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Älkää is the Finnish negative imperative form used to tell a group of people not to do something. It functions as the plural or polite counterpart to the singular negative imperative äIä. In everyday Finnish, älkää is attached to the verb in its base present form, and the rest of the clause follows standard word order. The construction is widely used in spoken language, written instructions, and signs to express prohibition or warning.

In typical usage, älkää appears with a verb that is in the present tense base form, resulting in phrases such as Älkää menkö sinne (Don’t go there) and Älkää tehkö sitä (Don’t do that). It is common in formal and informal contexts alike and can appear in warnings, rules, gates, notices, and conversational guidance. The imperative form for individuals is äIä, not älkää, making the two forms distinct in mood and number.

Historically, älkää is the standard plural or polite negation form in modern Finnish and contrasts with the singular äiä/äle form used for one person. There are related forms for other persons and levels of formality, such as älköön for some third-person prohibitions in more formal or literary style, but päivittäisessä käytössä älkää is the most common. The particle is a fixed part of Finnish grammar and appears across dialects and registers.

Overall, älkää serves as the primary tool in Finnish for issuing prohibitions to groups or in polite address, complementing the singular äIä form and the formal älköön variant in specific contexts.