apuverbi

Apuverbi is the Finnish term for an auxiliary verb, a verb that combines with a main verb to express tense, aspect, mood, voice or negation rather than carrying the primary lexical meaning. In Finnish grammar apuverbit are used to form periphrastic constructions such as the perfect and pluperfect, to mark modality, to create passive or causative meanings, and to construct negation.

A common example is olla “to be” as an auxiliary in the perfect: olen kirjoittanut (“I have written”). Modal auxiliaries include voida (“can”), täytyä or pitää (“must/ought to”), and saada (“to get/let, used in causative constructions”); e.g. voit lukea (“you can read”). The negative auxiliary ei is inflected for person (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät) and combines with a connegative form of the main verb to express negation (en kirjoita “I do not write”).

Apuverbit differ from pääverbit (main verbs) in that the main verb often appears in a non-finite or reduced form (infinitive, participle, or connegative) when used with an auxiliary. Some auxiliaries derive historically from full lexical verbs and retain independent meanings in other contexts. Usage and classification vary among sources: some analyses restrict the term to tense and aspect auxiliaries, while others include modals, causatives and the negative verb. In a broader linguistic context, apuverbi corresponds to the cross-linguistic category of auxiliary verbs.