Breakdown of Onko projekti valmis huomiseen mennessä?
olla
to be
valmis
ready
projekti
project
mennessä
by (a deadline)
Questions & Answers about Onko projekti valmis huomiseen mennessä?
Why is the word for tomorrow in the illative case (huomiseen) here?
The postposition mennessä (meaning 'by' a certain time) requires the word attached to it to be in the illative case. This case is often called the 'into' case and usually ends in a double vowel plus -n.
Could I use asti or saakka instead of mennessä in this sentence?
You could, but it would change the meaning. Saying huomiseen asti or huomiseen saakka means 'until tomorrow,' implying a continuous action up to that point. Mennessä is specifically used for deadlines, meaning the project will be ready 'by tomorrow' at the latest.
I learned that the word for tomorrow is huomenna. Where does huomiseen come from?
Huomenna is a fixed time word used when something happens 'tomorrow'. However, when you need to attach grammatical case endings like the illative, you must use the base noun form, which is huominen. The word stem for huominen is huomise-, which gives us the illative form huomiseen.
Just to review, why does the sentence start with Onko?