Breakdown of Älkäämme olko armollisia vastarinnalle, sillä olemme häikäilemättömiä!
olla
to be
sillä
for / because (coordinating)
älkäämme
let's not
vastarinta
resistance
häikäilemätön
ruthless
armollinen
merciful
Questions & Answers about Älkäämme olko armollisia vastarinnalle, sillä olemme häikäilemättömiä!
How is the verb form olko built in älkäämme olko?
The negative 1st person plural imperative uses the auxiliary verb älkäämme (let us not). The main verb then takes a special connegative ending: the consonant stem of the verb plus -ko or -kö. For olla, the stem is ol-, giving us olko.
Is älkäämme olko used in everyday spoken Finnish?
Rarely. The älkäämme + -ko/-kö structure is strictly formal or literary. In everyday spoken Finnish, you express "let's not" by using the negative passive: ei olla. So, casually, this would simply be ei olla armollisia.
Why are the adjectives armollisia and häikäilemättömiä in the partitive plural?
They act as subject complements describing "we" (implied by älkäämme and olemme). When the subject of the verb olla (to be) is plural, the adjectives describing that subject are almost always put into the partitive plural.
How does the word häikäilemättömiä get its shape from the basic adjective?
The base form is häikäilemätön (ruthless/unscrupulous), which uses the negative suffix -mätön (meaning "without"). When words ending in -ton/-tön are put into the partitive plural, the ending changes to -ttomia or -ttömiä, making it häikäilemättömiä.
Why does vastarinta take the allative case (-lle) here as vastarinnalle?
The adjective armollinen (merciful) dictates the case of its target. When you are merciful to someone or something in Finnish, that recipient takes the allative case (-lle).
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