Virkkeet

Virkkeet (singular virke) is the Finnish term for sentences, the primary units of written and spoken discourse that convey a complete meaning or propositional content. In grammar, virkkeet comprise one or more clauses and are categorized by communicative function—declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamative—as well as by clause structure, such as simple, compound, and complex sentences.

Typical Finnish sentence structure includes a predicate (a finite verb) and often a subject and objects, but word order is relatively flexible because grammatical relations are marked by case endings rather than strict position. Finnish is an agglutinative language: verbs and nouns take affixes for tense, mood, person, number, and case, which affects sentence construction and agreement. A notable feature is the negative verb (ei) that expresses negation together with the main verb’s non-finite form or person-marked forms.

Subordinate clauses are introduced by conjunctions or relative markers and can function as complements, adverbials, or modifiers. Participial constructions and nominalizations are commonly used for clause chaining and compact expression. Punctuation in written Finnish follows standard conventions: period, question mark, and exclamation mark terminate sentences; commas separate clauses and items in lists.

Stylistically, virkkeet vary by register: formal writing favors longer, syntactically complex sentences, while spoken language and informal texts often use shorter, elliptical constructions. Understanding virkkeet is central to studying Finnish syntax, discourse structure, and pragmatic usage.