me mennään

We + Passive in Speech

Level 2

me + passive (e.g., me mennään) is the standard way to say 'we [verb]' in spoken Finnish. While textbooks teach me menemme, native speakers almost always use the passive form in conversation.

How It Works

Finnish has two distinct registers: kirjakieli (written/formal) and puhekieli (spoken/informal). One of the most prominent differences is how 'we' is expressed.

1. The Structure
To form this pattern, take the personal pronoun me and follow it with the passive form of the verb. Unlike formal Finnish where you can drop the pronoun (menemme), include me when the context does not already identify a statement about us (me mennään). Without the pronoun, mennään usually means 'Let's go!' or 'One goes'. In fast speech, the final '-n' is often dropped (e.g., me mennää).

2. Formation Rules
The passive form depends on the verb type, and vowel harmony dictates whether you use -an or -än:

  • Type 1: Use the weak grade of consonant gradation (e.g., ottaa → me otetaan). The stem vowel only changes to e if the verb ends in -aa/-ää (e.g., alkaa → me aletaan, tietää → me tiedetään). If the verb ends in -oa, -ua, -iä, -ea, -eä, -ia, -yä, or -öä, the vowel does not change (e.g., sanoa → me sanotaan, puhua → me puhutaan, lukea → me luetaan, sopia → me sovitaan, kysyä → me kysytään, säilöä → me säilötään).
  • Types 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6: Take the infinitive and simply add -an/-än (e.g., syödä + än = me syödään; mennä + än = me mennään; haluta + an = me halutaan).

3. Negative Form
In the negative, use the negative verb ei (note: in speech, me ei is used instead of me emme) followed by the negative passive form, which is the passive without the final -an/-än (e.g., me ei mennä).

4. Object Case Rule
A critical syntactic rule for the Finnish passive is that a total object that would normally take the genitive-accusative case (-n) in an active sentence is instead in the nominative. For example, 'We buy a car' is Me ostetaan auto (not auton). However, partitive rules still apply: the object must be in the partitive case if the sentence is negative, if the action is an ongoing process, or if the verb inherently requires a partitive object. Additionally, personal pronouns (minut, sinut, hänet, meidät, teidät, heidät) and the question word kenet retain their special accusative -t ending in the passive (e.g., Me otetaan hänet).

5. Other Tenses and Moods
The 'me + passive' pattern also occurs in other tenses and in the conditional. For example, in the past tense (imperfect) it is me mentiin, and in the perfect tense it is me ollaan menty. Note that the perfect tense uses a colloquial 'double passive' (kaksoispassiivi) where both the auxiliary verb (ollaan) and the main verb (menty) are put into the passive form. In the conditional mood, it is me mentäisiin (often shortened to me mentäis in speech).

6. Usage
This is widespread informal Finnish across age groups. The -mme form remains normal in standard writing, formal speech and some speakers’ usage; spoken Finnish is not uniform.

Spoken Pronouns as Objects
Many speakers use se and ne for people in everyday conversation. These have the same total-object behavior as demonstratives: Me nähdään se huomenna (We will see him/her/it tomorrow) and Me haetaan ne (We will pick them up). Compare negative Me ei nähdä sitä. Personal-pronoun forms such as hänet are still grammatical when that pronoun is chosen; do not relabel them as errors.

Examples (4)

  1. Me mennään kotiin.

    We are going home.

    Word by Word: We go-passive home.

    In spoken Finnish, 'me mennään' is used instead of the formal 'me menemme'.

  2. Me ollaan jo täällä.

    We are already here.

    Word by Word: We be-passive already here.

    The passive form of 'olla' (to be) is 'ollaan'. This is the most common way to say 'we are' in speech.

  3. Me ei syödä lihaa.

    We don't eat meat.

    Word by Word: We not eat-passive-neg meat.

    For negation, the final 'än' is dropped from the passive form 'syödään', and 'ei' is used as the negative verb.

  4. Me tultiin bussilla.

    We came by bus.

    Word by Word: We come-passive-past bus-by.

    This pattern also applies to the past tense. 'Me tultiin' is the spoken version of 'me tulimme'.

Common Mistakes

  • Leaving the intended statement ambiguous by omitting me.

    Different MeaningOllaan kotona.
    Me ollaan kotona.

    Without context, Ollaan kotona can sound like a suggestion ('Let’s stay home'). Include me to make the intended statement clear. Omitting me is not always ungrammatical when the participants and meaning are already established.

  • Using the full passive form in negation.

    Me ei mennään.
    Me ei mennä.

    In the negative, the final -an/-än must be dropped. 'Me ei mennään' is grammatically incorrect.

  • Using the passive for 'they'.

    Ne mennään.
    Ne menee.

    Learners often assume the passive is used for all plural persons in speech. However, 'they' (ne) uses the 3rd person singular form in spoken Finnish.

How It Connects

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me mennäänLevel 2We + Passive in Speech

Learn This First

To use the passive for 'we' in spoken Finnish, you first need to understand how to form the passive present (-taan/-tään). You also need to be familiar with the personal pronoun 'me' and the standard way of conjugating verbs for 'we' (-mme) to understand how the spoken form differs from written Finnish.

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