To show you what I was working with, here are some of the progressions I recorded over the many months I spent on this article:

As you can see, the differences can be very stark. While I never intended to trust Google, it became hard to use it to weed out the rare adverbs.

In order to be included into this article, I decided to set my limit at a minimum of 50 000 search results. For some words, like karmeasti in the list above, this meant they could be very well established as a candidate for this group during one search (174 k is well over 50 k), only to fall short significantly later (11 k isn’t nearly enough).

The final display of the count of each adverb is based on the final Google search I did for each and every one on the 16th of October 2022.

1.2. How am I supposed to display these?

Like for many articles I write, figuring out how I wanted to present these adverbs was a process. I needed to decide if I wanted to add how common these adverbs were, how to order them, whether to add examples or just stick with the list.

I decided I wanted to display a translation for both the base word and the adverb, with an approximation of how common the adverb is. I also really wanted to add example sentences. Originally, I was going to make two giant tables: one which would list all the adjectives and adverbs, and another to list all the examples. Eventually, I decided against these two giant lists and started dividing the adverbs into small groups followed by a small table of example sentences for each group.

However, to keep each list short, it turned out I had to start dividing the adverbs which technically belonged to the same group into subgroups. This was very challenging. You will see below that my divisions are quite arbitrary: randomly picked on a small quality the words in that group might have in common, such as listing adverbs based on adjectives ending in -ma in a different group than other adverbs based on adjectives ending in -a.

The immense amount of adverbs ending in -sesti (based on adjectives ending in -nen) was a major issue. When you scroll down, you will see I have 25 different groups of adverbs ending in -sesti. That’s a crazy number of subcategories, especially when you take into account that ALL of these adverbs are based on an adjective ending in -nen. ALL of them undergo the exact same change in each of the subcategories.

1.3. Motivation problems

Challenge #2 was more of a mental problem. Working for such a long time on one article is taxing. Progress is almost unnoticeable and it’s just word after word of Googling, translating, finding examples, translating the examples, etc.  I lost the motivation to finish this article many times.

The lack of motivation can also be noticeable in this article if you’d go through this systematically and see which adverbs are missing. I did not stick to the “minimum 50 k search results” rule I made up for myself. Oftentimes, I would remove adverbs that should definitely have made it into this article for reasons such as “I can’t think of an example”, “the examples I find for this word are all stupid” or “there is no good translation for this in English”.

The version of this article you’re seeing today is the result of months of work, many frustrated sighs and endless Googling and re-Googling. I hope you find it useful. Personally, I’m just glad it’s over.

2. Adjectives ending in -o/ö/u/y

For all adjectives ending in -o/ö/u/y, you just add -sti to the end of the corresponding adjective. The adjective will undergo consonant gradation and become weak when adding -sti. The 4 groups below are all the same type; they’re just divided up for easier reading.

2.1 Adjectives ending in -o/ö

For adjectives ending in -o/ö, you just add -sti to the end of the corresponding adjective.

Examples

2.2. Adjectives ending in -o/ö (consonant gradation)

Some adjectives ending in -o/ö will have consonant gradation. You will add -sti to the weak form of the adjective. You can find the weak form by, for example, inflecting the word in the genitive case or the comparative form (e.g. helppo : helpon : helpompi : helposti)

Examples

2.3. Adjectives ending in -u/y

For adjectives ending in -u/y, you just add -sti to the end of the corresponding adjective.

Examples

3. Adjectives ending in -i

Words ending in -i can belong to two groups: they can be so-called “old” and “new” words (click the link to read more). In addition, old words can be divided in two subgroups depending on whether they end in -si or just in -i.

3.1. New adjectives ending in -i

For new words ending in -i, you will add -sti to the basic form of the adjective. No changes happen to the base adjective except for consonant gradation. Words ending in -i will have -sti added to their weak form. You can find the weak form by inflecting the adjective in, for example, the genitive case or the comparative form (e.g. kiltti : kiltin : kiltimpi : kiltisti)

Examples

3.2. Old adjectives ending in -i

For old words ending in -i, you will change the final -i into an -e- before adding -sti. This is the same change these words undergo in, for example, the genitive case and the comparative form (e.g. suuri : suuren :suurempi : suuresti).

Examples

4. Adjectives ending in -a/ä

Finnish has a massive amount of words ending in -a or -ä. In order to keep this article readable, I’ve made some very odd choices when dividing the words in smaller groups. You won’t find any other source that lists adjectives ending in -ma in a separate group. They don’t differ in any way. However, there are enough of them to list them separately and keep these lists fairly short.

4.1. Adjectives ending in -a (two syllables)

For adjectives ending in -a, you just add -sti to the end of the corresponding adjective. This section only contains adjectives without consonant gradation.

Examples

4.2. Adjectives ending in -ma (two syllables)

As said above, there is nothing special about adjectives ending in -ma compared to other adjectives ending in -a. For adjectives ending in -a (and, thus, in -ma), you just add -sti to the end of the corresponding adjective.

Examples

4.3. Adjectives ending in -a (consonant gradation)

Some adjectives ending in -a will have consonant gradation. You will add -sti to the weak form of the adjective. You can find the weak form by, for example, inflecting the word in the genitive or the T-plural case (e.g. tarkka : tarkan : tarkat : tarkasti). Especially interesting in this group are the words raaka (raa’asti) and arka (arasti).

Examples

4.4. Adjectives ending in -va (two syllables)

There is nothing special about these adjectives ending in -va compared to other adjectives ending in -a: just add -sti to the end of the word.

Examples

4.5. Adjectives ending in -va (three syllables)

Whether they’re short or long words, all adjectives ending in -a will have -sti added to the basic form. Again, I’m just dividing these adjectives up so this article is easier to read.

Examples

4.6. Adjectives ending in -a (three or more syllables)

Whether they’re short or long words, all adjectives ending in -a will have -sti added to the basic form. Again, I’m just dividing these adjectives up so this article is easier to read.

Examples

4.7. Adjectives ending in -ä (two syllables)

Adjectives ending in -ä don’t differ in any way from adjectives ending in -a. Note that the following table has both adjectives with and without consonant gradation. For words that undergo consonant gradation, you use the same weak stem you get in the genitive and T-plural form. For example, herkkä will be herkän in the genitive and herkät in the T-plural, so it will become herkästi.

Examples

4.8. Adjectives ending in -ä (three or more syllables)

There is no difference between this group and the previous: all adjectives ending in -ä will get -sti added to their basic form.

Examples

5. Adjectives ending in -ea/eä

Just like the previous section, I’ve created some arbitrary subgroups for adjectives ending in -ea/eä. In order to keep each table a manageable size. For all adjectives ending in -ea or -eä, you will add -sti straight to the end of the word.

5.1. Adjectives ending in -ea

Just add -sti to the end of the word’s basic form!

Examples

5.2. Adjectives ending in -kea

Adjective ending in -kea behave exactly the same as adjectives ending in -ea: add -sti to the end of the word.

Examples

5.3. Adjective ending in -eä

Just add -sti to the end of the word’s basic form!

Examples

5.4. Adjective ending in -keä

Another arbitrary group which doesn’t differ from the previous groups in any fashion: just add -sti to the end of the word’s basic form!

Examples

6. Adjectives ending in -e

For adjectives ending in -e, you will add another -e- before adding -sti. This is the same change words ending in -e undergo in, for example, the genitive and the T-plural cases (e.g. ahne : ahneen : ahneet : ahneesti)

Examples

7. Adjectives ending in -is

For adjectives ending in -is, the genitive and T-plural cases will once again guide you to change -is to -ii- before adding -sti (e.g. aulis : auliin : auliit : auliisti). Note how, if your adjective would have consonant gradation, you would need the strong form of the word (e.g. altis would become alttiisti but this word didn’t make it onto the list because it’s too rarely used).

Examples

8. Adjectives ending in -as/-äs

Note that I have divided adjectives ending in -as in several subgroups. This only serves the purpose of dividing quite a long list into several smaller groups. It doesn’t mean these groups are somehow different from one another!

8.1. Adjectives ending in -as/äs

Just like if you would be putting these adjectives in the genitive case, you will replace the -as at the end of the adjective with -aa-, after which you add -sti (e.g. runsas : runsaan : runsaasti).

Examples

8.2. Adjectives ending in -as (consonant gradation)

Words ending in -as belong to wordtype B, which means they will undergo consonant gradation. The basic form of words ending in -as will have a weak consonant, while the -sti adverb will have the corresponding strong consonant.

The -as at the end of the word will be replaced by -aa- before the -sti. You can compare the adverb to the genitive or T-plural cases (e.g. hidas : hitaan : hitaat : hitaasti).

Examples

8.3. Adjectives ending in -kas/käs

Just like the previous group, adjectives ending in -kas/käs will undergo consonant gradation: the -k- gets replaced with -kk-, followed by -aa- and then the stuffix -sti.

Examples

8.4. Adjectives ending in -lias/liäs

Just like if you would be putting these adjectives in the genitive case, you will replace the -as at the end of the adjective with -aa-, after which you add -sti (e.g. kohtelias : kohteliaan : kohteliaasti).

Examples

9. Adjectives ending in -ton/tön

Finnish has a large amount of adjectives ending in -ton/tön, which means I’ve opted once again for creating subgroups which don’t especially differ from one another but help break up the long tables into several smaller ones.

The suffix -ton creates an adjective that expresses a lack of something out of a noun. These words undergo quite a drastic change when they’re turned into adverbs, which can be compared to, for example, the genitive case. For example, the adjective loputon will become loputtoman in the genitive case, so you get loputtomasti through that model.

9.1. Adjectives ending in -ton

When your adjective ends in -ton, you will replace this element with -ttoma- followed by the adverb’s -sti.

Examples

9.2. Adjectives ending in -ton (based on nouns with consonant gradation)

From the perspective of the adverb, this group doesn’t differ in any way to the previous group of words ending in -ton. However, it can be interesting to look at the noun which the adjective is based on. The follow adjectives are based on a noun which has consonant gradation (e.g. ehto > ehdoton > ehdottomasti; loppu > loputon > loputtomasti).

Adding -sti to the end of the adjectives doesn’t have any effect on the first part of the word; it only requires us to change -ton into -ttoma- before adding -sti.

Examples

9.3. Adjectives ending in -eeton

These adjectives have -ee- in front of the suffix -ton. This is due to the noun these words are based on: each has a noun ending in -e in its core. This -e which turns into -ee- when you add -ton (e.g. moite > moitteeton > moitteettomasti; tarve > tarpeeton > tarpeettomasti).

Examples

9.4. Adjectives ending in -tön

There is zero difference between adjectives ending in -ton vs. -tön, but it allows me to break up these tables into smaller subsections. When your adjective ends in -tön, you will replace this element with -ttömä- followed by the adverb’s -sti.

Examples

9.5. Adjectives ending in -maton

Adjectives ending in -maton are based on a verb rather than an adjective. For example, huomaamaton is based on the verb huomata and arvaamaton is based on arvata.

Other than the difference in the base word, we change adjectives ending in -maton in exactly the same way as all adjectives ending in -ton: replace the -ton with –ttomasti. It is interesting to see, however, that this causes these adverbs to end in -mattomasti with a double -ma-. The first -ma- is part of the base word, while the second -ma- is part of the adverb.

Examples

9.6. Adjectives ending in -mätön

Adjectives ending in -mätön have the same origin as adjectives ending in –maton: they’re based on a verb. The only difference is vowel harmony (e.g. auttaa > auttaamaton vs. kärsiä > kärsimätön). Replace the -tön with -ttomä- before adding -sti.

Examples

10. Adjectives ending in -nen

Finnish has a very large number of adjectives ending in -nen. Thus, this is another group of adverbs into -sti that gets divided into multiple arbitrary groups which in practice don’t differ from each other at all. Bear with me because there are quite a lot of tables below for words ending in -nen!

We could summarize this whole lower section by saying that adjectives ending in -nen will get -nen replaced with -se- before the suffix -sti.

10.1. Adjectives ending in -ainen (three syllables)

Our first group of -sti adverbs ending in -nen consists of words based on an adjective ending in -ainen. Replace the -nen at the end of the word by -se- when adding -sti. This is the same change these words undergo in, for example, the genitive case and the comparative form (e.g. tasainen : tasaisen : tasaisempi : tasaisesti).

Examples

10.2. Adjectives ending in -ainen (four or more syllables)

This table has more adverbs ending in -ainen, which just happen to have more syllables than the previous group. For adverbs ending in -nen, you replace the -nen with -se- before adding -sti. This is the same change these words undergo in, for example, the genitive case and the comparative form (e.g. epätasainen : epätasaisen : epätasaisempi : epätasaisesti).

Examples

10.3. Adjectives ending in -äinen (three or four syllables)

Adjectives ending in -äinen and -ainen both get their final -nen replaced by -se- when adding -sti to the end. This is the same change these words undergo in, for example, the genitive case and the comparative form (e.g. itsenäinen : itsenäisen : itsenäisempi : itsenäisesti).

Examples

10.4. Adjectives ending in -äinen (four or more syllables)

These words as well get their final -nen replaced by -se- when adding -sti to the end. This is the same change these words undergo in, for example, the genitive case and the comparative form (e.g. salaperäinen : salaperäisen : salaperäisempi : salaperäisesti).

Examples

10.5. Adjectives ending in -aikainen 

These are all compound adjectives ending in -aikainen, which is based on the noun aika (time). Replace the final -nen replaced by -se- when adding -sti to the end. This is the same change these words undergo in, for example, the genitive and the T-plural (e.g. samanaikainen : samanaikaisen : samanaikaiset : samanaikaisesti).

Examples

10.6. Adjectives ending in -mukainen

These adverbs are all based on compound adjectives ending in -mukainen. Their base usage is to express that a thing conforms with something or is in accordance with something. Replace the final -nen by -se- when adding -sti to the end.

Examples

10.7. Adjectives ending in -mainen

Compound adjectives ending in -mainen often express that the thing they are describing is similar to the base word. As such, we could say that tavanomainen (based on the noun tapa “habit”) means “habit-like”, while räjähdysmäinen (based on the noun räjähdys “explosion”) means “explosion-like, similar to an explosion”. Replace -nen by -se- when turning this word into a -sti adverb.

Examples

10.8. Adjectives ending in -vainen

The following adverbs are based on adjectives ending in -vainen. In fact, we can analyze most of these words even further: they are all based on a verb (e.g. varoa, luottaa), which has been turned into a VA-participle (varova, luottava), which has been turned into an adjective (varovainen, luottavainen). Finnish has many more such adjectives (e.g. riippuvainen, auttavainen, taipuvainen), but most of these aren’t commonly turned into adverbs.

Replace -nen by –se- when turning these words into a -sti adverb!

Examples

10.9. Compound adjectives ending in -ainen

I have a very long article that goes into much detail concerning compound adjectives. The following table is long because I couldn’t see a neat way to divide these adverbs into two groups. Replace -nen by –se- when turning these words into a -sti adverb!

Examples

10.10. Adjectives ending in -einen

Replace -nen by -se- when turning these words into a -sti adverb! There’s nothing special about the origin of adjectives ending in -einen. Dividing them into a separate group just helps divide the bulk of this type of adverbs in smaller groups.

Examples

10.11. Adjectives ending in -ginen

These English adjectives will likely look familiar to English speakers! Some adjectives ending -gical have been adopted into Finnish with the ending -ginen. Replace -nen by -se- when turning these words into a -sti adverb! This is the same change these words undergo in, for example, the genitive and the T-plural (e.g. looginen : loogisen : loogiset : loogisesti).

Examples

10.12. Adjectives ending in -aalinen

Some English adjectives ending in -al have been adopted into Finnish as -aalinen. Replace -nen by -se- when turning these words into a -sti adverb! This is the same change these words undergo in, for example, the genitive case and the comparative form (e.g. sosiaalinen : sosiaalisen : sosiaalisempi : sosiaalisesti).

Examples

10.13. Adjectives ending in -allinen (shorter words)

These adjectives are all based on a two-syllable noun ending in -a (e.g. kirja “book”, rauha “peace” and vaara “danger”). Replace -nen by -se- when turning these words into -sti adverbs! This is the same change these words undergo in, for example, the genitive case and the comparative form (e.g. turvallinen : turvallisen : turvallisempi : turvallisesti).

Examples

10.14. Adjectives ending in -allinen (consonant gradation)

Just like the previous group, at the base of these adverbs is an adjective based on a two-syllable noun (e.g. tapa > tavallinen > tavallisesti). What sets this group apart from the previous is that the nouns in these words undergo consonant gradation. Replace -nen by -se- when turning these words into -sti adverbs!

Examples

10.15. Adjectives ending in -allinen (longer words)

Just like the previous group, most of these adjectives are based on an adjective, but this time the adjective has more than two syllables (e.g. kemia “chemistry” and asia “thing, matter”). Replace -nen by -se- when turning these words into -sti adverbs!

Examples

10.16. Adjectives ending in -illinen which are based on nouns ending in -i (new words)

The journey towards out adverb ending in -illinen starts with a noun (e.g. tyyppi “type” or esimerkki “example). These nouns are new words that end in -i (read more about old and new words ending in -i). When you make an adjective out of this type of noun, you will add -llinen to the end without changing the -i. You will need to pay attention to consonant gradation here. For example, musiikillinen is based on musiikki and laillinen is based on laki. Replace -nen by -se- when turning these adjectives into -sti adverbs!

Examples

10.17. Adjectives ending in -ellinen which are based on nouns ending in -i (old words)

Replace -nen by -se- when turning these adjectives into -sti adverbs!

At the very base of these adverbs lies an old noun ending in -i. Nouns ending in -i can belong to two different groups depending on how they inflect in the different cases: old words and new words. When the word is old, the final -i changes into -e when you put the word in the different cases. This same change also takes place when you create an adjective out of them. For example, kielellinen is based on kieli “language” and nimellinen is based on nimi “name”. The adjective täydellinen is based on another adjective: täysi. When the base adjective ends in -si, you will replace -si with -de-.

Examples

10.18. Adjectives ending in -ellinen which are based on nouns ending in -us/ys

At the base of each of these adverbs is a noun, which has been turned into an adjective. The base nouns all end in -us/ys. However, the table below contains two types of words ending in -us/ys: nouns that get “-us > -ukse-” and nouns to get -us > -ude-. This change also takes place when making an adjective out of the nouns. Click the link to find out more about the difference.

Replace -nen by -se- when turning these adjectives into -sti adverbs!

Examples

10.19. Adjectives ending in -eellinen which are based on nouns ending in -e

The following table contains adverbs which at their verb base have a noun ending in -e. For example, the nouns rakenne “structure”, alue “region” and tiede “science” have been turned into rakenteellinen “structural”, alueellinen “regional” and tieteellinen “scientific”.

Turn these adjectives into adverbs by replacing -nen with -se– before adding -sti.

Examples

10.20. Adjectives ending in -ollinen

Turn these adjectives into adverbs by replacing -nen with -se– before adding -sti.

Examples

10.21. Adjectives ending in -ullinen

Turn these adjectives into adverbs by replacing -nen with -se– before adding -sti.

Examples

10.22. Adjectives ending in -ttinen

For anyone who speaks English, the meaning of these words will be obvious. These are all loanwords, many of which will end in -ic or -ical in English. This table only contains such adjectives that are often turned into -sti adverbs. Note that this is a very common adjective type, so there are many more such adjectives (e.g. empaattinen, aristokraattinen, homeopaattinen, melodramaattinen), which are rarely turned into adverbs.

Replace -nen with -se– before adding -sti to make these adverbs!

Examples

10.23. Adjectives ending in -siivinen and -tiivinen

Just like the previous group, these adverbs are based on words that can be easily recognized by English speakers. They do not differ in any way from the previous group; they’re just in a separate table to make this article easier to read.

Replace -nen with -se– before adding -sti to create these adverbs!

Examples

10.24. Adjectives ending in -uinen

Replace -nen with -se– before adding -sti to create these adverbs!

Examples

10.25. More adjectives ending in -nen

Can you tell I’m running out of steam for descriptions of these groups? Below are even more adverbs based on adjectives ending in -nen. Replace -nen with -se- before adding -sti to create these adverbs!

Examples

11. Adjectives based on the VA-participle

The active present participle is referred to in Finnish as the VA-partisiippi because it ends in –va/vä. It’s based on a verb.

11.1. VA-participle based adjectives ending in -va

For words ending in -va (both participles and regular words like vakava), you just add -sti to the end of the word. This list only has adjectives that are based on verbtype 1 verbs (e.g. jatkua, sujua and toistua).

Examples

11.2. VA-participle based adjectives ending in -ttava/ttävä (verbtype 1)

The adjectives there adverbs are based on also come from verbs that belong to verbtype 1. Visually, these all have -ttava at the end because they are based on a verb ending in -ttaa (e.g. yllättää, riittää). Add -sti to the end of the adjective without making any changes.

Examples

11.3. VA-participle based adjectives ending in -vä

Due to vowel harmony, these verbs have -vä rather than -va in the present active participle. They do not differ in any way from the previous groups when adding the suffix -sti to them: just glue the suffix to the end of the word!

Examples

11.4. VA-participle based on verbtype 4 verbs

This arbitrarily divided group contains adverbs based on VA-participles of verbtype 4 verbs (e.g. vastata, seurata). You will just add -sti to the end of the VA-participle, like in the other groups of this section.

Examples

12. Adjectives based on the TAVA-participle

The passive present participle is referred to in Finnish as the TAVA-partisiippi (or the TTAVA-partisiippi) because it ends in -(t)tava or -(t)tävä. Add -sti to the end of the adjective to turn it into an adverb.

Examples

13. Adjectives ending in -nut/nyt

There are many adjectives that end in -nut/nyt, but they do not all lend themselves to be used as adjectives ending in -sti. My list is particularly short because most of the adverbs that could theoretically exist, do not get more than 50 000 search results in Google.

When making an adverb out of a verb-based adjective ending in -nut/nyt, you replace -nut/nyt with -nee- before adding -sti. This is the same change these words undergo if you were to inflect them in the genitive or T-plural case (e.g. onnistunut : onnistuneen : onnistuneet : onnistuneesti).

Examples

14. Adjectives based on the TU-participle

The TU-participle is also known as the past passive participle. When turning such adjectives into -sti adverbs, you will need to take consonant gradation into consideration. Add -sti to the weak stem of the word, which is the same stem you have in the genitive and T-plural cases (e.g. odotettu : odotetun : odotetut : odotetusti).

Examples

15. Adjectives belonging to uncommon word types

This group contains some word types that are quite uncommon. It is a good idea to compare these to the genitive case or the comparative form. For example, lyhyt becomes lyhyesti (compare: lyhyen, lyhyempi) and lämmin becomes lämpimästi (compare: lämpimän, lämpimämpi).

Examples

16. Adverbs based on numbers

Numbers can also be turned into -sti adverbs. The meaning of the number becomes “x times”. Numbers are very old words which have an irregular inflection in most cases. However, the trick of looking at the genitive the T-plural cases (e.g. kaksi : kahden : kahdet : kahdesti) works for these words as well.

Examples

These are all the adverbs ending in STI I decided to include in this article. Hopefully you get some use out of this article because it surely was a real pain to get this one ready for publishing. Happy studying everyone!

Related posts:

Juovuksissa Nukuksissa -UksissA(An) Adverbs Finnish Comparative and Superlative of Adverbs Adverbs of Location: Täällä, Kaikkialla, Ylhäällä Eri Pikku Rikki Viime Ensi Poikki – Indeclinable Words