5. infinitiivi <> The 5th Infinitive

If you're here to learn some useful Finnish grammar to apply to your everyday use of the Finnish language, move on. There's nothing for you here. I have never heard the 5th infinitive used in spoken Finnish.... or seen it used in written Finnish for that matter. I'm only putting it here because I don't want to leave anything out. The 5th infinitive looks like this:

Olin lähtemäisilläni ulos kun puhelin soi.                    --->               I was just about to go out when the phone rang.

Olin soittamaisillani sinulle kun soitit minulle.             --->               I was just about to call you when you called me.

So... let's take a closer look at this:

Olin lähte-mä-isi-llä-ni

Lähte-       The strong stem (vahva vartalo)

-mä-           The agent participle (agenttipartisiippi). You'll learn about that later.

-isi-             The conditional (Konditionaali)

-llä-             The adessive (Adessiivi)

-ni-              Possessive suffix (possessiivisuffiksi)


That's as clearly as anyone can explain it. You shouldn't try to use it unless your Finnish is at a very high level and you want to impress in an exam.