A finite verb is a verb that is inflected for person and for tense according to the rules and categories of the languages it occurs in. Finite verbs can form independent clauses, which can stand by their own as complete sentences.

In most Indo-European languages, every grammatically correct sentence or clause must contain a finite verb; sentence fragments not containing finite verbs are described as phrases. In English, as in most related languages, only verbs in certain moods are finite. These include:

• the indicative mood (expressing a state of affairs); e.g., "The bulldozer demolished the restaurant," "The leaves were yellow and stiff."
• the imperative mood (giving a command).
• the subjunctive mood (expressing something that might or might not be the state of affairs, depending on some other part of the sentence); nearly extinct in English.

Moods and verb forms that are not finite include:

• the infinitive
• participles (e.g., "The broken window...", "The wheezing gentleman...")
• gerunds and gerundives