Necessity sentences most typically express that someone must do something. The two necessity verbs you are probably the most familiar with are täytyä and pitää. I have a whole separate article with the basics of necessity sentences here. The purpose of this article is to zone in on how to form necessity sentences in spoken language. In addition, I also have an article that goes over the different tenses these necessity verbs can be in.

The focus of this article is on necessity sentences in spoken language.

1. Personal pronouns in spoken Finnish

First, in addition to verbs, you will also need personal pronouns to express who must do something.

Note that depending on the dialect, you will hear other versions for the plural forms which are very regional:

• meidän: meiän, meijän, meijä, meitin, meen, mein, meän, mejän, meirän, meilän
  
• teidän: teiän, teijän, teijä, tein, teitin, teirän, teilän
  
• heidän: niiden, niitten, heiän, heijän, heijä, hein, heitin, heirän, heilän

My list is far from complete, but it gives you an idea of the variation found.

2. Mun tarvitsee, mun tarvii and mun tarttee

The first little difference between standard and colloquial Finnish is that, in course books for learning Finnish, you will generally find the verb täytyä (e.g. Minun täytyy lähteä) more commonly than pitää (e.g. Minun pitää lähteä). This is likely done because the verb pitää has so many other meanings in addition to expressing necessity. However, in spoken Finnish, you will hear pitää and tarvita more often than täytyä.

In Finnish courses, you will usually be taught that the verb tarvita is only used in negative necessity sentences. For example, if we make “Minun täytyy nukkua” negative, you will say “Minun ei tarvitse nukkua.” Your teacher will probably correct you, if you write “Minun tarvitsee nukkua“, because this is incorrect according to the standard rules for “proper” Finnish.

However, in spoken Finnish, you will find the verb tarvita also in positive affirmative sentences. The most common are the following forms:

• Mun tarvitsee mennä.
• Mun tarvii mennä.
• Mun tarttee mennä.

2.1. Mun tarvitsee mennä

The form tarvitsee is the proper conjugation third person singular present tense conjugation of the verb tarvita. In written Finnish, it’s only used to express that you need an object.

In spoken Finnish, you will also find tarvitsee in necessity sentences. These express that you must do something. In standard Finnish, you cannot use the verb tarvita in this context.

2.2. Mun tarvii mennä

The form tarvii is not part of standard Finnish at all, but very common in colloquial Finnish. We can make sentences with this form both to express needing a thing and needing to do something.

The form tarvii is considered to be the conjugated from of the dialectic verb tarvia (rather than from the standard Finnish verb tarvita). This verb has been used historically in certain South-East dialects of Finland, though it has spread from there.

2.3. Mun tarttee mennä

The form tarttee is also not part of standard Finnish at all. We can make sentences with this form both to express needing a thing and needing to do something. Note that usually, these verb forms don’t undergo consonant gradation, so you always have two t’s. Some native speakers might drop one t but it’s not widespread as far as I know.

The form tarttee comes from “tarvitsee”, which in certain Western Finnish dialects becomes “tarvittee“. This has been shortened in spoken Finnish to tarttee. I feel that this also explains why there is no consonant gradation: tarttee and ei tartte both have two t’s.

2.4. In negative sentences

We can of course also conjugate tarvitsee, tarvii and tarttee in negative sentences. Note that for tarvii, the negative form can be both “ei tarvii” and “ei tarvi“. This just depends on the dialect and the speaker.

2.5. In other tenses

We can also conjugate these spoken language forms into the different tenses. You can read more about the conjugation of the written forms in this article.

3. Some example sentences

As you can see in the examples below, I’ve changed more than just the verb and the personal pronoun in the following sentences. I have opted to include some especially common colloquial Finnish vowel and consonant sound changes in the examples. These changes are not the exact same in every dialect of Finnish. For example, the letter -d- can disappear from odottaa, but in another dialect it could be orottaa instead. These are changes you should become aware of as you learn to speak more colloquially.

You definitely should check out this video from Kielibuusti on YouTube!

Related posts:

The Passive Present Participle – TAVA-Participle Expressing Necessity with a Passive Participle – On Mentävä, On Odotettava Necessity Conjugation: Minun täytyi – Minun olisi pitänyt Täytyy Sentence Types – Syntax of Necessity Sentences