The agent construction is a way of contracting relative clauses, i.e. those
beginning with joka, mikä ‘who, which’; in most cases these clauses then
become premodifiers, with the verb functioning as an adjective and the
subject (the agent) appearing e.g. in the genitive.
Relative clause Agent construction
auto, jonka Kalle osti Kalle/n osta/ma auto
the car that Kalle bought the car bought by Kalle
208 Finnish: An Essential Grammar
auto, jonka (minä) ostin (minu/n) osta/ma/ni auto
the car that I bought the car bought by me
The following rule applies to the verb of the agent construction.
The verb of the agent construction
(a) usually indicates past time;
(b) is formed from the ending -ma ~ -mä, added to the inflectional stem
(§76.1);
(c) functions like a normal adjective, inflecting for number and all
cases (§31).
Point (a) of the rule means that the verb of the construction may
correspond to any of the tenses indicating past time (past tense, perfect,
pluperfect).
Kalle/n osta/ma auto (a) the car which Kalle bought
(b) the car which Kalle has bought
(c) the car which Kalle had bought
Point (b) means that the verb is formed in the same way as the stem of the
third infinitive (cf. §76.1).
Infinitive Third person Verb form in
singular -ma ~ -mä
anta/a give anta/a anta/ma
vetä/ä pull vetä/ä vetä/mä
kaivat/a long for kaipaa kaipaa/ma
määrät/ä order määrää määrää/mä
syö/dä eat syö syö/mä
valit/a choose valitse/e valitse/ma
mainit/a mention mainitse/e mainitse/ma
Point (c) means that the forms in -ma ~ -mä behave in the sentence like
adjectives and are subject to the rules of concor(§31).
sininen auto the blue car
Kallen osta/ma auto the car Kalle bought
sinise/n auto/n of the blue car
Kallen osta/ma/n auto/n of the car Kalle bought
sinise/ssä auto/ssa in the blue car
Kallen osta/ma/ssa auto/ssa in the car Kalle bought
Participles 209
sinise/t auto/t the blue cars
Kallen osta/ma/t auto/t the cars Kalle bought
sinis/i/llä auto/i/lla with the blue cars
Kallen osta/m/i/lla auto/i/lla with the cars Kalle bought
The agent in this construction corresponds to the subject of the relative clause
(i.e. Kalle in the examples above), and is expressed according to the same
rules that apply to the subject in the temporal construction (§83).
The agent is expressed:
(a) by a possessive suffix alone, if it is the same as the corresponding
constituent in the main clause (generally the subject);
(b) by an independent word in the genitive, if it is different from the
corresponding constituent in the main clause;
(c) by the genitive forms of personal pronouns (minun, etc.), always
followed by a possessive suffix (unstressed first and second
personal pronouns may be omitted).
Tuula/n hankki/ma vene maksoi 1 000 mk.
The boat Tuula got cost 1,000 marks.
(Minun) hankki/ma/ni vene maksoi 1 000 mk.
The boat I got cost 1,000 marks.
Tuula istuu hankki/ma/ssa/an veneessä.
Tuula is sitting in the boat she got.
Istun hankki/ma/ssa/ni veneessä.
I am sitting in the boat I got.
Miksi ette aja hankki/ma/lla/nne veneellä?
Why don’t you go (‘drive’) in the boat you got?
Hankki/ma/mme veneet eivät maksaneet paljon.
The boats we got didn’t cost much.
Poik/i/en hankki/ma/t veneet ovat mukavia.
The boats the boys got are nice.
Hän ajaa Tuula/n hankki/ma/lla veneellä.
He is going in the boat Tuula got.
Particular attention should be paid to expressions such as the following,
wher the agent construction does not correspond directly to a relative
clause.
210 Finnish: An Essential Grammar
Ehdotus on Virtase/n esittä/mä.
The proposal was put forward by Virtanen.
Tämä runo on Saarikoske/n kirjoitta/ma.
This poem was written by Saarikoski.
Nämä runot ovat Saarikoske/n kirjoitta/ma/t ~ kirjoitta/m/i/a.
These poems were written by Saarikoski.
Kene/n kirjoitta/m/i/a nämä runot ovat?
By whom were these poems written?
