Current time periods with "tänä"
To talk about "this" specific time period (such as "this morning" or "this summer"), Finnish uses the word tänä. This is the irregular essive case form of the pronoun tämä (this).
When you use tänä, the time noun that follows it must agree with it and also take the essive case (ending in -na or -nä).
| This summer the tour is completely sold out. | Tänä kesänä kiertue on täysin loppuunmyyty. |
| The guitarist is supposed to haul the gear this evening. | Kitaristin on tarkoitus roudata tavarat tänä iltana. |
| Did you haul everything this morning? | Roudasitteko kaiken tänä aamuna? |
Next and previous periods with "ensi" and "viime"
To talk about the future or the past, you will use ensi (next) and viime (last / previous).
Unlike tänä, both ensi and viime are indeclinable—their forms never change. The time noun following them simply takes its standard time-expression case. For many nouns like years, days, or nights, this is the essive case (vuonna, perjantaina, yönä), while others like weeks take the adessive case (viikolla).
| The band is scheduled to start the tour next week. | Bändin on määrä aloittaa kiertue ensi viikolla. |
| Last year I happened to meet the guitarist in the dressing room. | Viime vuonna satuin tapaamaan kitaristin takahuoneessa. |
Managing a hectic tour schedule
These demonstrative modifiers are crucial for coordinating busy itineraries, from scheduling load-outs to booking future gigs or talking about past shows.
| Next year the bassist and the drummer will do two sold-out gigs. | Ensi vuonna basisti ja rumpali tekevät kaksi loppuunmyytyä keikkaa. |
| The bassist gave an autograph to a fan last Friday. | Basisti antoi nimikirjoituksen fanille viime perjantaina. |
| We are scheduled to cross a new time zone tomorrow night. | Meidän on määrä ylittää uusi aikavyöhyke ensi yönä. |
