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Sinkkuystävä tulee kylään lauantai-iltana.

Sinkkuystävä tulee kylään lauantai-iltana.
The single friend comes to visit on Saturday evening.
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Questions & Answers about Sinkkuystävä tulee kylään lauantai-iltana.

What does sinkkuystävä literally mean, and how natural is this word?

Sinkkuystävä is a compound noun:

  • sinkku = single (unmarried / not in a relationship)
  • ystävä = friend

So literally: “single friend.”

Usage notes:

  • It normally means a friend who is single, not a romantic partner.
  • It’s understandable and grammatically fine, but many Finns would more commonly say sinkkukaveri (kaveri = buddy, mate) in casual speech.
  • If you want to be very clear you mean “a friend who is single (not in a relationship),” you can also say:
    • ystävä, joka on sinkku = a friend who is single
How do you say “my single friend” in Finnish? Why isn’t “my” shown in the sentence?

Finnish usually leaves “my” (and other possessives) out when context makes it obvious.

To say “my single friend” explicitly, you could use:

  • sinkkuystäväni tulee kylään lauantai-iltana.
    • sinkkuystäväni = my single friend (possessive suffix -ni = my)

More colloquial possibilities:

  • mun sinkkuystävä tulee kylään lauantai-iltana.
    • mun = my (spoken / informal)

So the original sentence Sinkkuystävä tulee kylään lauantai-iltana. can easily be understood as “(my) single friend is coming over on Saturday evening” if the context is clear.

Why is tulee (present tense) used if the visit is in the future?

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

  • things happening right now
  • planned / scheduled future events

So:

  • Sinkkuystävä tulee kylään lauantai-iltana.
    = My single friend is coming / will come over on Saturday evening.

The future meaning is understood from the time expression (lauantai-iltana) and from context, not from a special verb form.

What does kylään mean exactly, and why not kotiin?

Kylään literally comes from kylä = village, but in modern Finnish:

  • tulla kylään (jonkun luo) = to come visit (someone), to come over as a guest

Here:

  • kylä (village)
  • kylään = into/for a visit (illative case; more on that below)

So:

  • tulee kylään = is coming over (as a guest)

Why not kotiin?

  • tulee kotiin = is coming home (to their own home, unless otherwise specified)
  • tulee kylään = is coming to your (or someone’s) place as a guest

So tulee kylään focuses on the visit / being a guest, not on “home” itself.

What case is kylään, and what does the -än ending show?

Kylään is in the illative case.

  • Base form: kylä
  • Illative: kylään

The illative often answers “(in)to where?” – movement into or towards something. Examples:

  • taloon = into the house (talo → taloon)
  • Suomeen = to Finland (Suomi → Suomeen)
  • kaupunkiin = into the city (kaupunki → kaupunkiin)

Here:

  • kylään = (to) a visit / (to) someone’s place as visitor

So tulee kylään literally has the sense “comes into (a visit)” → “comes to visit.”

Why is there a hyphen in lauantai-iltana? Could it also be written together?

Lauantai-iltana is a compound of:

  • lauantai = Saturday
  • ilta = evening
  • iltana = in the evening (essive case)

Reason for the hyphen:

  • Finnish uses a hyphen when compounding words if writing them together would create an awkward or hard‑to‑read form, especially around vowel clusters.
  • So instead of lauantaiiltana, you get lauantai-iltana, which is clearer.

Meaning:

  • lauantai-ilta = Saturday evening
  • lauantai-iltana = on Saturday evening (the whole phrase in essive case).
Why does iltana end in -na, and what does that form mean?

Iltana is the essive case of ilta (evening).

  • ilta = evening
  • iltana = (on) the evening / in the evening

The essive case (-na / -nä) is often used for time expressions in Finnish. It roughly corresponds to “on” or “in” in English when talking about when something happens.

Common examples:

  • maanantaina = on Monday
  • kesällä (adessive) and kesänä (essive in some uses) = in (the) summer
  • viikonloppuna = on/over the weekend

So lauantai-iltana literally: “on Saturday evening.”

Is Finnish word order fixed here? Could I say Lauantai-iltana sinkkuystävä tulee kylään?

The word order is fairly flexible, especially with time and place expressions.

All of these are grammatical:

  1. Sinkkuystävä tulee kylään lauantai-iltana.
    • Neutral, subject first: Who is coming? → My single friend.
  2. Lauantai-iltana sinkkuystävä tulee kylään.
    • Emphasises the time: When is the friend coming? On Saturday evening.
  3. Kylään sinkkuystävä tulee lauantai-iltana.
    • Emphasises the visiting aspect, more marked / stylistic.

In everyday speech, version 1 is the most typical, but starting with Lauantai-iltana (version 2) is also very common and natural.

What is the difference between ystävä and kaveri? Would sinkkukaveri change the feeling?

Roughly:

  • ystävä = friend in a deeper / closer sense, sometimes even “good friend.”
  • kaveri = buddy, mate, pal; often more casual, everyday word.

So:

  • sinkkuystävä = single friend (sounds a bit more formal or emotionally closer)
  • sinkkukaveri = single buddy/mate, more colloquial.

In real spoken Finnish, sinkkukaveri or simply kaveri, joka on sinkku would probably be more common than sinkkuystävä, unless you really mean a close friend.

Could I say ystävä joka on sinkku tulee kylään lauantai-iltana instead of sinkkuystävä?

Yes, you can.

  • Ystävä, joka on sinkku, tulee kylään lauantai-iltana.
    = A friend who is single is coming over on Saturday evening.

Differences:

  • sinkkuystävä
    • Compact, compound noun.
    • Feels more like a fixed label (“my single friend”).
  • ystävä, joka on sinkku
    • More descriptive, like extra information: “a friend who (by the way) is single.”

Both are correct; choice is stylistic and depends on how “fixed” that property feels.

How would I say “On Saturday evening, my single friend will be coming over to my place” more explicitly?

A natural, explicit version could be:

  • Lauantai-iltana mun sinkkuystävä tulee mun luo kylään. (colloquial)
  • Lauantai-iltana sinkkuystäväni tulee luokseni kylään. (more formal / written)

Breakdown (formal version):

  • Lauantai-iltana = on Saturday evening
  • sinkkuystäväni = my single friend
  • tulee = comes / will come
  • luokseni = to my place / to me
  • kylään = for a visit / as a guest

Often in speech, Finns will not repeat all that; the shorter original sentence is usually enough if context is clear.

What are the main grammatical roles in Sinkkuystävä tulee kylään lauantai-iltana?

  • Sinkkuystävä

    • Case: nominative singular
    • Role: subject (“the one who is coming”)

  • tulee

    • Verb: 3rd person singular, present tense
    • Role: predicate (“comes / is coming / will come”)

  • kylään

    • Case: illative
    • Role: direction / goal of movement (“for a visit / to (someone’s place)”)

  • lauantai-iltana

    • lauantai-ilta = Saturday evening
    • lauantai-iltana = essive case of the whole compound
    • Role: time expression (“on Saturday evening”)

Together:
Sinkkuystävä (subject) tulee (verb) kylään (direction) lauantai-iltana (time).