Breakdown of Älkää painako väärää paneelia!
väärä
wrong
älkää
do not (plural/formal)
painaa
to press
paneeli
panel
Questions & Answers about Älkää painako väärää paneelia!
Why is the verb form painako instead of just paina?
This is the negative imperative (command) form for the plural or formal "you" (te). While a command to a single person is älä paina, a command to multiple people uses älkää and adds -ko (or -kö) to the verb stem, making it älkää painako.
Why is the object väärää paneelia in the partitive case here?
There are actually two rules at play here that both require the partitive! First, in any negative sentence, the direct object must be in the partitive case. Second, the verb painaa (to press) is a partitive verb, meaning its object is usually partitive anyway because pressing is viewed as an ongoing action without a built-in end point.
If I wanted to make this a positive command ("Press the wrong panel!"), how would the verb change?
You would drop the negative word älkää and replace the -ko suffix with the positive plural imperative ending -kaa, making it Painakaa väärää paneelia!
How could we rewrite this sentence to use the resultative saada structure from this lesson?
You would use the negative plural imperative of saada (älkää saako), followed by the object, and then the passive past participle of painaa in the partitive case (painettua). The result is Älkää saako väärää paneelia painettua! This translates roughly to "Don't manage to press the wrong panel!" or "Make sure you don't end up pressing it!"