Breakdown of Sihteeri sanoi puhelussa, että johtaja tiedottaa uudesta säännöstä huomenna.
uusi
new
sanoa
to say
huomenna
tomorrow
sääntö
rule
että
that (conjunction)
johtaja
the director
sihteeri
secretary
puhelu
phone call
tiedottaa
to inform (give public information, announce)
Questions & Answers about Sihteeri sanoi puhelussa, että johtaja tiedottaa uudesta säännöstä huomenna.
Why does the Finnish sentence use the present tense tiedottaa when the English translation says "would inform"?
This is because Finnish doesn't use the 'sequence of tenses' rule like English does. In English, if the reporting verb is in the past (sanoi), the reported action shifts to the past or conditional (would inform). In Finnish, reported speech keeps the exact same tense the original speaker used. The secretary originally said "Johtaja tiedottaa..." (The manager will inform...), so we keep tiedottaa in the present tense even though the phone call happened in the past.
Why are the words for "new rule" in the elative case (uudesta säännöstä)?
The verb tiedottaa (to inform or announce) requires the thing being announced to be in the elative case (-sta/-stä), which translates well to "about" in English. Because adjectives must agree with their nouns in Finnish, both uusi (new) and sääntö (rule) must take this ending.
What happened to the spelling of sääntö (rule) to make it säännöstä?
When you add the elative ending -stä, you close the final syllable, which triggers consonant gradation. The strong -nt- in the middle of sääntö weakens to -nn-, making the stem säännö- before the ending is attached.
What is the difference between saying puhelussa and puhelimessa here?
Puhelussa comes from the noun puhelu (a phone call) and means "during the phone call". If you said puhelimessa (from puhelin, telephone), it would mean the secretary said it "on the phone". Both make sense, but puhelussa focuses on the event of the conversation itself.
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