Requests and Commands
When you want to tell, ask, or advise someone to do something—like directing actors on a film set—Finnish uses a very specific sentence structure.
With verbs like pyytää (to ask/request), käskeä (to command/order), and neuvoa (to advise), the sentence breaks down into three key parts:
- The main verb (pyytää, käskeä, or neuvoa).
- The person being directed, which must be in the partitive case.
- The action they are supposed to perform, which takes the third infinitive illative form (ending in -maan or -mään).
| The director advises the actor to cry in this scene. | Ohjaaja neuvoo näyttelijää itkemään tässä kohtauksessa. |
| I order the cinematographer to move the camera. | Minä käsken kuvaajaa siirtämään kameran. |
Directing with Pronouns
This rule applies equally to pronouns. If the person you are directing is "you," "him," or "us," the pronoun must take its partitive form (such as sinua, häntä, or meitä).
| I ask you to act your role well. | Minä pyydän sinua näyttelemään roolisi hyvin. |
| His role is difficult, so the director advises him to exaggerate. | Hänen roolinsa on vaikea, joten ohjaaja neuvoo häntä liioittelemaan. |
Different Tenses and Moods
This grammatical structure remains exactly the same regardless of what tense or mood the main verb is in. Whether you are asking a question, giving an imperative command, or talking about an order that happened in the past, the object remains partitive and the action verb stays in the -maan/-mään form.
| The cinematographer ordered me to act once more. | Kuvaaja käski minua näyttelemään vielä kerran. |
| Do you order the actor to move that set piece? | Käskettekö näyttelijää siirtämään tuon lavasteen? |