All six types have the same set of personal endings, but the stems assume different suffixes and undergo (slightly) different changes when inflected.
Tables of conjugation are given here for the regular verb, of type I puhua (to speak), as used in the formal, written language.
The first person plural imperative puhukaamme sounds rather formal and archaic so in everyday speech, the passive present indicative, puhutaan, is used instead, but it may not quite be considered correct.
In the passive or third person, the imperative is sometimes used for the present or perfect subjunctive of other languages, a mood lacking in Finnish.
Despite the apparently equivalent use of the present participle, the grammatical aspect of these tenses is prospective rather than continuous or progressive as in English.
In Finnish there are five infinitive forms,[2] with past and present participles for both active and passive voices.
With vowel stems that consist of a single open syllable ending in a long vowel or a diphthong or longer stems that end in such syllables, (Type II), the infinitive suffix is -da/-dä: saa-da = 'to get', syö-dä = 'to eat', reagoi-da = 'to react'.
It can be used in a sentence similarly to the English infinitive and stand for a subject or a direct object, without any additional inflection.
It has a so-called "long form", with the ending of the nominal translative case and an obligatory possessive suffix.
It connotes either extent or intent: In spoken Finnish, intent is often expressed with the short form infinitive if the subject is implicit or understood by context or more explicitly with a subordinate clause containing a conditional verb: että minä muistaisin.
The illative of the third infinitive is a common inchoative, governed by such verbs as ruveta and joutua: The elative is used in the sense of forbidding or discouraging an action.
Here is how tietää conjugates in the present indicative: The personal endings are -n, -t, -(doubled final vowel), -mme, -tte, -vat.
In the simple case (which applies to most type I verbs), the imperfect indicative is formed by inserting the characteristic marker i between the stem and the personal endings, which are the same as in the present tense except that the vowel does not double in the third person singular: However, the insertion of the i often has an effect on the stem.
The stem is formed by removing da with no vowel doubling in the third person singular: juon, juot, juo, juomme, juotte, juovat.
The stem is formed by removing the a and its preceding consonant, and e followed is added, followed by the personal endings: menen, menet, menee, menemme, menette, menevät.
Most commonly, type IV verbs end with ata/ätä, ota/ötä, uta/ytä, but other vowels are possible: tavata = 'to meet', pilkata = 'to mock', vastata = 'to answer', haluta = 'to want', tarjota = 'to offer'.
The indicative stem may be obtained by dropping the final a and adding -se: tarvitsen, tarvitset, tarvitsee, tarvitsemme, tarvitsette, tarvitsevat.
-si takes the place of -se, but in the third-person singular, there is only one vowel: tarvitsin, tarvitsit, tarvitsi, tarvitsimme, tarvitsitte, tarvitsivat.
However, it is a fairly common route for turning adjectives into verbs: kylmä = 'cold', kylmetä = 'to get cold'.
The root of the word 'juosta' = 'to run' is juoks-; when generating the infinitive, the pattern ks → s is applied: juoks+ta → juosta.
There is a rare pattern with a stem with -k- rendered as -hdä in the infinitive but disappearing in gradation: That is, teke- and näke- forms are rendered as tehdä and nähdä in the infinitive but are subject to gradation of 'k' in personal forms like teen.