Työntekijä saapuu kokoukseen aikaisin.

The employee arrives early to the meeting.

Breakdown of Työntekijä saapuu kokoukseen aikaisin.

• aikaisin: early
• saapua: to arrive
• kokous: the meeting
• työntekijä: the employee

Questions & Answers about Työntekijä saapuu kokoukseen aikaisin.

What case is kokoukseen, and what does it express?

Kokoukseen is in the illative case (singular), and it expresses motion into or towards something—in this case, “to the meeting.” Finnish often uses case endings instead of prepositions like “to.”

How do you form the illative case for a word like kokous that ends in -us?

For nouns ending in -us, you typically drop the -s, insert -kse-, and then add the ending -en.
Example:
• kokous → drop -s → kokou-
• insert -kse- → kokoukse-
• add -en → kokoukseen

Why is aikaisin used instead of an adjective form like aikainen?

Aikaisin is an adverb meaning “early.” Adjectives (like aikainen) modify nouns (“an early meeting” → aikainen kokous), whereas adverbs modify verbs (telling us how someone arrives).

Why isn’t there an article (like “the” or “a”) before työntekijä?

Finnish does not have articles. A noun in singular without any extra markers can mean “a(n) X” or “the X,” depending on context. Here työntekijä simply means “the/a worker/employee.”

What tense and person is saapuu, and how is it formed?

Saapuu is the present tense (indicative) of saapua, in the 3rd person singular. It means “he/she/it arrives” or “arrives.”
Conjugation pattern (present):
minä saapun, sinä saavut, hän saapuu, me saapumme, te saavut­te, he saapuvat.

Could you use tulla instead of saapua, and what’s the difference?

Yes, you could say Työntekijä tulee kokoukseen aikaisin.
• tulla = to come (more general/colloquial)
• saapua = to arrive (slightly more formal, emphasises the act of arriving)

How would you make the sentence plural: “Employees arrive early to the meetings”?

You change the subject and all relevant words to plural:
Työntekijät saapuvat kokouksiin aikaisin.
• Työntekijä → Työntekijät (nominative plural)
• saapuu → saapuvat (3rd person plural)
• kokoukseen → kokouksiin (illative plural)
• aikaisin remains the same (adverbs don’t inflect for number)

How do you say “The employee arrived early to the meeting” in the past tense?

Use the imperfect (simple past) of saapua:
Työntekijä saapui kokoukseen aikaisin.
Here saapui is the 3rd person singular imperfect of saapua.