Learn Hardcore Finnish: Kurssi jatkuu vielä viisi viikkoa, joten saat paljon harjoitusta. - The course continues for five more weeks, so you will get a lot of practice.

So viikkoa is the partitive singular form of viikko.
Forms like viikot (“the weeks”) or viikkoja (“weeks” in partitive plural) are not used directly after a numeral like viisi.

What role does the partitive case play in viisi viikkoa here? Is it about duration?

Yes, it’s doing two things at once:

Numeral rule: After numbers > 1, the counted noun is in partitive singular (as explained above).
Duration expression: Finnish very often uses the partitive for time spans and measures.

So viisi viikkoa can be understood as both:

“five weeks (in number)”, and
“for five weeks” (duration)

This is why Kurssi jatkuu viisi viikkoa can be translated naturally as:
“The course will continue for five weeks.”

What exactly does vielä mean here, and could it mean something else?

Vielä is a flexible word. In this sentence it means:

“still” / “for another” in the sense of additional time.

So Kurssi jatkuu vielä viisi viikkoa =
“The course will continue for another five weeks / will still continue for five more weeks.”

Other common uses of vielä:

Onko kurssi vielä käynnissä? – Is the course still going on?
Haluan vielä yhden kahvin. – I want one more coffee.

Context tells you whether it’s “still”, “yet”, or “more/another”. Here, with viisi viikkoa, it clearly means “five more weeks”.

Why is there a comma before joten, and what exactly does joten mean?

Joten is a coordinating conjunction meaning “so / therefore / thus”. It introduces a result or consequence clause.

Kurssi jatkuu vielä viisi viikkoa, joten saat paljon harjoitusta.
The course will continue for another five weeks, so you will get a lot of practice.

In Finnish, joten usually connects two main clauses, and they are separated by a comma. Compare:

Kurssi jatkuu vielä viisi viikkoa, joten… – The course continues five more weeks, so… (result)
Koska kurssi jatkuu vielä viisi viikkoa, saat… – Because the course continues five more weeks, you (will) get… (reason)

Joten ≈ so / therefore (consequence)
Koska ≈ because (cause)

How is joten different from siksi or koska?

They are related but used differently:

Koska = because (introduces the reason clause)
- Koska kurssi jatkuu vielä viisi viikkoa, saat paljon harjoitusta.
  Because the course continues for five more weeks, you’ll get a lot of practice.
Siksi = for that reason / therefore (adverb, often with että)
- Kurssi jatkuu vielä viisi viikkoa. Siksi saat paljon harjoitusta.
  The course continues for five more weeks. For that reason, you’ll get a lot of practice.
- Kurssi jatkuu vielä viisi viikkoa, siksi että saat paljon harjoitusta. – different meaning: so that you get… (purpose)
Joten = so / therefore (conjunction directly linking the two clauses)
- Kurssi jatkuu vielä viisi viikkoa, joten saat paljon harjoitusta.

In everyday speech, joten is a very natural way to say “so / therefore”.

Does saat mean “you may”, “you can”, or “you get” here?

The verb saada is quite polysemous; it can mean:

to get / receive – Saat paljon harjoitusta. – You will get a lot of practice.
to be allowed to / may – Saat mennä. – You may go.
to manage to / can (in some contexts) – Sain sen tehtyä. – I managed to do it.

In this sentence, saat clearly means “you (will) get / receive” (an outcome, not permission).
A natural English translation is: “so you’ll get a lot of practice.”

Why is present tense used in jatkuu and saat if the meaning is about the future?

Finnish does not have a separate future tense. The present tense is normally used to express both:

present time:
- Kurssi jatkuu nyt. – The course is continuing now.
future time (when context makes it clear):
- Kurssi jatkuu vielä viisi viikkoa. – The course will continue for another five weeks.

Similarly, saat can refer to a future event:

Huomenna saat todistuksen. – Tomorrow you’ll get the certificate.

So here both jatkuu and saat are present tense forms, but interpreted as future from context.

Why is harjoitusta in the partitive singular, not harjoitus or harjoituksia?

Harjoitusta is the partitive singular of harjoitus (practice, exercise).

Here, paljon harjoitusta means “a lot of practice” as an uncountable amount, like a mass noun:

paljon vettä – a lot of water
paljon rahaa – a lot of money
paljon harjoitusta – a lot of practice

If you said paljon harjoituksia, that would mean “many exercises” (countable items: individual tasks or drills), which is a slightly different idea.

Can I also say paljon harjoituksia? How would that change the meaning?

Yes, you can, but the nuance changes:

paljon harjoitusta
– a lot of practice (general practice, time spent practising, skill-building)
paljon harjoituksia
– many exercises (many individual tasks, drills, assignments)

So:

…saat paljon harjoitusta. – You will get plenty of practice in general.
…saat paljon harjoituksia. – You will get many separate exercises to do.

Both are grammatically correct; the original sentence focuses more on practice as experience, not on the number of tasks.

Why is there no sinä before saat? How do we know it means “you”?

In Finnish, subject pronouns are often omitted because the verb ending already shows the person:

saan – I get
saat – you (singular) get
saa – he/she/it gets
saamme – we get
saatte – you (plural) get
saavat – they get

So saat by itself clearly means “you (sg.) get / will get”.
Including sinä is possible but usually adds emphasis:

Sinä saat paljon harjoitusta. – You will get a lot of practice (as opposed to others).

Can the word order be changed, for example putting vielä or viisi viikkoa somewhere else?

Finnish word order is fairly flexible, and you can move elements to change emphasis:

Kurssi jatkuu vielä viisi viikkoa, joten saat paljon harjoitusta.
– neutral, standard.
Kurssi jatkuu viisi viikkoa vielä, joten…
– a bit more emphasis on “for five weeks more (and then it ends)”.
Vielä viisi viikkoa kurssi jatkuu, joten saat paljon harjoitusta.
– emphasises “still five weeks” (e.g. maybe you expected it to end earlier).

All of these are understandable; the original version is the most neutral and typical in writing.

Could I express the same idea using koska instead of joten?

Yes, but the structure and focus shift slightly:

Original (result emphasised):

Kurssi jatkuu vielä viisi viikkoa, joten saat paljon harjoitusta.
The course will continue for another five weeks, so you’ll get a lot of practice.

With koska (cause emphasised):

Koska kurssi jatkuu vielä viisi viikkoa, saat paljon harjoitusta.
Because the course will continue for another five weeks, you’ll get a lot of practice.

Both are correct. Joten highlights the consequence, koska highlights the reason.