We can use many verbs to express that someone is making someone do something. We’re asking them, encouraging them, urging them and ordering them to do something. This article goes over different verbs in Finnish that are used for this purpose.

1. Terminology

In English grammar, we would call these verbs causative verbs. Examples of causative verbs in English include help, allow, let, cause, have, force, and require. Those are right in line with the subject of this article, which is verbs that express “making someone do something”. However, Finnish already uses the term “causative verbs” to refer to the process of making a verb transitive.

As such, we need a different term in Finnish. VISK uses the term “permissive construction” (permissiivirakenne), which partly covers this issue (read here). However, this term is only used to refer to verbs whose object gets inflected in the genitive case (e.g. Käskin lapsen siivota tavaransa. Annoin lapsen lähteä). In our article, we will also include verbs that get a partitive object.

As such, I’m not really sure what to call these verbs grammatically. There are two things that unify the meaning of these verbs: their meaning of “making someone do something” and their rection: they all come with the -maan form of the verb, which is the third infinitive‘s illative form. The cases used for the object of the sentence can differ per verb.

2. No pressure → Very little pressure

2.1. Pyytää – To request

The verb pyytää means “to ask, to request something”. It’s used to ask someone to do something, or request to receive something. It differs from kysyä, which is limited to asking for information. When you request something, you’re not putting any pressure on the other person to do what you’re asking for. It’s just a question, to which the answer could be both positive and negative.

The verb pyytää can be used in many different phrases and situations. You can use it, for example, with että-sentences (pyydän, että… “I request that…”). It’s also used with nouns: to ask for help (pyytää apua), money (pyytää rahaa) or forgiveness (pyytää anteeksi), to request silence (pyytää hiljaisuutta) or a turn to speak (pyytää puheenvuoroa).

2.2. Neuvoa – To advise

The verb neuvoa means “to advise, to counsel”. It’s the verb used to express that you’re offering well-meant advice. This verb also puts little to no pressure on the other person.

2.3. Kannustaa – To encourage

You use the verb kannustaa to express encouraging someone to do something.

In addition to its third infinitive rection, kannustaa can also be used in combination with a noun in the mihin form (e.g. kannustaa voittoon, lääkärin puheille, laulu-uralle), none of which translate very well to English.

2.4. Ohjata – To direct

Ohjata is mainly used with locations – literal places, e.g. to direct someone to the right train (ohjata oikeaan junaan) or to direct someone inside or outside (ohjata ulos tai sisään). It does have its uses with verbs as well, as shown in the table below.

In contrast with the previous verbs which required the partitive, the verb ohjata will get a normal object, which follows the object rules. This means that we will use the basic form in passive sentences, and we can use both the partitive and genitive for objects.

2.5. Kehottaa – To urge

The verb kehottaa carries the most urgency of the verbs up to now. It doesn’t pressure people into doing something exactly, but it is strongly suggesting that they do it. Kehottaa is a partitive verb.

3. More pressure → More authority to pressure

The following verbs carry a stronger meaning of making someone do something. Some of these verbs refer to situations where you actually have the authority to be making someone do something, others don’t.

3.1. Käskeä – To Order

The verb käskeä means “to order, to tell someone what to do”. While it does express that someone is being pressured to do something, käskeä doesn’t necessarily mean that the speaker has the authority to order someone to do something. Verbs that express more authority will be further down below.

Käskeä has two verb rection options, and I’m not sure if there is a difference in meaning between the two.

3.2. Vaatia – To demand

Vaatia can be translated as “to demand” or as “to be required”, depending on the perspective from the sentence in question.

3.3. Painostaa – To press

The verb painostaa gets an object. I mainly found examples of partitive objects through Google. The genitive would generally be used to say that the pressure made someone cave in, and partitive if it’s unsuccessful.

I found plenty of examples of the verb painostaa without a second verb. Often just an object is enough: for example, “Trump pressured China” and “the unions pressure the employers”.

We can also have noun rections in Finnish: painostaa aborttiin (pressure to have an abortion), painostaa sopimukseen (pressure to make an agreement, and painostaa rokotukseen (pressure to get a vaccination).

3.4. Pakottaa – To force

The verb pakottaa refers to forcing someone to do something.

3.5. Määrätä – To impose

When an authority orders you to do something, you can use the verb määrätä. This verb means that the person being ordered will have no choice but to do it.

This verb will often not have a second verb attached to it: you can for example impose an overtime ban (ylityökielto), a penalty (rangaistus) or a restriction (rajoitus).

3.6. Velvoittaa – To oblige

The verb velvoittaa obliges someone to do something. Usually it’s either the court or the law that obliges us, but it can be any official instance. Its meaning is really close to määrätä.

That’s it for verbs related to making someone do something. I will explore this topic further with a separate article on permissive verbs like kieltää “to forbid” and sallia “to allow” later.

Interesting read: Yrjö Lauranto – The projected directive construction and objectcase marking in Finnish

Related posts:

The Third Infinitive – Kolmas Infinitiivi Third Infinitive Rections – Kolmas infinitiivi How to say TO TRY in Finnish – Yrittää Pyrkiä Kokeilla Finnish Question Words – Interrogative Pronouns