Learn Hardcore Finnish: Tuleva vuosi on minulle tärkeä.

In Tuleva vuosi on minulle tärkeä, the idea is “The coming year is important *to me”, so Finnish uses the allative *minulle instead of the nominative minä.

What exactly is tuleva? Is it a tense, like “will be”?

Tuleva is not a tense; it’s a present active participle of the verb tulla (to come). Here it’s used as an adjective meaning “coming” or “upcoming”.

Finnish doesn’t have a separate future tense. Instead, it often uses:

The normal present tense with time expressions
Adjectives/participles like tuleva (“coming”)

So tuleva vuosi literally = “the coming year”, not “will year” or anything like that.

What’s the difference between tuleva vuosi and ensi vuosi? Both seem to mean “next year”.

Both can point to the year that is coming, but they feel slightly different:

Ensi vuosi = next year in the everyday, straightforward sense.
- This is what you’ll hear most often in casual speech.
Tuleva vuosi = the coming / upcoming year, often a bit more formal, neutral, or “planned” sounding.
- Common in speeches, writing, or whenever you’re talking about the year ahead in a more general or reflective way.

In many contexts, you could replace tuleva vuosi with ensi vuosi without changing the basic meaning.

Why is tärkeä in this form? What is it agreeing with?

Tärkeä is an adjective meaning “important”. In this sentence it is a predicative adjective describing the subject tuleva vuosi.

In Finnish copula sentences (X on Y = “X is Y”), the predicative usually agrees with the subject in number and case:

Subject: tuleva vuosi (singular, nominative)
Predicative: tärkeä (singular, nominative)

So you get: Tuleva vuosi on tärkeä.
If the subject were plural (e.g. tulevat vuodet), the adjective would also be plural (e.g. tärkeitä or tärkeät, see below).

Could I change the word order, like Tuleva vuosi on tärkeä minulle or Minulle tuleva vuosi on tärkeä?

Yes, Finnish allows flexible word order, and all of these are grammatically correct:

Tuleva vuosi on minulle tärkeä.
Tuleva vuosi on tärkeä minulle.
Minulle tuleva vuosi on tärkeä.

The difference is mainly in emphasis and focus:

Sentence-initial position tends to carry more topic/emphasis.
Minulle tuleva vuosi on tärkeä highlights you more: “For me, the coming year is important (even if maybe for others it isn’t).”
Tuleva vuosi on tärkeä minulle is closer to neutral English word order: “The coming year is important to me.”

The original Tuleva vuosi on minulle tärkeä is also quite neutral, with a slight focus on tärkeä at the end.

Why is there no word for “the” or “a/an” in this sentence?

Finnish has no articles at all—no equivalents of “the” or “a/an”.

Whether something is understood as definite (the) or indefinite (a/an) comes from:

Context
Word order and emphasis
Sometimes possessive structures or demonstratives

In Tuleva vuosi on minulle tärkeä, context would tell you that this is “the coming year (next year)”, not “a coming year”. In practice, tuleva vuosi in normal speech almost always refers to the next calendar year.

Is there a difference between minulle tärkeä and tärkeä minulle?

Grammatically, both are fine and both mean “important to me”, but there is a slight difference in focus:

minulle tärkeä: mild emphasis on minulle – important to me (as opposed to someone else).
tärkeä minulle: mild emphasis on tärkeä – the property “important” is highlighted, and minulle just specifies to whom.

In many neutral contexts they are practically interchangeable, especially in a short sentence like this. Word order becomes more relevant in longer sentences or when you want to stress contrast.

Could I leave out on, like in some languages where “is” is optional?

No, not in standard Finnish. In a basic copula sentence X on Y, the verb olla (“to be”) is normally required.

Correct: Tuleva vuosi on minulle tärkeä.
Incorrect (in standard Finnish): Tuleva vuosi minulle tärkeä.

In very colloquial speech, you might hear sentences where on is dropped in certain patterns, but here it would sound ungrammatical or extremely dialectal. For learners, always include on.

How would I say “The coming years are important to me”?

You need to make both the noun and the adjective plural:

Tulevat vuodet ovat minulle tärkeitä.

Breakdown:

tulevat vuodet = the coming years (plural)
ovat = are
minulle = to/for me
tärkeitä = important (plural, partitive form used here)

You might also see tärkeät instead of tärkeitä:

Tulevat vuodet ovat minulle tärkeät.

Rough nuance:

tärkeitä = describing their quality (they are important, as a characteristic)
tärkeät = presents them a bit more as a specific set: “those (particular) years are the important ones for me.”

Both are correct; tärkeitä is very common in modern usage.

How do you pronounce Tuleva vuosi on minulle tärkeä? Any typical traps for English speakers?

Approximate pronunciation (primary stress on the first syllable of each word):

Tuleva → TU-le-va (all vowels clearly separate, not “tul-va”)
vuosi → VUO-si (the uo is a diphthong like “uo” in “duo”, but shorter and tighter)
on → like English “on” but shorter
minulle → MI-nul-le (both l’s pronounced; each syllable short and clear)
tärkeä → TÄR-ke-ä
- ä is like the a in “cat”, not like English “a” in “father”
- Final -eä are two separate vowels: ke-ä, not merged into one sound

Common pitfalls:

Making vowels too short or too English-like
Not separating eä properly in tärkeä
Stressing the wrong syllables; in Finnish it’s always the first syllable of each word.