Learn Hardcore Finnish: Älkää tulko myöhässä kokoukseen.

2nd person singular (you, one person):
- Tule! – Come!
- Älä tule! – Don’t come!
2nd person plural (you, several people):
- Tulkaa! – Come!
- Älkää tulko! – Don’t come!

So:

tulkaa = affirmative plural imperative
tulko = the verb form used with the plural negative imperative älkää

You just have to memorize that älkää + tulko is the correct pair, not älkää + tule.

Who is being addressed by Älkää tulko – one person or several?

Älkää tulko addresses more than one person (2nd person plural “you”).

To one person, you would say: Älä tule myöhässä kokoukseen.
To several people: Älkää tulko myöhässä kokoukseen.

In modern spoken Finnish, älkää tulko is normally only plural, not a polite singular.

What exactly does älkää mean?

Älkää is the negative verb in the imperative plural.

Finnish has a separate “negative verb” that changes according to person and mood:

Indicative: en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät
Imperative: älä, älköön, älkäämme, älkää, älkööt

So:

älä = don’t (you, singular)
älkää = don’t (you, plural)

In Älkää tulko, älkää carries the negative meaning, and tulko is the main verb in the appropriate imperative form.

What form of the verb is tulko, and how is it related to tulkaa?

Both tulkaa and tulko come from the verb tulla (to come) and are imperative forms:

tulkaa = 2nd person plural affirmative imperative
- Tulkaa kokoukseen! – Come to the meeting!
tulko = verb form used with the plural negative imperative älkää
- Älkää tulko myöhässä kokoukseen. – Don’t come late to the meeting.

So you can think of the pair:

Tulkaa… – Do come…
Älkää tulko… – Don’t come…

Why is it myöhässä and not myöhään?

Both relate to “late”, but they are used differently:

myöhässä (adessive case):
- literally “in a state of lateness”
- used with being/arriving late:
  - Olen myöhässä. – I am late.
  - Tulin myöhässä. – I came late.
- In your sentence, tulla myöhässä = to arrive late.
myöhään (temporal adverb):
- means “late (at a late time)”
- used with actions happening late in the day:
  - Menin nukkumaan myöhään. – I went to bed late.
  - Hän tuli kotiin myöhään. – He/she came home late (late in the evening).

So with kokoukseen and the idea “don’t arrive late (i.e. after the starting time)”, myöhässä is the natural choice.

What case is kokoukseen, and why is that case used here?

Kokoukseen is in the illative case, which often corresponds to English “into / to / into the inside of”.

Nominative: kokous – meeting
Illative: kokoukseen – to the meeting / into the meeting

With verbs of motion like tulla (to come), mennä (to go), saapua (to arrive), Finnish usually uses a case of destination:

tulla kokoukseen – to come to the meeting
mennä kouluun – to go to school
saapua kaupunkiin – to arrive in(to) the city

So myöhässä kokoukseen is literally “late to the meeting”.

Could the word order be Älkää tulko kokoukseen myöhässä instead? Is that correct?

Yes, Älkää tulko kokoukseen myöhässä is also grammatically correct and natural.

Both:

Älkää tulko myöhässä kokoukseen.
Älkää tulko kokoukseen myöhässä.

are fine. The difference is very slight, mainly rhythm and emphasis:

original order slightly highlights the lateness first
swapped order slightly highlights the meeting first

In everyday speech, both would be understood the same way.

Can I leave out kokoukseen if the context is already clear?

Yes. If everyone already knows you are talking about the meeting, you can say simply:

Älkää tulko myöhässä. – Don’t come late.

The object (kokoukseen) can be omitted when it is obvious from context, just like in English.

How would I say a more “positive” version, like “Please come to the meeting on time”?

You would use the affirmative plural imperative of tulla and an expression for “on time”:

Tulkaa kokoukseen ajoissa. – Come to the meeting on time.

Useful word:

ajoissa – on time, in time (not late)

Compare:

Älkää tulko myöhässä kokoukseen. – Don’t come late to the meeting.
Tulkaa kokoukseen ajoissa. – Come to the meeting on time.

Is there a version using a verb “to be late” instead of tulla myöhässä?

Yes. Finnish also has the verb myöhästyä (to be late, to be delayed).

You could say:

Älkää myöhästykö kokouksesta.

Literally: “Don’t be late from the meeting.”

This focuses more on the act of being late / missing the start, whereas älkää tulko myöhässä kokoukseen focuses on arriving late to it. In practice, both tell people not to be late.

Why is there no pronoun like te (“you”) in the sentence?

In Finnish, the subject pronoun is usually dropped in the imperative, because the verb (and the negative verb) already show the person:

Tulkaa! – (You all) come!
Älkää tulko myöhässä kokoukseen. – (You all) don’t come late to the meeting.

You can add te for extra emphasis, but it’s less common and can sound a bit marked:

Te, älkää tulko myöhässä kokoukseen. – You (as opposed to someone else), don’t come late to the meeting.

How would the sentence change if I spoke to just one person?

For one person (you, singular), the imperative forms change:

Älä tule myöhässä kokoukseen. – Don’t come late to the meeting.
- älä = singular negative imperative
- tule = singular imperative of tulla

So:

Plural: Älkää tulko myöhässä kokoukseen.
Singular: Älä tule myöhässä kokoukseen.