Finnish IRL
mennään - two friends standing up from a café table at the same moment, one already pulling a coat on, melting snow outside the window

mennään

/ˈmenːæːn/

Let's go. We go. We're going. Written menemme "Let's go" and "we go" are the same word, and your textbook taught neither

menemme on paper, mennään out loud

Kirjakieli · written menemme
Puhekieli · spoken mennään

One of the written-and-spoken pairs - every word on this site that exists in both forms is in that table, beside the change between them.

The same sentence, both ways
What you will hear What the book writes
Me mennään kesällä Ruotsiin. Me menemme kesällä Ruotsiin.
Mennäänks jo? Menemmekö jo?

Quick answer

Mennään covers both we go and let's go. Spoken Finnish puts the passive where writing puts the first person plural, so the written form is menemme.

  • With me in front of it the sentence is a statement, and without it the same word is a proposal. That is the difference between we are going and shall we.
  • The pattern is general: otetaan for otamme, ollaan for olemme, tehdään for teemme.

What mennään means

Mennään is the passive of mennä, to go. Formally it means something like "there is going", with no named subject.

In practice it does two jobs: it proposes something to the group, and it states what the group is doing. Which one is meant comes from whether me is there and from the tone.

Why menemme became mennään

Menemme is what a course drills and what a written report uses. You will rarely hear it in casual conversation, though it survives in speeches, teaching, reading aloud, and among older and western speakers.

What replaced it is the passive, and the swap is complete across the verb system: otetaan, tehdään, lähdetään, ollaan, syödään. Learn the pattern once and it applies everywhere.

It applies to the past tense too, which is the half most learners never meet: menimme becomes me mentiin, otimme becomes me otettiin, olimme becomes me oltiin. Me mentiin eilen elokuviin is an ordinary sentence.

And to the negative: me ei mennä rather than me emme mene.

The one wrinkle: because me mennään carries an explicit subject, it is not a passive in the ordinary sense any more. Finnish has quietly repurposed a form.

The rule behind mennään

The change in mennään is not a one-off. It is one of the regular changes between written and spoken Finnish, and it applies well beyond this word.

Written Spoken What changed
Writtenmenemme Spokenmennään What changedThe first person plural hands its job to the passive.
Writtenolemme Spokenollaan What changedSame swap on the most common verb in the language.
Writtenotamme Spokenotetaan What changedAnd on every other verb. Learn the pattern once.
Writtenmenimme Spokenme mentiin What changedThe past tense goes the same way, which is the half most learners never meet.
Writtenemme mene Spokenme ei mennä What changedAnd the negative, where the negative verb also stops agreeing.

How Finns actually use mennään

As a proposal, alone: Mennään. It is how plans get made, and it is why Finnish sounds less hedged than English here, no "shall we", no "do you fancy".

With the question clitic, as an invitation: mennäänks meille, "shall we go to ours" - a construction the standard grammar treats as an ordinary way of proposing.

As a plain statement with me: me mennään kesällä Ruotsiin, "we're going to Sweden in the summer".

As a nudge to start moving, said while standing up, which is where you will hear it most often.

mennään in a sentence

  • Mennään. Let's go.
  • Me mennään kesällä Ruotsiin. We're going to Sweden in the summer. · written: Me menemme kesällä Ruotsiin.
  • Mennäänks jo? Shall we go already? · written: Menemmekö jo?
mennään - a woman and her father-in-law pushing their chairs back from a summer cottage table at the same moment
The passive doing the job of let's, which is how Finns say it.

mennään in a conversation

Mennään.
Nyt heti?
Mä sanoin sen jo kaks kertaa.
Mä luulin et sä kerroit mitä me tehdään.

The mistake everyone makes with mennään

Producing menemme in conversation. Not wrong, but it sounds like reading aloud.

Hearing mennään and assuming a passive with no subject, then losing track of who is going. In speech, assume it means we.

Missing that it can be a proposal. If someone says mennään and looks at you, they are not describing anything - they are asking.

Where you will actually hear mennään

The whole scene: the work coffee room , the sauna , at the mökki

Questions people ask about mennään

What does mennään mean?

Both "let's go" and "we go". Spoken Finnish uses the passive where written Finnish uses the first person plural.

Why don't Finns say menemme?

They do in writing, and in formal speech, teaching and reading aloud. In casual conversation the passive has taken over that job across the whole verb system - otetaan, ollaan, tehdään - in the past tense as well: me mentiin.

How do I tell whether mennään is a proposal or a statement?

If me is in front of it, it is usually a statement. On its own, especially with a question intonation or the -ks ending, it is a proposal.

What is mennäänks?

Mennään plus the spoken question ending -ks: "shall we go?" The standard grammar treats this as an ordinary way of making an invitation.

Does this passive work for other verbs?

Yes, all of them. Otamme becomes otetaan, teemme becomes tehdään, olemme becomes ollaan, lähdemme becomes lähdetään.

How do you say "we went" in spoken Finnish?

Me mentiin. The same swap works in the past: menimme becomes me mentiin, otimme becomes me otettiin. The negative is me ei menty.

Is mennään correct Finnish?

Yes. Mennään is the spoken form; menemme is the written one. Both are standard Finnish - they belong to different registers, and neither is a degraded version of the other.

Is mennään a bad word?

Safe with everyone in speech. Write menemme.

oon - a young woman on the phone in an office kitchen doorway saying where she is, coffee cup already in hand, melting snow on the ledge outside
oon written olen Someone rings to say where they are. This is the word you will miss
onks - a man leaning on a Finnish kiosk counter asking whether something is in, the older vendor already reaching under the counter
onks written onko Move the question letter one word to the left and you have asked something else
meen - a woman pulling her coat on in a dim Finnish hallway, half out of the door and calling back into the flat, snow outside
meen written menen In Finnish you do not get married - you go into marriages, and it is plural
mä - two people talking on the shore of an autumn lake beside a wooden jetty
mä written minä The word every textbook spells with three more letters
sä - an older woman behind a Finnish kiosk counter leaning forward and asking a young customer something directly, pointing with an open hand
sä written sinä The polite version you are looking for does not exist
mun - a woman lifting her coat off the back of a café chair as an older man reaches for the same one, melting snow outside
mun written minun Say the phrase your textbook drilled and a Finn hears you arguing over whose book it is
ei oo - a shop assistant and a customer both shrugging in front of a half-empty shelf in a Finnish supermarket
ei oo written ei ole The sentence a shop assistant says to you, in the shape they say it
mulla on - a woman holding up a loyalty card to show a Finnish shop cashier that she has one, bright spring daylight through the doors
mulla on written minulla on I'm hungry in Finnish is at me is a hunger, because the language never built a verb for have

Sources for mennään

  1. VISK § 802 - Mennäänks meille, jooko, kai mä voin tulla Iso suomen kielioppi, Kotimaisten kielten keskus - The construction by name: the passive plus the question clitic as an ordinary way of proposing something.
  2. VISK § 144 - osaatsä, emmä, kuulittekste Iso suomen kielioppi, Kotimaisten kielten keskus - The clitic question ending that turns mennään into mennäänks.
  3. VISK § 716 - minä, sinä, hän, me, te, he Iso suomen kielioppi, Kotimaisten kielten keskus - The me that appears in front of the passive, and what the plural pronouns refer to.
  4. VISK § 1201 - answering with a verb or a particle Iso suomen kielioppi, Kotimaisten kielten keskus - Why the answer to mennäänks is mennään rather than joo.
  5. Kielitoimiston sanakirja: mennä Kotimaisten kielten keskus

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