lauletaanpas - what does it mean?

[SmotritelTerve]

lauletaanpas - what does it mean?

example:

- Lauletaanpas pukille laulu.

[Massimiliano B]

It comes from laulaa "to sing". It means "let's sing". The ending -pas is composed of -pa and -s. The ending -pa indicates emphasis. In spoken language it is often followed by -s.

[SmotritelTerve]

So I can translate the sentence the following way:

- Let's sing a song to Santa (Claus)

?

[Swienegel]

I guess so, but it's still grammatically wrong... you can't have the object in nominative. Depending on the meaning, it should be laulun or laulua.

[SmotritelTerve]

Kiitos !

[Massimiliano B]

The accusate can have either the ending of the genitive (-n) and of the partitive (-a/-ta/-tta) or can have no endings. When a noun is the object of an imperative and of a passive verb, its form is the same as the nominative. Lauletaanpas is both imperative and passive, so the direct object can only be in the 'basic' form (the nominative). It's formally a nominative but its grammatical role is accusative

[Varislintu]

Yes, Massimiliano is right, it's grammatically correct as it is, "Lauletaanpas pukille laulu". And indeed it means "Let's sing a song for Santa Claus".

[Vlürch]

It might be worth not(h)ing that it's synonymous with "laulakaamme", though not as formal-sounding or whatever. I guess there's some type of a very subtle difference in the sense that "laulakaamme" would probably be used in more official contexts like at church or something. But most people would generally just say "lauletaan" in either situation unless they're talking to kids or are old, I think.