Breakdown of Päätöksen täytyy olla valmis perjantaihin mennessä.
olla
to be
valmis
ready
täytyä
to have to
perjantai
Friday
päätös
decision
mennessä
by (a deadline)
Questions & Answers about Päätöksen täytyy olla valmis perjantaihin mennessä.
Why does the word for Friday have the -hin ending (perjantaihin)?
The postposition mennessä means "by" a certain deadline. It always requires the word it governs to be in the illative case (the "into" case), which is why we use perjantaihin instead of just perjantai.
Could I use asti or saakka instead of mennessä to mean "by Friday"?
No, because they change the meaning. mennessä is used for deadlines, meaning the action happens at some point before or on Friday. asti and saakka mean "until", which implies a continuous action (for example, "I will work until Friday").
Why is the subject päätöksen (decision) in the genitive case instead of the basic nominative form päätös?
This is because of the verb täytyy (must). In Finnish, verbs expressing necessity require the subject of the sentence to be in the genitive case.
Since päätöksen is in the genitive case, why is the adjective valmis (ready) in the basic nominative case?
In sentences with necessity verbs like täytyy, only the subject takes the genitive case. The adjective describing it remains in the nominative case (or partitive, if it is an uncountable mass noun). Since a decision is a single, countable thing, valmis stays in the basic nominative form.
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