The first infinitive is hardly ever used in the passive form, but the active form may be used with a passive verb or in sentences where our idiom would use the passive infinitive. Rautatie aiotaan rakentaa, the railway is meant to be built or there is an intention to build the railway. Linnoitus voidaan ottaa, the fortress can be taken.
The infinitive cannot be used with a negative on account of the peculiar character of the Finnish negative verb. For the various devices used to overcome this difficulty vide pages [193] and [219].
Infinitive II.
This infinitive is only employed in two cases, the inessive and the instructive.
(1) The inessive expresses an action coincident in time with the action of the principal verb, and must be rendered in English by a temporal sentence, the subject of which appears in Finnish as a genitive, but where the subject of the principal and subordinate sentences are the same in English, the infinitive takes a pronominal suffix. Palvelijan tullessa kotiin, isäntä läksi metsään, when the servant came home, the master went into the wood, or literally ‘on the coming home of the servant.’ Abraham teidän isänne iloitsi nähdessänsä minun päivääni (S. John viii. 56), your father Abraham rejoiced to see (when he saw) my day. Ollessani teidän kanssanne, when I was with you. Astuessansa ahoa, Saloviertä vierressänsä kuuli (Kal. xliv. 77), as he went through the desert place, as he walked near the wood he heard.
This infinitive is frequently used in the passive. Kaskea poltettaessa, while the forest was burning. Kotiin tultaessa ei ollut ketäkään, on coming home, there was no one. Kal. iii. 245, Eikä lie sinua nähty ... Tätä maata saataessa, Ilmoa suettaessa, etc.
The active infinitive is also used impersonally. Aika menee arvellessa, päivä päätä käännellessä, time passes while one thinks, and the day while one turns one’s head (proverb).
As the Finnish negative, owing to its peculiar character, cannot be used with the infinitive, a negative temporal proposition is rendered by the abessive or infinitive III, and the inessive of infinitive II. Lukematta istuessani, when I was not reading; literally, in my sitting without reading.
(2) The instructive of infinitive II is used to express the manner in which an action is performed, and is generally rendered by a participle in English. If the subject of the infinitive is expressed (in which case it must be rendered otherwise than by a participle) it is put in the genitive. This form is not used in the passive.