Opettaja järjestää kokouksen huomenna.

The teacher organizes the meeting tomorrow.

Breakdown of Opettaja järjestää kokouksen huomenna.

• huomenna: tomorrow
• kokous: the meeting
• opettaja: the teacher
• järjestää: to organize

Questions & Answers about Opettaja järjestää kokouksen huomenna.

Why is it kokouksen and not just kokous?

Kokouksen is in the genitive case, and here it functions as a total object.

In Finnish, the object of a verb often appears either:

• in the partitive case (e.g. kokousta), or
• in the genitive case (e.g. kokouksen).

With järjestää (to arrange/organize), using the genitive object (kokouksen) usually means:

• the action is completed or bounded,
• the meeting will be fully arranged.

So:

• Opettaja järjestää kokouksen huomenna.
  → The teacher will arrange the whole meeting tomorrow; we expect the arranging to be completed.

If it were Opettaja järjestää kokousta, it would sound like:

• the arranging is ongoing, or
• we are focusing on the process, not on finishing it.

In this sentence, we’re talking about a specific meeting that is going to be arranged completely, so kokouksen (genitive total object) is used.

Why is the verb järjestää in the present tense if the action happens tomorrow?

Finnish does not have a separate grammatical future tense. Instead, the present tense is used for:

• present actions, and
• future actions, when a time expression (like huomenna = tomorrow) or context makes the time clear.

So järjestää is formally present tense, but with huomenna, it clearly refers to the future.

Compare:

• Opettaja järjestää kokouksen nyt.
  → The teacher is arranging the meeting now.
• Opettaja järjestää kokouksen huomenna.
  → The teacher will arrange the meeting tomorrow.

Same verb form, different time understood from context.

Can the word order change? For example, can I say Huomenna opettaja järjestää kokouksen?

Yes. Finnish word order is more flexible than English. All of these are grammatically correct:

1. Opettaja järjestää kokouksen huomenna.
   – Neutral order; subject–verb–object–time.

2. Huomenna opettaja järjestää kokouksen.
   – Emphasis on huomenna (tomorrow). Often used when you introduce the time as new or important information.

3. Opettaja huomenna järjestää kokouksen.
   – Also possible, but sounds more marked; the speaker might be stressing huomenna in contrast to some other time.

In Finnish, word order is used a lot to manage emphasis and information structure, rather than grammatical roles (subject/object), which are usually clear from case endings.

Why is there no word for the or a before opettaja and kokous?

Finnish has no articles like English a/an or the.

• Opettaja can mean a teacher, the teacher, or even teachers in general, depending on context.
• Kokouksen can mean a meeting or the meeting.

In this sentence:

• Opettaja järjestää kokouksen huomenna.

A natural English translation is:

• The teacher will arrange the meeting tomorrow.

But it could also be understood as:

• A teacher will arrange a meeting tomorrow.

The exact English article depends on what is already known in the conversation, not on any specific Finnish word.

How do you say clearly the teacher or that teacher in Finnish?

Since Finnish has no articles, you use demonstratives or context to make things more specific.

For the teacher / that teacher, you can say:

• se opettaja – literally that teacher, very common in spoken Finnish for a specific, known person.
• tämä opettaja – this teacher, someone close in space or discourse.
• kyseinen opettaja – the teacher in question, more formal/written.

Examples:

• Se opettaja järjestää kokouksen huomenna.
  → That (specific) teacher will arrange the meeting tomorrow.

• Tämä opettaja järjestää kokouksen huomenna.
  → This teacher will arrange the meeting tomorrow.

What exactly does järjestää mean here? Is it the same as to hold a meeting?

Järjestää primarily means to organize / to arrange.

In the context of a meeting:

• järjestää kokous
  → to organize the meeting (book the room, invite people, set the agenda, etc.).

There is another common verb:

• pitää kokous
  → to hold the meeting (actually conduct it, lead it, make it happen in real time).

So:

• Opettaja järjestää kokouksen huomenna.
  → The teacher will organize the meeting tomorrow.

• Opettaja pitää kokouksen huomenna.
  → The teacher will hold the meeting tomorrow.

Sometimes, especially in casual speech, these can overlap a bit, but that is the basic difference.

What is huomenna exactly? Is it a case form or an adverb?

Huomenna is an adverb meaning tomorrow.

Historically, it comes from an old form related to huomen (morning), but for a learner you can simply treat:

• huomenna = tomorrow (an adverb of time).

Unlike English, Finnish usually does not need a preposition like on or in for dates and days; instead it uses:

• specific adverbs (huomenna = tomorrow, eilen = yesterday), or
• case-marked forms on nouns (maanantai → maanantaina = on Monday).

So you don’t say anything like “on tomorrow”; huomenna alone does the job.

How would I negate this sentence? How do järjestää and kokous change?

To negate it, you use the negative verb ei and change both the main verb and the object:

• Opettaja ei järjestä kokousta huomenna.
  → The teacher will not arrange the meeting tomorrow.

Changes:

1. järjestää → järjestä

   • In negation, the main verb appears in a short stem form (often like the 1st person singular base).

2. kokouksen (genitive total object) → kokousta (partitive object)

   • In negative sentences, the object is usually in the partitive.

So:

• Affirmative: Opettaja järjestää kokouksen.
• Negative: Opettaja ei järjestä kokousta.

How does järjestää agree with the subject opettaja?

Järjestää is in the 3rd person singular present tense, agreeing with opettaja (teacher), which is singular.

The basic pattern (present tense of järjestää):

• minä järjestän – I arrange
• sinä järjestät – you arrange (singular)
• hän järjestää – he/she arranges
• me järjestämme – we arrange
• te järjestätte – you arrange (plural / formal)
• he järjestävät – they arrange

Opettaja järjestää corresponds to hän järjestää:

• opettaja (teacher) → 3rd person singular
• järjestää → 3rd person singular form of the verb

If there is no pronoun like he/she/it, how do we know who järjestää refers to?

Finnish is a pro-drop language: subject pronouns (like minä, sinä) can often be left out if the subject is clear from:

• the verb ending, or
• a noun present in the sentence.

Here we have the noun opettaja (teacher), so we do not need a separate pronoun:

• Opettaja järjestää kokouksen huomenna.
  → Literally: Teacher arranges meeting tomorrow.

The -ää ending on järjestää tells us it’s 3rd person singular, and the only candidate in the sentence is opettaja, so we understand it as:

• The teacher arranges / will arrange the meeting tomorrow.

How would the sentence change if we talk about teachers (plural) instead of the teacher (singular)?

You change opettaja to plural and make the verb plural as well:

• Opettajat järjestävät kokouksen huomenna.
  → The teachers will arrange the meeting tomorrow.

Changes:

• opettaja → opettajat (nominative plural)
• järjestää → järjestävät (3rd person plural)
• kokouksen huomenna stays the same.

So the structure remains similar, but both subject and verb show plural marking.

How do you pronounce järjestää and kokouksen? Where is the stress?

In Finnish, stress is always on the first syllable of a word.

• järjestää

  • Syllables: jär-jes-tää
  • Stress: JÄR-jes-tää
  • ä is like the a in “cat”, but a bit clearer and more fronted.

• kokouksen

  • Syllables: ko-kouk-sen
  • Stress: KO-kouk-sen
  • ou is a diphthong, pronounced as one smooth glide, roughly like “oh-oo” but quicker, approximating the o in “go” then gliding towards u.

Every word: stress on the first syllable, each written vowel is pronounced, and consonant length and vowel length matter (e.g. järjestää has a long ää at the end).