There are two ways of forming new words from existing words and stems:
derivation and compounding. In derivation, new words (word stems) are
made by adding derivative endings or suffixes to the root or to another stem.
To the adjective kaunis : kaunii- ‘beautiful’, for instance, we can add the
ending -ta to form the derived verb stem kaunis/ta- ‘beautify’ (first infinitive
kaunis/ta/a). In the same way we can take the verb stem aja- ‘drive’, and add
the ending -o to form the derived noun aj/o ‘drive, chase, hunt’, or the ending
-ele- to form the verb stem aj/ele- ‘drive around’ (first infinitive aj/el/la).
Derivative suffixes occur immediately after the root but before the
inflectional endings, i.e. before number and case endings in nominals, before
passive, tense, mood and personal endings in finite verb forms, and before the
infinitive and participle endings in non-finite verb forms. (See the diagrams
in Chapter 3.)
Derived nominals and verbs inflect just like non-derived ones. Derived
words are subject to the same sound alternations as other words, in particular
consonant gradation (§15) and the vowel changes (§16).
Adding derivative suffixes may cause sound alternations in the root: e.g.
kaunii- : kaune/us and aja- : aj/ele-. In what follows these alternations will
be evident from the examples, and separate rules will not be given. There
may also be alternations in the derivative suffixes themselves when further
suffixes are added.
It is characteristic of Finnish that a given word form may contain many
derivative suffixes, one after the other. Below are some examples. The (non-
derived) root is given on the left, the derived word in the middle, and the
‘basic’ or full forms of the derivative suffixes on the right.
232 Finnish: An Essential Grammar
Stem Derived word Derivative suffixes
(basic forms)
aja- aj/ele/minen driving about ele-minen
asee- asee/llis/ta- arm (verb) llinen-ta
asee- asee/llis/ta/minen arming (noun) llinen-ta-minen
aja- aj/ele/hti- drift ele-hti
aja- aj/ele/hti/va drifting (adj.) ele-hti-va
lika- lika/is/uus dirtiness inen-uus
koti- kodi/ttom/uus homelessness ton(ttoma)-uus
kuole- kuole/ma/ttom/uus immortality ma-ton(ttoma)-uus
etsi- etsi/skel/y search (noun) skele-y
haukkaa- hauka/hd/us yelp (noun) hta-us
haukkaa- hauka/ht/el/u yelping (noun) hta-ele-u
asu- asu/nno/ttom/uus without a house nto-ton(ttoma)-uus
tuo- tuo/tta/ma/ttom/uus unproductiveness tta-ma-ton(ttoma)-uus
Not all derivative suffixes are equally productive. Some are extremely
productive, which means they can be added to practically all roots that belong
to a given type. Examples are the suffixes -ja ~ -jä ‘agent’, -minen ‘verbal
noun’ and -ma/ton ~ -mä/tön ‘not’, cf. aja/ja ‘driver’, aja/minen ‘driving’,
aja/ma/ton ‘undriven’; tuli/ja ‘comer’, tule/minen ‘coming’, tule/ma/ton
‘not coming, not come’; meni/jä ‘goer’, mene/minen ‘going’, mene/mä/tön
‘not going, not gone’, etc.
Other suffixes occur primarily or exclusively with certain roots, and are
thus more or less unproductive.
