kestä

Kestä is the imperative form of the Finnish verb kestää, meaning to endure, to withstand, or to last. As an imperative, kestä is directed at a single second-person subject and is used to urge someone to endure or to hold on in a difficult moment. The negative imperative is älä kestä, meaning “don’t endure” or “don’t put up with it,” though this construction is relatively uncommon in everyday speech.

In standard usage, kestää governs expressions about duration or endurance, such as se kestää kauan, “it lasts a long time.” The imperative kestä can thus function both in urging someone to persevere and in time-related contexts when addressing someone directly.

The form kestä is connected to a family of related words built on the same root, including kestävä (durable, sustainable), kestävyys (endurance, durability), and kestäminen (enduring, endurance). The root is a part of many Finnic linguistic derivatives and appears in phrases that express resilience or durability, such as kestävä kehitys (sustainable development).

Notes on usage and nuance: kestä often carries a practical, action-oriented sense of tolerating or withstanding a situation, rather than a purely emotional sense. It is common in everyday speech for prompting someone to pause and endure a moment, such as Kestä hetki, “Hold on a moment.” The form illustrates how Finnish imperatives directly address the listener with concise, action-focused messaging.