Opettaja esittelee kurssin alussa aikataulun.

The teacher presents the schedule at the beginning of the course.

Breakdown of Opettaja esittelee kurssin alussa aikataulun.

• aikataulu: the schedule
• opettaja: the teacher
• kurssi: the course
• alussa: at the beginning
• esitellä: to introduce

Questions & Answers about Opettaja esittelee kurssin alussa aikataulun.

Why is it aikataulun and not just aikataulu?

Aikataulun is the object in the sentence, and it is in the genitive / accusative form (ending -n).

In Finnish, a total object (something that is handled as a whole and the action is seen as complete) often takes the genitive/accusative in the singular:

• Opettaja esittelee aikataulun.
  The teacher presents the (whole) schedule.

Compare with:

• Opettaja lukee kirjan. – The teacher reads the (whole) book.
• Opettaja osti talon. – The teacher bought the (whole) house.

So aikataulun signals that we are talking about the whole schedule, and the action (presenting it) is seen as a complete event, not an ongoing or partial one.

When would I use aikataulu (nominative) or aikataulua (partitive) instead?

Nominative (aikataulu) appears mainly:

1. As a subject:

   • Aikataulu muuttuu. – The schedule changes.

2. As an object in some special structures (e.g. passive past, certain infinitive phrases), but not here.

Partitive (aikataulua) would change the meaning of the object:

• Opettaja esittelee aikataulua.

This suggests:

• the action is ongoing / incomplete, or
• only part of the schedule is being shown,
• or we don’t care about completion (e.g. habitual, “is in the process of”).

So:

• esittelee aikataulun – presents the schedule as a whole, completed act
• esittelee aikataulua – is (in the process of) presenting some of the schedule / not necessarily all

What exactly is kurssin alussa grammatically?

Kurssin alussa is a time adverbial meaning “at the beginning of the course.” It’s a two‑word structure:

• kurssin – genitive singular of kurssi (course).
  Genitive -n often expresses “of X”.
• alussa – inessive singular of alku (beginning).
  Inessive -ssa/-ssä typically means “in / at”.

Together:

• kurssin alussa = literally “in the beginning of the course” → at the beginning of the course.

This noun + genitive + another noun in local case is very common:

• kurssin lopussa – at the end of the course
• vuoden alussa – at the beginning of the year
• tunnin jälkeen – after the lesson (here jälkeen is a postposition, but the genitive tunnin works in the same “of X” way)

Why is it kurssin alussa and not kurssi alussa?

If you said kurssi alussa, you’d just have two separate words in the nominative, which don’t form the “of the course” relationship.

To say “the beginning of the course”, Finnish uses:

• [thing] in genitive + alku (in some case):

  • kurssin alku – the beginning of the course
  • kurssin alussa – in/at the beginning of the course
  • kurssin alussa opettaja… – At the beginning of the course, the teacher…

Without the genitive kurssin, you lose that “of the course” meaning.
So kurssi alussa is not grammatical here for “at the beginning of the course.”

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

Finnish has no articles (no equivalents of a, an, the). The same word can be understood as a or the depending on context.

• opettaja can mean a teacher or the teacher
• aikataulu / aikataulun can mean a schedule or the schedule

In this sentence, context (a specific course situation) makes it natural to understand:

• Opettaja = the teacher (probably the one teaching the course)
• aikataulun = the schedule (the course schedule everyone will follow)

If you wanted to stress indefiniteness in English, you’d still use the same Finnish form and rely on context, for example:

• Kurssilla on opettaja. Opettaja esittelee kurssin alussa aikataulun.
  There is a teacher on the course. (The) teacher presents the schedule at the beginning of the course.

What tense is esittelee, and does it mean present or future?

Esittelee is present tense, 3rd person singular of the verb esitellä (to present, to introduce).

Formally:

• verb stem: esittele-
• personal ending: -e (3rd person singular → -e with this type)

So esittelee means “(he/she) presents / is presenting.”

However, Finnish often uses the present tense for future actions when the time is clear from context:

• Opettaja esittelee kurssin alussa aikataulun.
  → The teacher will present the schedule at the beginning of the course.

So it can correspond to English “presents,” “is going to present,” or “will present”, depending on context.

What is the dictionary form of esittelee, and how is it conjugated?

The dictionary (infinitive) form is esitellä (to present, to introduce).

Indicative present forms:

• minä esittelen – I present
• sinä esittelet – you present
• hän esittelee – he/she presents
• me esittelemme – we present
• te esittelette – you (pl.) present
• he esittelevät – they present

So esittelee is just the hän (he/she) form of esitellä in the present.

Can I change the word order, for example Kurssin alussa opettaja esittelee aikataulun?

Yes. Finnish word order is more flexible than English, especially with adverbials like time expressions.

All of these are grammatically fine:

1. Opettaja esittelee kurssin alussa aikataulun.
2. Opettaja esittelee aikataulun kurssin alussa.
3. Kurssin alussa opettaja esittelee aikataulun.

They all mean roughly the same thing, but the information structure / emphasis can shift slightly:

• Sentence-initial Kurssin alussa highlights when something happens:
  → At the beginning of the course, the teacher presents the schedule.

• Ending with kurssin alussa can leave the time phrase as an “afterthought”:
  → The teacher presents the schedule, at the beginning of the course.

In neutral, textbook-style Finnish, 1 or 3 are very typical. Finnish doesn’t rely on word order to mark subject vs object as strongly as English does; case endings carry that load.

Why is opettaja in the basic form (nominative)?

Opettaja (teacher) is the subject of the sentence, so it appears in the nominative case (the “dictionary form”):

• Opettaja – (a/the) teacher
• esittelee – presents
• aikataulun – the schedule (object, in genitive/accusative)

In a simple active sentence:

[Subject in nominative] + [verb] + [object in object case]

So:

• Opettaja = subject → nominative
• aikataulun = object → genitive/accusative (total object)

How would I say “at the end of the course” instead of “at the beginning of the course”?

You can use the same pattern [genitive] + [local case], but with loppu (end) instead of alku (beginning):

• kurssin lopussa – at the end of the course
  (literally “in the end of the course”)

So you’d get:

• Opettaja esittelee kurssin lopussa aikataulun.
  → The teacher presents the schedule at the end of the course.
  (odd in meaning here, but grammatically parallel)

Other common variants with kurssi:

• kurssin lopussa – at the end of the course
• kurssin lopulla – toward the end of the course (adessive nuance)

How do you pronounce opettaja esittelee kurssin alussa aikataulun and where is the stress?

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

Approximate breakdown (stressed syllables in CAPS):

• O-pet-ta-ja → O-pet-ta-ya
• e-sit-te-lee → E-sit-te-lee
• kurs-sin → KURS-sin
• a-lus-sa → A-lus-sa
• ai-ka-tau-lun → AI-ka-tau-lun

Other points:

• Double consonants (tt, ss, kk, ll, etc.) are held longer than single ones.
  • opettaja: the tt is longer than in English “pet.”
  • kurssin: ss is long.
• Vowels are pronounced clearly and not reduced like in English.
  
  • aikataulun: all three a are clearly [a], not “uh”.

A rough, hyphenated English-style approximation:

• OP-et-ta-ya EH-sit-te-ley KURS-sin AH-lus-sa AI-ka-tow-lun

(but native-like pronunciation requires listening to Finnish speakers).