Breakdown of Pomo sanoi, että hän lähettää vahvistuksen huomenna.
hän
he / she
sanoa
to say
huomenna
tomorrow
lähettää
to send
pomo
boss
että
that (conjunction)
vahvistus
confirmation
Questions & Answers about Pomo sanoi, että hän lähettää vahvistuksen huomenna.
Why does the Finnish sentence use lähettää (present tense) when the English translation says "would send"?
This is the core rule of reported speech in Finnish. In English, we usually shift tenses back in time: 'I will send' becomes 'he said he would send'. In Finnish, you keep the exact same tense the person originally used. The boss originally said Lähetän... (I send / I will send), so the reported clause simply changes the pronoun and verb person to hän lähettää, keeping it in the present tense.
Is there a future tense form of lähettää that could be used here instead?
No, Finnish does not have a dedicated future tense. To express that something will happen in the future, you use the standard present tense. The context here, provided by the time word huomenna (tomorrow), makes it perfectly clear that the action is happening in the future.
Why is the object vahvistuksen in the genitive-looking accusative case, rather than the partitive?
It shows that the action will be fully completed. The boss isn't sending 'some of' a confirmation or engaged in an ongoing process; he will send the one, complete confirmation. When a complete action targets a whole singular noun, it takes the accusative case, which takes the -n ending.
Is the comma before että optional, like it often is in English?
No, it is mandatory. In Finnish, you must always use a comma to separate the main clause (Pomo sanoi) from a subordinate clause starting with että (that).
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