Manipulating verb phrases

Manipulating a verb phrase

Creating a verb phrase gives you just a boring prototypical verb phrase. However, the expressive power of Finnish goes far beyond that. There are some neat methods that you can use to produce more interesting phrases. Note: these methods might not work with each other in a random order, but they should however work if they are applied in the order of appearance on this page.

Adding another verb

You can add "an auxiliary verb" to a verb phrase easily with the method add_auxiliary_verb_to_vp(vp, aux). Here aux is one of the verbs (as string) that are listed in syntax_maker.auxiliary_verbs. Let's say that you have a vp that outputs syön ruokaa. Calling add_auxiliary_verb_to_vp(vp, "voida") would modify the output of the vp to voin syödä ruokaa.

The passive voice

The passive voice is achieved by turn_vp_into_passive(vp). For instance: "poika juoksee kotiin" -> "juostaan kotiin"

No means no. Forming a negation

Use negate_verb_pharse(vp) For instance: "näen taulun" -> "en näe taulua"

The prefect

turn_vp_into_prefect(vp) For instance: "kone sammuu" -> "kone on sammunut"

Mood and tense:

set_vp_mood_and_tense(vp, mood, tense). The possible moods are "INDV", ("IMPV", "OPT"), "COND" and "POTN". And tenses "PRESENT" and "PAST".

Forming a question

turn_vp_into_question(vp) forms a simple yes or no question. For instance: "syöt pizzaa" -> "syötkö pizzaa"