Kerro minulle totuus.

Kerro is the second-person singular imperative of kertoa. In plain terms, it is the form you use when telling one person to do something.

So:

• kertoa = to tell
• kerro! = tell!

In this sentence, kerro means tell as a command or strong request.

Finnish usually does not need subject pronouns when the verb form already shows the person. With imperatives, this is especially normal.

So Kerro minulle totuus already means Tell me the truth without needing sinä.

If you added sinä, it would sound marked or emphatic rather than neutral.

Because minulle means to me, and that is the role needed here.

With kertoa, Finnish commonly uses this pattern:

kertoa jollekin jotain
= to tell someone something

So:

• minä = I
• minun = my / of me
• minut = me as an object in some contexts
• minulle = to me

Here, minulle marks the recipient of what is being told.

Minulle is in the allative case. One of the main uses of the allative is to mean onto / to / for someone or something.

With personal pronouns, the allative forms are irregular and very common:

• minulle = to me
• sinulle = to you
• hänelle = to him/her
• meille = to us

So in this sentence, minulle is the natural form after kerro.

This is a very common Finnish learner question.

In affirmative imperative sentences, a total object is usually in the nominative, not the genitive. That is why the sentence has totuus.

So:

• Kerro minulle totuus. = imperative, so totuus
• Kerron sinulle totuuden. = non-imperative statement, so totuuden

English does not show this kind of object-case change, so it often feels surprising at first.

Not if you want this exact meaning and structure.

In Kerro minulle totuus, the speaker wants the whole truth / one complete truth, so totuus is the natural choice.

Totuutta is the partitive form, and that would suggest something more incomplete, ongoing, or non-total. The partitive is also used in negative sentences:

• Älä kerro minulle totuutta. = Don’t tell me the truth.

So for this direct command, totuus is the expected form.

Yes, it is fairly direct.

It is not automatically rude, but it can sound:

• firm
• emotional
• dramatic
• demanding

That is often exactly what the speaker wants. In a tense situation, it sounds very natural.

If you wanted to sound softer or more polite, you could use something like:

• Voisitko kertoa minulle totuuden? = Could you tell me the truth?

So the original sentence is natural, but definitely more direct than a polite request.

Yes. Finnish word order is more flexible than English word order.

Kerro minulle totuus is a very natural, neutral order:

• kerro = verb
• minulle = recipient
• totuus = thing told

You may also hear other orders for emphasis, for example:

• Kerro totuus minulle.

That can put more emphasis on minulle. But the original order is the most straightforward and standard here.

Yes, in everyday spoken Finnish.

• minulle = standard / careful Finnish
• mulle = colloquial spoken Finnish

So:

• Kerro minulle totuus. = standard
• Kerro mulle totuus. = very common in speech

Both mean the same thing, but mulle is less formal.

You sometimes can, but kertoa is especially natural here.

Very roughly:

• sanoa = to say
• kertoa = to tell

When giving information to someone, especially something important like the truth, kertoa is often the more idiomatic choice.

So Kerro minulle totuus sounds very natural.
Sano minulle totuus is understandable, but kertoa fits better in this kind of sentence.

A good pronunciation guide is:

KER-ro MI-nul-le TO-tuus

Important points:

• Stress is on the first syllable of each word.
• rr in kerro is longer/stronger than a single r.
• ll in minulle is also pronounced longer.
• uu in totuus is a long vowel.

Approximate pronunciation: /ˈker.ro ˈmi.nul.le ˈto.tuːs/

In Finnish, double consonants and double vowels really matter, so it is worth pronouncing them clearly.