English has one neat little word for the group command — let's. Finnish has two answers, and they live in completely different registers. In ordinary speech, "let's go!" is just mennään! — the same passive form you meet in Suomessa puhutaan suomea ("Finnish is spoken in Finland"), quietly pressed into hortative service. In formal or literary Finnish there is a dedicated ending, -kaamme / -käämme (menkäämme), but you will hardly ever hear it out loud. This page shows you both, when to use each, and how to say "let's not." The full passive paradigm lives on the passive present page; here we only borrow it.
The everyday "let's" is the passive
This is the form you actually need. To propose that a group do something together, Finnish uses the present passive — the impersonal "one does" form — with a rising, inviting intonation:
Mennään kahville!
Let's go for coffee!
Otetaan taksi, en jaksa enää kävellä.
Let's take a taxi, I can't face walking any more.
Syödään ensin ja mietitään sitten.
Let's eat first and think about it afterwards.
Puhutaan tästä myöhemmin, nyt ei ole hyvä hetki.
Let's talk about this later, now isn't a good moment.
Notice there is no separate word for "let" and no separate word for "us" — the whole meaning is packed into the one passive verb. That is the single most important thing to unlearn: an English speaker instinctively reaches for two or three words, but Finnish uses exactly one.
| Verb | "Let's …" (passive) | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| mennä | mennään! | let's go |
| ottaa | otetaan! | let's take |
| syödä | syödään! | let's eat |
| puhua | puhutaan! | let's speak |
| lähteä | lähdetään! | let's go / set off |
| katsoa | katsotaan! | let's see / watch |
Lähdetään jo, muuten myöhästytään bussista.
Let's get going, otherwise we'll miss the bus.
Katsotaan ensin, mitä muut sanovat.
Let's first see what the others say.
The formal alternative: -kaamme / -käämme
Finnish does have a grammatically "proper" first-person plural imperative, built with -kaamme / -käämme. You will meet it in speeches, prayers, older literature, hymns and set slogans — but it sounds stiff and old-fashioned in casual conversation. It is built on the same strong stem as the plural command menkää ("go!"), just with a different ending:
| Verb | Formal 1pl (-kaamme/-käämme) | Everyday (passive) |
|---|---|---|
| mennä | menkäämme | mennään |
| ottaa | ottakaamme | otetaan |
| puhua | puhukaamme | puhutaan |
| syödä | syökäämme | syödään |
| olla | olkaamme | ollaan |
Olkaamme rehellisiä: tämä ei toiminut.
Let us be honest: this didn't work.
Rukoilkaamme yhdessä.
Let us pray together.
The first of those two could just about pass in an emphatic speech; the second belongs squarely in church. In everyday life you would say Ollaan rehellisiä and Rukoillaan yhdessä. Treat -kaamme as a form to recognise, not one to reach for.
"Let's not"
To turn a proposal negative, put the ordinary negative verb ei in front of the passive form — the same ei used for the impersonal negative:
Ei mennä vielä, on liian aikaista.
Let's not go yet, it's too early.
Ei oteta tätä liian vakavasti.
Let's not take this too seriously.
The formal negative counterpart is älkäämme + the connegative (älkäämme menkö, "let us not go"), covered with the rest of the negative commands on the negative imperative page. In speech, though, plain ei mennä is universal.
One form, two meanings: mennään
There is a twist an English speaker should know about. In colloquial Finnish the passive also serves as the ordinary "we" form: me mennään means "we go / we're going." So the very same word can be a statement or a proposal, and only context and intonation tell them apart:
Me mennään huomenna Tampereelle.
We're going to Tampere tomorrow. (statement)
No niin, mennään!
All right then, let's go! (proposal)
Keeping the pronoun me usually signals the plain "we" reading; dropping it and adding inviting intonation signals "let's." This double life of the passive is explored on the colloquial 'me' passive page.
Common Mistakes
❌ Anna meidän mennä!
Incorrect as 'let's go' — this is a genuine 'allow us to go' (asking permission), not a proposal. Finnish doesn't use a 'let' verb here.
✅ Mennään!
Let's go!
❌ Me menemme kahville!
Wrong register/meaning — menemme is the plain statement 'we go for coffee', not an invitation. For 'let's', use the passive.
✅ Mennään kahville!
Let's go for coffee!
❌ Menkäämme baariin!
Not wrong, but far too formal for a night out — it sounds like a hymn. Reserve -kaamme for speeches and prayers.
✅ Lähdetään baariin!
Let's head to the bar!
❌ Syödaan!
Harmony error — syödä is a front-vowel verb, so the ending must be -ään, not -aan: syödään. (Back verbs like ottaa are the ones that take -aan: otetaan.)
✅ Syödään!
Let's eat!
Key Takeaways
- Everyday "let's X" = the present passive: mennään, otetaan, syödään, puhutaan — one word, no "let," no "us."
- The dedicated -kaamme / -käämme form (menkäämme, olkaamme) is (formal / literary) — recognise it in speeches and prayers, but don't use it casually.
- "Let's not" = ei
- passive
- The passive doubles as the colloquial "we" form, so mennään can mean either "we go" or "let's go" depending on context and intonation.
- Harmony still applies: front verbs take -ään (mennään), back verbs take -aan (puhutaan).
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Start learning Finnish→Related Topics
- Present Passive: puhutaanA2 — How to build the present passive across all verb types — -taan/-tään with harmony — as a single invariant impersonal form: puhutaan, otetaan, syödään, mennään.
- The Imperative: CommandsA1 — The Finnish command mood, person by person: familiar mene!, plural/polite menkää!, 'let's' mennään, third-person menköön — and how negatives use älä / älkää.
- The Colloquial Passive: me mennäänB1 — Spoken Finnish uses the passive as its everyday 'we' — me mennään = 'we go' — and mennään! alone = 'let's go'. Puhekieli, but near-universal in speech.
- Plural/Formal Command: menkää!A2 — The -kaa/-kää command for plural 'you' and for polite single address: menkää!, puhukaa!, ottakaa!, tulkaa!. It keeps the strong grade — ota! but ottakaa!.