this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2025
6 points (100.0% liked)

Learn Finnish

188 readers
6 users here now

A community for learning Finnish.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
jahasjahas@sopuli.xyz
nokturne213@sopuli.xyz
6
Päivän sana - älä (don’t) (sopuli.xyz)
submitted 5 days ago by nokturne213@sopuli.xyz to c/learn_finnish@sopuli.xyz
5 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Alternative forms

  • elä (dialectal)

Etymology

See ei.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈælæ/, [ˈælæ]
  • IPA(key): /ˈælæˣ/, [ˈælæ(ʔ)] (dialectal)
  • Rhymes: -ælæ
  • Hyphenation(key): älä

Verb

älä

  1. second-person singular imperative present of ei
  • Juokse! -> Älä juokse!
  • Run! -> Do not run!

Interjection

älä

  1. don't!, stop!
  2. (colloquial) wow, really? (expressing positive surprise)
  3. (colloquial, indicates agreement on the preceding statement) tell me about it! I know, right?
    Elokuva oli ihan hillitön! — Älä!
    The movie was hilarious! — I know!.
  4. (colloquial, sarcastic) you don't say, (oh) really?

Synonyms

ihanko totta

lähde

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] fairchild@sopuli.xyz 3 points 5 days ago (4 children)

Is there a difference in pronounciation between the use cases? Like especially what you mention in 2, 3 and 4 compared to 1 (the example). If not, this could be quite confusing

[–] tasankovasara@sopuli.xyz 3 points 5 days ago

Finn here. There's no difference in pronounciation, but the colloquial expressions tend to have quite a theatrical expressive spin to them IRL. The context will also be totally different, so I don't see much potential for confusion.

load more comments (3 replies)