Appendix:Finnish participles

Finnish has six types of participles which are treated like adjectives and can e.g. appear in both attributive and predicative positions.

Present participles
Present participles (also called "first participles" or "participles type I", particularly in older grammars) have two forms: active and passive. The literal meaning of present active participles is "which does X" and of present passive participles is "which has X being done to it".

Present passive participles can be further used to mean "which is to be X". They can also mean "which can be X", although that is more commonly expressed by taking the present passive participle, inflecting it into the plural inessive case (adessive plural for some verbs, like ) and then using it like an adverb (or as an adjective with ).

Many Finnish adjectives are etymologically present participles, such as, from.

Finnish present participles are used to form the present and past "prospective" tenses, which are restricted to formal or literary language.

Past participles
Past participles (also called "second participles" or "participles type II", particularly in older grammars) are similar to present participles in that they have two forms; active and passive. The literal meaning of past active participles is "which did or has done X" and of past passive participles is "which had or has has X done to it".

Finnish past participles are also used for building some compound forms, such as the negative for the indicative past tense, as well as perfect and past perfect tense forms for all moods. Whether the active past participle or the passive past participle is used depends on the voice (active or passive). The active past participles of intransitive verbs and passive past participles of transitive verbs also have an adjectival sense; many Finnish adjectives are actually past participles.

Agent participles
Agent participles are only used for transitive verbs, i.e. verbs that can take an object. They are used to form participial phrases with the literal meaning "which someone does X or did X". Agent participles are used like adjectives, and chiefly used with either a possessive suffix or a subject in the genitive case (placed before the participle). Agent participles do not distinguish between tense or aspect.

Negative participles
Negative participles are used as adjectives and act as negative forms of any of the present or past participles, but most commonly for the passive participles (e.g. "which does not have X done to them", "which did not have X done to them"). The exact interpretation often depends on context.

Relative clauses
Each of the six types of participles can be replaced by a relative clause.



Participle constructs

 * + present active participle: shall
 * genitive + + passive present participle: have to, must
 * + past active/passive participle: perfect/pluperfect tense
 * verb of realization or awareness + genitive singular of a present participle + possessive suffix: ...X will/would...
 * the inessive plural form of a past passive participle: that can be X-ed, -able, -ible (used adverbially; for attributive use)
 * the adessive is used with some verbs, particularly ones denoting location: &rarr;
 * the inessive plural form of a negative participle: that cannot be X-ed, un-...-able, un-...-ible (used adverbially; for attributive use)
 * the inessive plural form of a past passive participle: that can be X-ed, -able, -ible (used adverbially; for attributive use)
 * the adessive is used with some verbs, particularly ones denoting location: &rarr;
 * the inessive plural form of a negative participle: that cannot be X-ed, un-...-able, un-...-ible (used adverbially; for attributive use)
 * the inessive plural form of a negative participle: that cannot be X-ed, un-...-able, un-...-ible (used adverbially; for attributive use)

The next three are kinds of absolute constructs, alongside infinitive constructs:


 * verbs of observation or apparent quality + genitive of the present active/passive participle (+ possible possessive suffix): to appear to be doing (present "referative construct")
 * verbs of observation or apparent quality + genitive of the past active/passive participle (+ possible possessive suffix): to appear to have done (past "referative construct")
 * partitive singular of the past passive participle (+ possible possessive suffix): having done ... (past "temporal construct")
 * verbs of observation or apparent quality + genitive of the past active/passive participle (+ possible possessive suffix): to appear to have done (past "referative construct")
 * partitive singular of the past passive participle (+ possible possessive suffix): having done ... (past "temporal construct")
 * verbs of observation or apparent quality + genitive of the past active/passive participle (+ possible possessive suffix): to appear to have done (past "referative construct")
 * partitive singular of the past passive participle (+ possible possessive suffix): having done ... (past "temporal construct")
 * partitive singular of the past passive participle (+ possible possessive suffix): having done ... (past "temporal construct")
 * partitive singular of the past passive participle (+ possible possessive suffix): having done ... (past "temporal construct")
 * partitive singular of the past passive participle (+ possible possessive suffix): having done ... (past "temporal construct")

Inflection
All participles are fully inflectable nominals.
 * Present participles (both active and passive ) and agent participles  belong to inflection type 10 (koira).
 * Past active participles belong to their own inflection type, type 47 (kuollut).
 * Past passive participles belong to inflection type 1 (valo), possibly with gradation.
 * Negative participles belong to inflection type 34 (onneton), with gradation.