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Questions & Answers about Toivon hyvää säätä huomenna.
What does toivon mean and how is it formed?
toivon is the first person singular present indicative form of the verb toivoa, meaning I hope.
Why is hyvää säätä in the partitive case?
With the verb toivoa, the thing you hope for takes the partitive case when it’s viewed as an unbounded or general wish. The basic form hyvä sää becomes hyvää säätä in partitive.
Why doesn’t huomenna have a case ending?
huomenna is a temporal adverb meaning tomorrow, not a noun, so it remains uninflected.
Why is there no että – in English that – between toivon and hyvää?
Finnish lets toivoa take a direct partitive object (toivon hyvää säätä) without a conjunction. If you prefer a subordinate clause, you add että – that –:
Toivon, että huomenna on hyvää säätä.
How could I use toivottavasti instead?
toivottavasti is an adverb meaning hopefully. You could say:
Toivottavasti huomenna on hyvää säätä.
or
Toivottavasti on huomenna hyvä sää.
Note that here you need the verb on (is).
Can I rearrange the word order, for example Huomenna toivon hyvää säätä?
Yes. Finnish word order is relatively free. Placing huomenna first emphasizes tomorrow, but the overall meaning “I hope for good weather tomorrow” stays the same.
Why is the present tense used to talk about tomorrow?
Finnish commonly uses the present tense for future events when the time is clear from context; here huomenna makes it obvious you mean tomorrow.
Do I need to include minä (I)?
No. The verb ending –n already marks the subject as I, so minä is usually omitted. You could say Minä toivon hyvää säätä huomenna for emphasis, but it isn’t required.
Why do both hyvä and sää end in –ä here?
In Finnish, adjectives agree with their nouns in case and number. In the partitive singular, hyvä becomes hyvää and sää becomes säätä, yielding hyvää säätä.