The conjugation of the verb olla is exceptional in the third person. The
inflectional stem is formed by adding -e- (§23.4).
(minä) ole/n I am (me) ole/mme we are
(sinä) ole/t you are (te) ole/tte you are
hän on he/she is he o/vat they are
The ending -e- is dropped before the past tense ending -i- and also
before the conditional -isi- (§16.5).
Basic sentence structure 69
(minä) ol/i/n I was (me) ol/i/mme we were
(sinä) ol/i/t you were (te) ol/i/tte you were
hän ol/i he/she was he ol/i/vat they were
(minä) ol/isi/n I would be (me) ol/isi/mme we would be
(sinä) ol/isi/t you would be (te) ol/isi/tte you would be
hän ol/isi he/she would be he ol/isi/vat they would be
