Isä tulee käymään lauantaina.

My father comes to visit on Saturday.

Breakdown of Isä tulee käymään lauantaina.

• tulla: to come
• käydä: to visit
• isä: the father
• lauantaina: on Saturday

Questions & Answers about Isä tulee käymään lauantaina.

Why are there two verbs in tulee käymään? What does that structure mean?

In Finnish it’s very common to use a verb of movement (like tulla to come) together with another verb in a special infinitive form to express purpose.

• tulee = comes / is coming / will come
• käymään = to visit / to drop by (literally “into visiting”)

So tulee käymään literally means something like:

• comes in order to visit / comes to visit (briefly)

The two-verb structure is similar to English “come to visit” or “go to see”, but in Finnish it’s formed with this -maan / -mään infinitive after the movement verb.

What exactly is käymään grammatically?

Käymään is:

• the third infinitive of käydä (to visit, to go (briefly))
• in the illative case (the -maan / -mään form)

So:

• basic verb: käydä
• 3rd infinitive base: käymä-
• illative ending: -än
  → käymään

The third infinitive in illative is very common after verbs of movement (e.g. tulla, mennä, lähteä) to express purpose:

• tulla syömään – to come to eat
• mennä nukkumaan – to go to sleep
• lähteä ostamaan – to go to buy

Here tulee käymään = comes in order to visit.

What is the difference between tulla käymään and just käydä?

Both involve the idea of a brief visit, but:

• käydä on its own is just to visit / to pop in / to go (briefly):

  • Isä käy lauantaina. – Dad visits / pops in on Saturday. (more like a statement of fact or routine)

• tulla käymään adds the sense of coming (here) for that brief visit:

  • Isä tulee käymään lauantaina. – Dad will come (here) for a visit on Saturday.

So tulla käymään focuses on the movement towards the speaker’s place plus the short visit; käydä alone is more neutral about where he goes and might sound more like a neutral “he will visit (somewhere)” or a habitual thing depending on context.

Why is tulee in the present tense if the visit is in the future?

Finnish does not have a separate future tense.
The present tense is used for:

• present time: Isä tulee nyt. – Dad is coming now.
• future time: Isä tulee lauantaina. – Dad will come on Saturday.

Time is usually made clear by context or time expressions like huomenna (tomorrow), ensi viikolla (next week), lauantaina (on Saturday), etc.

So Isä tulee käymään lauantaina is naturally understood as future because of lauantaina.

What does the -na ending in lauantaina mean?

The -na / -nä ending here is the essive case.

With names of days and some time expressions, the essive is commonly used to mean “on (that day / at that time)”:

• lauantai – Saturday
• lauantaina – on Saturday
• maanantai – Monday
• maanantaina – on Monday
• talvi – winter
• talvella (adessive) – in winter (another case, but similar time-use idea)

So lauantaina literally is something like as Saturday, but functionally it means “on Saturday”.

Could I say Isä tulee lauantai instead of lauantaina?

No, that would be incorrect.

You must put lauantai in the essive case to express on Saturday:

• ✅ Isä tulee lauantaina. – Dad will come (on Saturday).
• ❌ Isä tulee lauantai. – wrong (bare nominative doesn’t work here)

For days of the week in time expressions, use:

• lauantaina – on Saturday
• sunnuntaina – on Sunday
• perjantaina – on Friday

The bare nominative (lauantai) is used when the day is the subject or complement, not a time adverbial:

• Tänään on lauantai. – Today is Saturday.

Can I change the word order, like Lauantaina isä tulee käymään?

Yes. Finnish word order is quite flexible, and you can move elements to the beginning for emphasis or topic focus.

All of these are grammatically correct:

1. Isä tulee käymään lauantaina.
   – neutral, common order; focus on the whole event.

2. Lauantaina isä tulee käymään.
   – emphasizes the time; “As for Saturday, Dad is (the one who) will come to visit.”

3. Isä lauantaina tulee käymään.
   – possible, but more marked; could sound a bit stylized or poetic.

The basic meaning stays the same, but what you are highlighting changes. The version in the prompt is the most typical everyday order.

How would I say “My dad is coming to visit on Saturday” more explicitly?

The given sentence Isä tulee käymään lauantaina is usually understood as my dad if you are talking about your own family, because Finnish often omits possessive pronouns when it’s obvious.

To make “my” explicit:

• Minun isäni tulee käymään lauantaina.
  – grammatically full, slightly formal or emphatic

In everyday speech, Finns often use the colloquial pronoun and drop the possessive suffix:

• Mun isä tulee käymään lauantaina.
  – very natural spoken Finnish: My dad is coming to visit on Saturday.

Why is there no word for “a” or “the” in the Finnish sentence?

Finnish does not have articles like English a/an or the.

• Isä can mean a father, the father or my father, depending on context.
• Isä tulee käymään lauantaina. is translated as:
  • Dad is coming to visit on Saturday.
  • My dad is coming to visit on Saturday.
    depending on who you are talking about.

Specificity and definiteness are usually expressed by context, word order, and sometimes possessive forms, not by separate article words.

Could I just say Isä tulee lauantaina without käymään?

Yes, and it’s perfectly correct, but the nuance changes:

• Isä tulee lauantaina.
  – Dad will come on Saturday.
  Neutral: he will come (to this place), but it doesn’t say for what purpose.

• Isä tulee käymään lauantaina.
  – Dad will come to visit on Saturday (for a brief visit).
  Adds the idea of a short visit as the purpose.

So käymään tells you more specifically why he is coming and that it’s not a long stay.

Does käymään imply that the visit is short?

Yes, that is an important nuance.

The verb käydä often implies:

• a short or brief visit / stop / trip:
  • Käyn kaupassa. – I’ll pop to the store.
  • Käyn lääkärissä. – I’ll go to the doctor (for an appointment).

So tulee käymään suggests that Dad is coming for a shortish visit, not to move in or stay for a long time. In English, you might translate this nuance with:

• Dad will pop by on Saturday.
• Dad will come over for a visit on Saturday.

How would I say this in the negative: “Dad will not come to visit on Saturday”?

Finnish forms negation with a negative verb (ei) plus the main verb in a special negative form.

Positive:

• Isä tulee käymään lauantaina. – Dad will come to visit on Saturday.

Negative:

• Isä ei tule käymään lauantaina. – Dad will not come to visit on Saturday.

Here:

• ei – negative verb (3rd person singular is just ei)
• tule – the stem form used with ei (not tulee)
• käymään stays the same, because the negation is on tulee.

How would I make a yes–no question: “Is Dad coming to visit on Saturday?”

Use the -ko / -kö question particle, usually attached to the verb and move it to the first position of the sentence.

Statement:

• Isä tulee käymään lauantaina. – Dad is coming to visit on Saturday.

Question:

• Tuleeko isä käymään lauantaina? – Is Dad coming to visit on Saturday?

Here:

• tulee
  • ko → tuleeko
• word order changes so the verb with -ko comes first

Short answers:

• Kyllä, tulee. – Yes, he is (coming).
• Ei, ei tule. – No, he isn’t (coming).