A few words on the imperative mood
or the jussive mood, if you want to call it that.
I honestly don't understand why some people say that jussive/the third person imperative (how ever you wish to classify it) isn't used in spoken Finnish and hardly exists in modern written Finnish either aside from law texts. Like first of all it's the perfect thing to use when you are pissed off at someone and/or being all passive-aggressive or when you want to express distaste or disinterest? And not just that; I'm pretty sure I hear it used a lot in casual speech, for example at work.
For those of you who are reading this thinking "what is jussive/the third person imperative?" or "what is that like in Finnish?", here's a quick explanation (I’m sure there are plenty of posts out there about this but I try to emphasise the example sentences and such at the end):
Imperative mood expresses orders/commands and instructions. In third person (both singular and plural) in Finnish the tone is more like an instruction than an actual order even though it's used in legal texts and such, and can be categorised as jussive.
How to form jussive/third person imperative:
singular: [verb stem] + -koon/köön
plural: [verb stem] + -koot/kööt
How is jussive/the third person imperative used
If you read fantasy literature or historical fiction you will most likely run into this a lot. Even if I say it’s used in modern Finnish as well it’s also an easy way to give what you are writing a historical feeling or to make a character sound like they are in a position of power. The historical feeling comes more from the setting though and the other word choices, not the jussive alone. At least that’s how I see it, some other native speaker (possibly from another area?) might disagree for all I know.
Here’s an actual example of a situation where someone might use it in a casual (non-passive-aggressive, non-distasteful, non-disinterested) way (making it like a conversation to give more context):
“Hei, ehtisitkö sä hakea yhen paketin postista?” (Hey, do you have time to go get one package from the post office?)
“En mä oikeen. Sori.” (Not really. Sorry.)
“Ei se mitään. Joku muu hakekoon sen.” (It’s okay. Someone else can go get it.)
I know that’s a very specific example but I hope you can generalise it. Another similar situation would be, for example, if you are planning something in a group and figuring out what will be each one’s area of responsibility. It’s perfectly natural to use the jussive when talking about people not present in the moment (”Ella hoitakoon kakun” - “Ella can take care of the cake”).
If you want to express disinterest, distaste or to be somewhat passive-aggressive in a slightly dramatic way in Finnish this is the verb mood for you. Here are some examples of how to bring that dramatic touch into your language (all examples are very spoken language-y):
“Pukekoon päälleen vaikka jätesäkin, mulle se on ihan se ja sama.” (They can dress up in a garbage bag for all I care.)
“Tehköön mitä lystää, mä en enää välitä.” (He/she/xe(/??) can do what ever they want, I don’t care anymore.)
“Menkööt keskenään. Mä en ole lähdössä mihinkään.” (They can go by themselves. I’m not going anywhere.)
Not that those sentences wouldn’t be dramatic without the verb mood but why say “voivat mennä keskenään” when you can say this instead? All the examples above work without the second halves (”mulle se on ihan sama” and the others), I only added those there for context.
Of course these aren’t the only situations where you can use it. If you need to (or want to) give directions or instructions to a third party don’t be afraid to use the -koon/-köön and -koot/-kööt endings even if your grammar book says these are hardly ever used in modern days.
