Isännöitsijä lupasi lähettää ohjeet sähköpostitse, kun remontti alkaa.

The property manager promised to send the instructions by email when the renovation starts.

Breakdown of Isännöitsijä lupasi lähettää ohjeet sähköpostitse, kun remontti alkaa.

• kun: when
• lähettää: to send
• sähköpostitse: by email
• alkaa: to start
• luvata: to promise
• isännöitsijä: property manager
• ohje: instruction
• remontti: renovation

Questions & Answers about Isännöitsijä lupasi lähettää ohjeet sähköpostitse, kun remontti alkaa.

What does isännöitsijä mean, and when would I use it?

Isännöitsijä is a very common Finnish housing/real-estate term meaning a property manager / building manager (especially for an apartment building run by a housing company, taloyhtiö). It’s the person/company handling maintenance coordination, renovations, notices, paperwork, etc. It’s more specific than a general “manager.”

Why is lupasi in that form? What tense is it?

Lupasi is the simple past (imperfect) of luvata = “to promise.”

• luvata (dictionary form)
• lupaan = I promise (present)
• lupasi = he/she promised (past)

Finnish often uses this simple past where English might use present perfect depending on context, but here “promised” is a straightforward past event.

Why do we have lupasi + lähettää? Why not conjugate both verbs?

Finnish commonly uses a conjugated verb + infinitive structure, like English promised to send.
Here:

• lupasi = the main verb, conjugated for tense and person
• lähettää = the first infinitive (“to send”), not conjugated

So lupasi lähettää = promised to send.

Why is ohjeet in that form? Is it nominative or accusative?

Ohjeet is plural (“instructions”). In this sentence it functions as the total object of lähettää (send), so it appears in the accusative-like form that is identical to the plural nominative: ohjeet.

A useful rule of thumb:

• total/complete object (all of it / the set) → often looks like -t in the plural
• partial/indefinite object → partitive (often -a/-ä, etc.), e.g. lähettää ohjeita = “send (some) instructions / send instructions (unspecified amount)”

Here, it’s the definite set: the instructions.

What does sähköpostitse mean grammatically? What case is that?

Sähköpostitse means by email / via email. It’s an adverbial form built with -itse/-tse, often described as an instructive-style expression meaning “by way of / using.”

You’ll see similar forms like:

• puhelimitse = by phone
• kirjeitse = by letter/mail
• netitse = via the internet (more informal)

It behaves like an adverb: it answers “how/through what channel?”

Could I also say sähköpostilla or sähköpostitse—what’s the difference?

Yes, both exist, but they feel slightly different:

• sähköpostitse = “via email” (a common, slightly more formal/standard channel expression)
• sähköpostilla = literally “with/by email” (using the adessive -lla/-llä). It’s understandable, but sähköpostitse is often the more idiomatic choice for “via email.”

In everyday Finnish, sähköpostitse is very common in notices and official communication.

Why is there a comma before kun?

Finnish uses a comma to separate the main clause and a subordinate clause introduced by conjunctions like kun (“when”), jos (“if”), että (“that”), etc.

Main clause: Isännöitsijä lupasi lähettää ohjeet sähköpostitse
Subordinate clause: kun remontti alkaa

So the comma is standard.

Why is alkaa in the present tense even though it refers to the future?

In Finnish, after time conjunctions like kun (“when”), it’s very common to use the present tense to refer to a future event—similar to English: when the renovation starts (not “will start” in the subordinate clause).

So kun remontti alkaa is normal Finnish for “when the renovation starts/begins.”

What’s the difference between kun and kunnes here?

• kun = “when” (at the time that something happens)
• kunnes = “until” (up to the point when something happens)

This sentence needs kun because the sending happens when the renovation begins, not “up until” it begins.

Why is it remontti alkaa and not something like remontin alkaessa?

Both are possible, but they’re different structures:

• kun remontti alkaa = a normal subordinate clause with kun (“when the renovation begins”)
• remontin alkaessa = a temporal construction using the inessive of the 3rd infinitive (“at the beginning of the renovation / as the renovation begins”), a bit more compact and often more formal/written

The kun-clause is very common and clear.

What is the base form of Isännöitsijä, and how does it decline?

The base form is isännöitsijä (nominative singular). It declines like a typical -jä noun. Common forms:

• isännöitsijä = the property manager
• isännöitsijän = of the property manager (genitive)
• isännöitsijää = (partitive)
• isännöitsijälle = to the property manager (allative)

In this sentence it’s the subject in nominative: Isännöitsijä.

Is the word order flexible here, and what would changing it do?

The neutral, natural order is basically what you see. You can move parts for emphasis:

• Isännöitsijä lupasi lähettää ohjeet sähköpostitse, kun remontti alkaa. (neutral)
• Sähköpostitse isännöitsijä lupasi lähettää ohjeet, kun remontti alkaa. (emphasizes the method: “by email”)
• Kun remontti alkaa, isännöitsijä lupasi lähettää ohjeet sähköpostitse. (fronts the time clause: “When it starts, …”)

Finnish word order is flexible, but changes often signal focus/emphasis rather than changing basic meaning.