Breakdown of Vastaa poliisille heti, jos olet vaarassa.
olla
to be
heti
immediately
poliisi
the police / police officer
vaara
the danger
jos
if
vastata
to answer
Questions & Answers about Vastaa poliisille heti, jos olet vaarassa.
How do we form the command vastaa from the verb vastata?
Vastata is a Type 4 verb. To make the basic command form (imperative) for Type 4 verbs, you simply take the infinitive word (vastata) and drop the final -ta or -tä. This leaves you with vastaa (answer!). You can also find it by taking the 'I' form (vastaan) and dropping the -n.
Why does poliisi have the -lle ending here?
The verb vastata (to answer) requires the allative case for the person you are speaking to. The -lle ending translates roughly to 'to' or 'onto'. So in Finnish, you are literally answering 'to the police' (poliisille).
Why is the word for danger (vaara) written as vaarassa?
The -ssa ending is the inessive case, which means 'in' or 'inside'. Just like in English, Finns say that you are 'in danger' (vaarassa) when referring to a risky situation.
Why is there no word for 'you' in this sentence?
In commands like vastaa (answer!), the pronoun sinä (you) is almost always left out. For the second part of the sentence, the -t ending on olet already means 'you are', so dropping sinä there is also very common and sounds natural.
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