Editing Finnish grammar (section)

====Imperative====
The imperative mood is used to express commands. In Finnish, there is only one tense form (the present-future). The possible variants of Finnish imperatives are:
* 1st, 2nd or 3rd person
* singular or plural
* active or passive
* positive or negative

=====Active, 2nd-person imperatives=====
These are the most common forms of the imperative: "Do this", "Don't do that".

The singular imperative is simply the verb's present tense without any personal ending (that is, remove the {{lang|fi|-n}} from the first-person-singular form):

:{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+ Active, 2nd-person imperatives
|-
! Finnish !! English
|-
| {{lang|fi|tule!}} || 'come!'
|-
| {{lang|fi|syö!}} || 'eat!'
|-
| {{lang|fi|huomaa!}} || 'note!'
|}

To make this negative, {{lang|fi|älä}} (which is the active imperative singular 2nd person of the negative verb) is placed before the positive form:

:{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Finnish !! English
|-
| {{lang|fi|älä sano!}} || 'don't say!'
|-
| {{lang|fi|älä mene!}} || 'don't go!'
|-
| {{lang|fi|älä valehtele!}} || 'don't lie!'<br />(from {{lang|fi|valehdella}} "to lie", type II)
|}

To form the plural, add {{lang|fi|-kaa}} or {{lang|fi|-kää}} to the verb's stem:

:{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Finnish !! English
|-
| {{lang|fi|tulkaa!}} || 'come!'
|-
| {{lang|fi|juokaa!}} || 'drink!'
|-
| {{lang|fi|mitatkaa!}} || 'measure!'<br />(from {{lang|fi|mitata}} "to measure", type IV)
|}

To make this negative, {{lang|fi|älkää}} (which is the active imperative present plural 2nd person of the negative verb) is placed before the positive form and the suffix {{lang|fi|-ko}} or {{lang|fi|-kö}} is added to the verb stem:

:{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Finnish !! English
|-
| {{lang|fi|älkää sanoko!}} || 'don't say!'
|-
| {{lang|fi|älkää menkö!}} || 'don't go!'
|-
| {{lang|fi|älkää tarjotko!}} || 'don't offer!'
|}

Note that 2nd-person-plural imperatives can also be used as polite imperatives when referring to one person.

The Finnish language has no simple equivalent to the English "please". The Finnish equivalent is to use either {{lang|fi|ole hyvä}} or {{lang|fi|olkaa hyvä}} = 'be good', but it is generally omitted. Politeness is normally conveyed by tone of voice, facial expression, and use of conditional verbs and partitive nouns. For example, {{lang|fi|voisitteko}} means "could you", in the polite plural, and is used much like English "Could you..." sentences: {{lang|fi|voisitteko auttaa}} "could you help me, please?"

Also, familiar (and not necessarily so polite) expressions can be added to imperatives, e.g. {{lang|fi|menes}}, {{lang|fi|menepä}}, {{lang|fi|menehän}}. These are hard to translate exactly, but extensively used by Finnish speakers themselves. {{lang|fi|Menes}} implies expectation, that is, it has been settled already and requires no discussion; {{lang|fi|menepä}} has the {{lang|fi|-pa}} which indicates insistence, and {{lang|fi|-hän}} means approximated "indeed".

=====Passive imperatives=====
:{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+ Passive imperatives
|-
! Finnish !! English
|-
| {{lang|fi|tehtäköön}} ||  let (something) be done
|-
| {{lang|fi|älköön tehtäkö}} ||  let (something) not be done
|-
| {{lang|fi|olkoon tehty}} ||  let (something) have been done
|-
| {{lang|fi|älköön olko tehty}} ||  let (something) not have been done
|}

=====3rd-person imperatives=====
The 3rd-person imperatives behave as if they were [[jussive mood|jussive]]; besides being used for commands, they can also be used to express permission. In colloquial language, they are most often used to express disregard to what one might or might not do, and the singular and plural forms are often confused.

:{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+ 3rd-person imperatives
|-
! Finnish !! English
|-
| {{lang|fi|olkoon}} || 'let it (him, her) be'
|-
| {{lang|fi|tehkööt}} || 'let them do'
|-
| {{lang|fi|älköön unohtako}} || 'let him not forget', 'he'd better not forget'
|-
| {{lang|fi|älkööt unohtako}} || 'let them not forget'
|}

=====1st-person-plural imperatives=====
:{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+ 1st-person-plural imperatives
|-
! Finnish !! English
|-
| {{lang|fi|menkäämme}} || 'let's go'
|-
| {{lang|fi|älkäämme tehkö}} || 'let us not do', 'we better not do'
|}

The 1st-person imperative sounds archaic, and a form resembling the passive indicative is often used instead: {{lang|fi|mennään!}} = 'let's go!'