Konjugaatio

Konjugaatio, or conjugation, is the inflectional variation of verbs to express grammatical categories such as person, number, tense, mood and voice. In many languages verb forms change through endings, stem changes or both. Conjugation patterns are typically regular (predictable) or irregular (unpredictable). Some languages rely mainly on affixes attached to the verb stem, while others use auxiliary constructions to express time or aspect.

In Finnish linguistics, konjugaatio refers to the system by which a verb is shaped to indicate who performs the action and when, among other features. Finnish verbs are conjugated for person and number in finite forms and for mood and tense in several major forms. The language is agglutinative, with endings attached to a stem; vowel harmony and consonant gradation can influence the exact suffix. Finnish verbs belong to multiple conjugation classes or types, often described as 11 main types, each with characteristic stem changes and suffix patterns. This leads to a large set of paradigms, including present, past (imperfect), conditional, potential, and various passive and imperative forms.

A concrete example is the verb kirjoittaa, “to write.” In present tense: minä kirjoitan, sinä kirjoitat, hän kirjoittaa, me kirjoitamme, te kirjoitatte, he kirjoittavat. Imperfect (past): kirjoitin, kirjoitit, kirjoitti, kirjoitimme, kirjoititte, kirjoittivat. Konditionaali (conditional): kirjoittaisin, kirjoittaisit, kirjoittaisi, kirjoittaisimme, kirjoittaisitte, kirjoittaisivat. The present passive is kirjoitetaan, and the past passive is kirjoitettiin. Imperatiivi: kirjoita (sing.), kirjoittakaa (pl.).

Konjugaatio thus describes the systematic pattern by which verbs are adapted to express grammatical meaning, varying across languages and shaping how learners approach verb forms.