aikamuotoa

Aikamuoto (tense) is a grammatical category that locates an event or state in time relative to the moment of speaking or to a reference moment. In Finnish grammar, the finite verb forms encode the basic time values and how the event relates to the present moment.

Finnish traditionally distinguishes two core times in the finite system: present (preesens) and past (imperfekti). In addition, completed actions are expressed with the perfect and pluperfect via auxiliaries: the present perfect (perfekti) and the past perfect (pluskvamperfekti), formed with the auxiliary olla and a past participle, for example olen syönyt (I have eaten) and olin syönyt (I had eaten). A separate future tense does not exist as a distinct finite form; future time is usually conveyed by the present tense with time adverbs or by periphrastic constructions such as tule + infinitive: tulen syömään (I will eat).

Finnish also employs mood forms that interact with time but are not strictly tense in the narrow sense. The conditional (ehdollinen) and the potential (potentiaali) express hypothetical or probable meaning and can affect the time frame of reference when combined with other tenses. Aspect—whether an action is viewed as completed (perfective) or ongoing (imperfective)—often interacts with tense to clarify temporal meaning, though aspect is a distinct layer of meaning in Finnish verb conjugation.

Examples illustrate the main forms: minä syön (I eat / I am eating), minä söin (I ate), minä olen syönyt (I have eaten), minä olin syönyt (I had eaten), minä tulen syömään (I will eat). Through these forms, aikamuotoa provides the temporal framework for Finnish clauses.