Breakdown of Kolmen vuoden päästä hän valmistuu lukiosta.
hän
he / she
kolme
three
vuosi
year
valmistua
to graduate, to be completed
päästä
in, after (a period of time)
lukio
high school
Questions & Answers about Kolmen vuoden päästä hän valmistuu lukiosta.
Why are kolme and vuosi written as kolmen vuoden here?
They are in the genitive case. The postposition päästä (meaning in or after a certain amount of time) requires the time words coming before it to be in the genitive.
Could I use kuluttua instead of päästä in this sentence?
Yes, kolmen vuoden kuluttua means exactly the same thing. Both päästä and kuluttua are used with the genitive case to talk about when something will happen in the future.
The translation says will graduate, but valmistuu is in the present tense. Why?
Finnish does not have a dedicated future tense. You simply use the present tense for future events, and the time phrase kolmen vuoden päästä makes it perfectly clear that this is happening in the future.
Why does lukiosta have the -sta (from/out of) ending?
In Finnish, when you graduate from a school, you graduate out of it. The verb valmistua (to graduate) requires the elative case (-sta/-stä).
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