The Imperative: Commands

The imperative is the command mood — the form for telling someone to do something. English has exactly one command form ("Go!", "Wait!", "Let's go!") and lets pronouns and context carry the rest. Finnish is richer: it has a separate imperative for each person, so who is being told to act is built into the verb itself. This page maps the whole system and links to a dedicated page for each form; the individual pages drill the details.

The whole system at a glance

You will use the top two constantly and the bottom three rarely — but recognising all of them is what lets you read a sign, a recipe, or a line of dialogue without stumbling.

2sg — the familiar command

To one person you are on sinä terms with, use the bare weak present stem with no ending: puhu! (speak!), tule! (come!), ota! (take!), syö! (eat!). It is the simplest verb form in the language — a stem and nothing else. Full details, including the all-important gradation, are on the singular imperative page.

2pl / polite — the -kaa/-kää command

To several people, add -kaa/-kää to the strong stem: puhukaa!, menkää!, ottakaa!. This same form is also the polite way to command one person — exactly as te is the polite "you." A shop assistant, a doctor, or an official will address a single customer with the plural imperative. Details are on the plural/formal imperative page.

1pl — "let's"

Everyday Finnish expresses "let's do X" not with a special imperative at all but with the passive: mennään! (let's go), syödään! (let's eat), otetaan! (let's take). The textbook first-person imperative menkäämme exists but is (literary) — it belongs to hymns, speeches, and old prose. More on the first-person imperative page.

3rd person — "let him / let them"

The third-person imperative adds -koon/-köön (singular) or -koot/-kööt (plural): menköön! ("let him go"), tulkoon! ("let it come"). It sounds elevated and turns up in set phrases and formal wishes. See the third-person imperative page.

Negatives — älä / älkää

Commands are not negated with the ordinary ei. They have their own negative verb: älä in the singular, älkää in the plural/polite. The main verb then takes a special connegative form.

The full negative paradigm — and why älkää huolehtiko ends in -ko rather than -kaa — is on the negative imperative page.

The one trap that ties it together: gradation

Here is the feature that trips up nearly every learner. The familiar singular takes the weak grade, but every other imperative keeps the strong grade. Watch ottaa (to take) across the system:

All the endings that carry a k — -kaa/-kää, -koon/-köön — of course also follow vowel harmony: a back verb takes -kaa/-koon (puhukaa, tulkoon), a front verb -kää/-köön (menkää, menköön).

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Finnish has a command form for every person, not one flat form.
• 2sg = bare weak stem (mene!); 2pl/polite = -kaa/-kää on the strong stem (menkää!), also the courteous way to address one person.
• "Let's" in everyday speech is the passive (mennään); menkäämme is (literary).
• 3rd person = -koon/-köön (menköön!), elevated and set-phrase.
• Commands negate with älä (sg) and älkää (pl), never with ei.
• The core trap: the familiar singular weakens the stem (ota!) while everything else keeps it strong (ottakaa!, ottakoon!).