# 1st person plural imperative



## 盲人瞎馬

Hello.
I noticed that instead of saying menkäämme, Finns prefer to say mennään.
My question is: Does that work with every verb?
Can you replace odottakaamme with odotetaan? Ampukaamme with ammutaan?

Thanks.


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## Grumpy Old Man

Unless there are some very rare exceptions that don't come to my mind, the answer is yes. The passive forms are informal Finnish, though, and should be avoided in serious writing.


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## Finland

Hello!



Vitalore said:


> I noticed that instead of saying menkäämme, Finns prefer to say mennään.
> My question is: Does that work with every verb?
> Can you replace odottakaamme with odotetaan? Ampukaamme with ammutaan?



Yes, it works with all verbs.

HTH
S


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## sakvaka

Is this passive-formed imperative acceptable in standard Finnish? 

I think I've read somewhere that _menkäämme_ has already become too old-fashioned in standard style and can freely be replaced by _mennään_. (In indicative, that use is, of course, incorrect: _Me mennään kouluun. -> Me menemme kouluun._) Can anybody confirm or dis-confirm?


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## 盲人瞎馬

sakvaka said:


> Is this passive-formed imperative acceptable in standard Finnish?
> 
> I think I've read somewhere that _menkäämme_ has already become too old-fashioned in standard style and can freely be replaced by _mennään_. (In indicative, that use is, of course, incorrect: _Me mennään kouluun. -> Me menemme kouluun._) Can anybody confirm or dis-confirm?



Hmmm I'm used to seeing Finns using the passives as 1st person plurals. "Me yritetään" = me yritämme, "me yritettiin" = me yritimme, "me yritettäisiin" = me yrittäisimme. And that's with every verb, too.
So yours is perfectly fine.


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## sakvaka

That's not what I asked. _Me yritetään_ must not be used in proper standard style (newspapers, prose, this forum) but _yritetään!_ might well be acceptable. Can, therefore,

"Yritetään nyt pitää tämä keskustelu aisoissa!" sanoi hyvä nettikeskustelija.

ever replace the phrase _"Yrittäkäämme nyt..."_ in proper, standard Finnish (_kirjakieli_)?


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## Gavril

sakvaka said:


> That's not what I asked. _Me yritetään_ must not be used in proper standard style (newspapers, prose, this forum) but _yritetään!_ might well be acceptable. Can, therefore,
> 
> "Yritetään nyt pitää tämä keskustelu aisoissa!" sanoi hyvä nettikeskustelija.
> 
> ever replace the phrase _"Yrittäkäämme nyt..."_ in proper, standard Finnish (_kirjakieli_)?



According to the Finnish textbook I used, _yritetään _is correct (in standard Finnish) as a 1st person plural imperative. This textbook is unreliable in certain areas, but I think it's accurate here. It doesn't even mention _yrittäkäämme _as an alternative form.


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