SUMMARYWe derive the governing equations for the dynamic response of unsaturated poroelastic solids at finite strain. We obtain simplified governing equations from the complete coupled formulation by neglecting the material time derivative of the relative velocities and the advection terms of the pore fluids relative to the solid skeleton, leading to a so-called u s − p w − p a formulation. We impose the weak forms of the momentum and mass balance equations at the current configuration and implement the framework numerically using a mixed finite element formulation. We verify the proposed method through comparison with analytical solutions and experiments of quasi-static processes. We use a neo-Hookean hyperelastic constitutive model for the solid matrix and demonstrate, through numerical examples, the impact of large deformation on the dynamic response of unsaturated poroelastic solids under a variety of loading conditions.