I couldn't find a source describing the big picture, so here is my simplified effort. No, it still isn't simple, just simplified. From a linguistic point of view I took some shortcuts as in real world you don't really need to know the whole theory. Let it work as your compass, when you get lost in the woods of conjugations, declinations and - MUSHROOMS! Also, as a beginner you will need only few cases and conjugations to be able to produce sentences. However, comprehending how to locate all those unknown forms on a grammar map will help you later on, even if you don't remember the terms. The structure isn't as random as it first seems to be, but do accept the fact, that you will keep making errors for as long as you haven't learnt all conjugations and stems (even native speakers do).
Part of speech is the category to which a word is assigned in accordance with its syntactic function.
Finnish parts of speech are nouns, verbs and particles.
Nominit (nouns) - any part of speech that can be inflected using grammatical numbers (singular, plural) and noun cases. What makes it even trickier is that nouns have stems (the stem of a word is the part to which inflectional endings are affixed):
- substantiivit (substantives)
- adjektiivit (adjectives) - a word or phrase naming an attribute, added to or grammatically related to a noun to modify or describe it; in Finnish adjectives follow number and case, but also have comparative forms
- numeraalit (numerals) - including ordinal numbers
- pronominit (pronouns)
- nominatiivi (nominative) - the basic form; used for the subject of a verb
- genetiivi (genitive) - indicates possession or close association
- akkusatiivi (accusative) - expresses the object of an action or the goal of motion
- partitiivi (partitive) - refers to only a part of a whole
- inessiivi (inessive)
- elatiivi (elative)
- illatiivi (illative)
- adessiivi (adessive)
- ablatiivi (ablative)
- allatiivi (allative)
- essiivi (essive) - carries the meaning of temporary location or state f being, often equivalent to the English "as a (child)"
- eksessiivi (excessive) - only dialectal case
- translatiivi (translative) - indicates a change in state of a noun, with the general sense of "becoming something"
- instruktiivi (instructive) - "by means of", comparatively rarely used
- abessiivi (abessive) - expresses the lack of absence of the marked noun
- komitatiivi (comitative) - denotes accompaniment
Verbit (verbs) - a word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence, and forming the main part of the predicate of a sentence. Finnish verbs are usually divided into seven groups depending on the stem type. All seven types have the same set of endings, but the stems undergo different changes when inflected. There are very few irregular verbs in Finnish.
Finnish verbs follow four
tenses:
- preesens (present) - corresponds to English present and future tense forms (I eat)
- imperfekti (imperfect) - corresponds to English past continous and poast simple (I ate)
- perfekti (perfect) - corresponds to English present perfect (I have eaten)
- pluskvamperfekti (pluperfect) - corresponds to the English past perfect (I had eaten)
Finnish verbs have moods (optative and eventive are archaic/poetic forms and not in an active use, so they are not on a following list):
- indikatiivi (indicative) - used for making statements or asking simple questions
- konditionaali (conditional) - the action or state expressed by the verb may or may not actually happen; also used in a polite sentences in Finnish
- imperatiivi (imperative) - used to express commands
- potentiaali (potential) - used to express that the action or state expressed by the verb is likely but not certain
Finnish verbs also have
voices:
- active singular first person - expressing I do
- active singular second person - you do
- active singular third person - he/she/it does
- active plural first person - we do
- active plural second person - you 'people' do
- active plural third person - they do
- passive - is done
To make it even more complicated, there are all kind of participles (verbal adjectives) and infinitives, but let's just call that the grey area on a grammar map at this point.
Grammatical particles are the simplest, for they don't inflect (mostly) at all. They are function words which must be associated with another words or phrases to impart meaning:
- konjunktiot (conjunctions) - connects words, sentences, phrases or clauses
- interjektiot (interjections) - exclamation that expresses and emotion or sentiment on the part of the speaker
- post- ja prepositiot (post- and prepositions) - word governing a noun or pronoun and expressing a relation to another word or element in the clause
- adverbit (adverbs) - a word or phrase that modifies or qualifies an adjective, verb, or other adverb or a word-group, expressing a relation of place, time, circumstance, manner, cause, degree, etc.
- liitepartikkelit (clitics) - get added behind the other case endings; the meaning of a suffix always depends on the situation and many of these endings do not have a translation in other languages
