Infinitiivit <> The Infinitives
The 1st infinitive is the basic form of a verb. Don't confuse it with the nominative, which is the basic form of a noun, pronoun or adjective.
Please read this before you study the infinitives!
You'll have noticed I'm sure that they seem to be Although they are labelled as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th, infinitives, that's definitely NOT the best order to learn them in. I suggest that you learn them in this order:
The 3rd Infinitive
This is the most important to learn of all the infinitives. It's almost always the first one to be taught on any Finnish course. It's the first one to be introduced in most textbooks including Suomen Mestari and Hyvin Menee. It's important because usually up until the point that you learn the 3rd infinitive, you are taught that when you have 2 verbs, the second verb has to be in it's basic form. This is actually only sometimes the case. You will often have to put the second verb in the 3rd infinitive form.
The 1st Infinitive: Long form
This is not as important to know as the 3rd infinitive but it's very useful and it's also the easiest of the 5 infinitives to form. That's not just my opinion, it's logically correct. I suggest that you check this section out, because it's a useful thing to know and you can learn it in just a few minutes.
The 2nd Infinitive
This one is definitely more complicated than the 2 above. It's important to learn, or at least to recognise, if you want to learn to understand Finnish. You can get by in speaking and writing without it, simply by using the word kun. Don't jump into this one too early. If you don't understand, go back. Taking on too much at once will cause you to forget important things that you've learnt before and confuse the different grammatical forms and cases.
The 4th Infinitive
You already know how to form this one. It looks exactly the same as the verb's noun form (the one that ends with -minen). However, it's used in a different way which is explained in that section. This one is not that important. It's rarely used in speech or text. However, you might want to check this section out just so that you know how this form is used, because if you see it used in a piece of text and you think that it's the noun form of the verb rather than the 4th infinitive, the sentence won't make any sense.
The 5th Infinitive
For some reason it's often said that there are 4 infinitives in the Finnish language. I suppose it's because this one is so very rarely used and has such a complex formation that teachers simply don't see the point in teaching it. And they have a point. I have never seen it used in any piece of text. I've certainly never heard it used in speech. Read this section ONLY if you have mastered all Finnish grammar up to this point, and you want to impress your friends. One day, you may see this form written down, and none of your fellow students have a clue what they're looking at, and you get to be the one to explain it step by step and be the class genius.... It hasn't happened for me yet in the year or so since I learned this, but you never know.
Please read this before you study the infinitives!
You'll have noticed I'm sure that they seem to be Although they are labelled as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th, infinitives, that's definitely NOT the best order to learn them in. I suggest that you learn them in this order:
The 3rd Infinitive
This is the most important to learn of all the infinitives. It's almost always the first one to be taught on any Finnish course. It's the first one to be introduced in most textbooks including Suomen Mestari and Hyvin Menee. It's important because usually up until the point that you learn the 3rd infinitive, you are taught that when you have 2 verbs, the second verb has to be in it's basic form. This is actually only sometimes the case. You will often have to put the second verb in the 3rd infinitive form.
The 1st Infinitive: Long form
This is not as important to know as the 3rd infinitive but it's very useful and it's also the easiest of the 5 infinitives to form. That's not just my opinion, it's logically correct. I suggest that you check this section out, because it's a useful thing to know and you can learn it in just a few minutes.
The 2nd Infinitive
This one is definitely more complicated than the 2 above. It's important to learn, or at least to recognise, if you want to learn to understand Finnish. You can get by in speaking and writing without it, simply by using the word kun. Don't jump into this one too early. If you don't understand, go back. Taking on too much at once will cause you to forget important things that you've learnt before and confuse the different grammatical forms and cases.
The 4th Infinitive
You already know how to form this one. It looks exactly the same as the verb's noun form (the one that ends with -minen). However, it's used in a different way which is explained in that section. This one is not that important. It's rarely used in speech or text. However, you might want to check this section out just so that you know how this form is used, because if you see it used in a piece of text and you think that it's the noun form of the verb rather than the 4th infinitive, the sentence won't make any sense.
The 5th Infinitive
For some reason it's often said that there are 4 infinitives in the Finnish language. I suppose it's because this one is so very rarely used and has such a complex formation that teachers simply don't see the point in teaching it. And they have a point. I have never seen it used in any piece of text. I've certainly never heard it used in speech. Read this section ONLY if you have mastered all Finnish grammar up to this point, and you want to impress your friends. One day, you may see this form written down, and none of your fellow students have a clue what they're looking at, and you get to be the one to explain it step by step and be the class genius.... It hasn't happened for me yet in the year or so since I learned this, but you never know.
