# otetaan



## oloekis

Otetaan kahvia.


Moikka, I am learning Passiivi at the moment, but I am not quite sure how to interpret this kind of sentence above. Can you use this when you are talking to someone, meaning "coffee taken(?)"? Or is this structure only used for mere statement? 

Kiitos!


----------



## Gavril

In standard written Finnish, _otetaan kahvia_ means either "Let's have some coffee" or "Coffee is being drunk" / "People are having coffee".

In colloquial Finnish, _otetaan kahvia_ can also mean "We are having coffee".

I didn't quite understand your question, but does this help to answer it?


----------



## oloekis

Oh, sorry for the confusion -- Let's forget about my question. Yes it helped! But,

if it's "let's have some coffee" in written Finnish, how do you say "let's have some coffee" in colloquial Finnish?


----------



## Gavril

littlemonyou said:


> if it's "let's have some coffee" in written Finnish, how do you say "let's have some coffee" in colloquial Finnish?



I'm not sure what the most common expression for this is. (Though I think _Otetaan kahvia!_ would be understood to mean this, given the right context.) Let's wait for the native speakers to answer.


----------



## Grumpy Old Man

In informal spoken Finnish, I would say: _Juodaan kahvia!_ (Let's have some coffee!)
Formal Finnish: _Juokaamme kahvia!_

The passive structure _juodaan kahvia_ may also mean _is [being] drunk: Suomessa juodaan paljon kahvia. _(A lot of coffee is drunk in Finland.)


----------



## Gavril

Grumpy Old Man said:


> In informal spoken Finnish, I would say: _Juodaan kahvia!_ (Let's have some coffee!)
> Formal Finnish: _Juokaamme kahvia!_



Is _Juodaan_ not also acceptable in standard Finnish for the meaning "let's drink ..."?


----------



## Määränpää

Gavril said:


> Is _Juodaan_ not also acceptable in standard Finnish for the meaning "let's drink ..."?



It's not quite serious enough for a newspaper editorial. For a column, yes. Then again, I can't imagine the formal conjugation anywhere, it's too old-fashioned, although priests probably still say "Rukoilkaamme". In a formal yet not ceremonial context, I would replace the form with auxiliaries: "meidän on tehtävä/emme saa tehdä".


----------



## Grumpy Old Man

Gavril said:


> Is _Juodaan_ not also acceptable in standard Finnish for the meaning "let's drink ..."?


I don't know what Kielitoimisto's opinion about it is today. When I attended school in the early 17th century, it was considered incorrect, but it has become so common over the years that I think it is accepted in informal Finnish today. It is certainly used a lot. I would definitely avoid it in serious writing but that's just my opinion. I don't know what the "official" view is.


----------



## Spongiformi

It's certainly used in dialogue in novels these days, has been for many years. Probably because the _-aamme, -äämme_ would sound far too strange to come out of anybody's mouth unless it was some noble in a historical novel.


----------

