Voida is a a handy verb to use when you want to be polite. The conditional mode makes you sound even more polite.
- Voitko auttaa minua? - Can you help me?
- Voisitko auttaa minua? - Could you help me?
- Auttaisitko minua? - Would you help me?
- Voiksä auttaa mua?
- Voisiksä auttaa mua?
- Auttaisiksä mua?
Sometimes I hear students saying Auta minua, ole hyvä or Ole hyvä ja auta minua which are technically correct, but a bit too much and kind of strict. I never use the imperative + ole hyvä construction unless I'm losing my patience with my kids. If you are for example a doctor, you can say things like Ole hyvä ja istu (Please, sit down) but make sure your tone of voice is super friendly.
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If you don't say 'ole hyvä', but only 'istu', that sound very rude to me. But is is polite in Finnish? For example when friends come to my house, I can day 'istu'? Without being rude?
In my spoken language I would say just:
Hei, voisitko vähän auttaa?
'hei' ja 'vähän' make the question just a shade more friendly. Also, I think most of us Finns do not say 'mua' (tai 'minua' tai 'minnuu' - I myself never say 'sä' tai 'mua', but that is a matter of dialect).
First of all, istu = singular, istukaa = plural.
Second, there are several ways to soften these expressions, like
"Tulkaapa istumaan."
"Istukaahan."
"istukaa ihmeessä."
Third, nobody expects foreigners to be so idiomatic, so I think "ole hyvä" is just fine, perhaps slightly more natural if you say:
"Ole hyvä ja istu" or
"Olkaa hyvä(t) ja istukaa."
I might even imagine saying such sentences myself.
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