Ystävä järjestää juhlan kotona lauantai-iltana.

The friend organizes a party at home on Saturday evening.

Breakdown of Ystävä järjestää juhlan kotona lauantai-iltana.

• kotona: at home
• ystävä: the friend
• juhla: the party
• lauantai-ilta: on Saturday evening
• järjestää: to arrange

Questions & Answers about Ystävä järjestää juhlan kotona lauantai-iltana.

Why is there no word for “a” or “the” before ystävä?

Finnish has no articles at all. There is no equivalent of a/an or the.

• Ystävä simply means friend.
• Whether you translate it as a friend or the friend depends on context in English, not on any extra word in Finnish.

So:

• Ystävä järjestää juhlan…
  → can be A friend is organizing a party… or My friend is organizing a party…, depending on what has been mentioned before and what the speaker means.

Why is there no pronoun like “he” or “she” before järjestää?

Finnish usually drops subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows the person.

• järjestää is 3rd person singular (he/she/it).
• The subject ystävä is written, so adding hän (he/she) is unnecessary and would normally sound heavy or emphatic.

Compare:

• Ystävä järjestää juhlan. – Literally: Friend organizes the party. (normal)
• Hän järjestää juhlan. – He/She organizes the party. (subject is only a pronoun)
• Ystävä hän järjestää juhlan. – Very emphatic or stylistically odd in everyday speech.

So the idea “A friend is organizing a party” is fully expressed without hän.

What tense is järjestää, and can it really mean “will organize”?

Järjestää is in the present tense, 3rd person singular.

In Finnish, the present tense commonly covers:

• present: A friend is organizing a party (now / generally).
• near future: A friend will organize a party (on Saturday evening).

The time expression lauantai-iltana (on Saturday evening) makes it clear this is about the future, so in English we translate:

• Ystävä järjestää juhlan kotona lauantai-iltana.
  → A friend is organizing / will organize a party at home on Saturday evening.

Why is it juhlan and not juhla or juhlaa?

Juhlan is the genitive singular of juhla (“party, celebration”), and here it is functioning as a total object.

Very simplified rules for objects:

• Genitive (juhlan) = the action affects the object as a whole, is seen as complete or bounded.
  • Ystävä järjestää juhlan. – A friend is organizing a (whole) party.
• Partitive (juhlaa) would imply an ongoing or partial event, or be forced by certain verbs; with järjestää, you normally use a total (genitive) object when it’s one complete event.

Bare nominative juhla cannot be used as a direct object in this sentence; you need a case ending.

So:

• järjestää juhlan = organize a (specific, complete) party/event.

Why is kotona used instead of koti or kotiin?

All three are related but have different meanings:

• koti – base form: home (dictionary form)
• kotona – inessive case: at home
• kotiin – illative case: to home, (going) home
• (for completeness: kotoa – elative case: from home)

In the sentence:

• kotona = at home, describing the location of the party.

So:

• Ystävä järjestää juhlan kotona.
  → A friend is organizing the party at home.

If you said:

• …kotiin. – it would suggest movement to home, not the location of the party, so it would not fit this meaning.

What is lauantai-iltana, and what does the ending -na mean?

Lauantai-iltana is a compound of:

• lauantai – Saturday
• ilta – evening
• iltana – adessive singular of ilta

The hyphen joins them: lauantai-ilta = Saturday evening, and then it’s inflected:

• lauantai-iltana – on Saturday evening

The ending -na here is the adessive case, which, among other uses, often expresses:

• time when something happens:
  
  • lauantaina – on Saturday
  • iltana – in the evening
  • lauantai-iltana – on Saturday evening

So lauantai-iltana is the natural way to say “on Saturday evening”.

Is the word order fixed, or can I move parts of the sentence around?

The given order is neutral and common:

• Ystävä järjestää juhlan kotona lauantai-iltana.
  Subject – Verb – Object – Place – Time.

Because Finnish uses case endings (like juhlan, kotona, lauantai-iltana) to show each word’s role, word order is flexible for emphasis. For example:

• Lauantai-iltana ystävä järjestää juhlan kotona.
  – Emphasizes Saturday evening.
• Kotona ystävä järjestää juhlan lauantai-iltana.
  – Emphasizes that it’s at home (not somewhere else).
• Juhlan järjestää ystävä kotona lauantai-iltana.
  – Focuses on who is organizing the party.

All these are grammatically correct; the difference is nuance and emphasis.

Why is “party” singular juhlan and not plural juhlat, since Finnish often uses plurals for events?

Finnish indeed often uses plural for events:

• juhlat – party/celebration (literally “celebrations”)
  
  • Järjestämme juhlat. – We’re throwing a party.

In your sentence we have the singular:

• järjestää juhlan – organizes a party / the party.

Both singular (juhlan) and plural (juhlat) can be used with järjestää:

• Ystävä järjestää juhlan. – A friend is organizing a party (viewed as one event).
• Ystävä järjestää juhlat. – A friend is throwing a party (also very natural).

Choice between juhlan and juhlat is often stylistic or dialectal; both are normal. Many speakers prefer juhlat for a party with guests, but juhla is fully correct too.

How would I say “My friend is organizing a party at my home on Saturday evening”?

There are a couple of natural options. One fairly close to your original sentence is:

• Ystäväni järjestää juhlat kotonani lauantai-iltana.

Breakdown:

• ystäväni – my friend
  
  • ystävä (friend) + -ni (my)
• järjestää – is organizing / will organize
• juhlat – a party (plural “celebrations,” common for “a party”)
• kotonani – at my home
  
  • kotona (at home) + -ni (my)
• lauantai-iltana – on Saturday evening

You could also say:

• Ystäväni järjestää juhlat luonani lauantai-iltana.

Here luonani means at my place (literally “at my person”), which is very idiomatic for “at my place / at my house”.