Learn Hardcore Japanese: raisyuu ha kaigi ga ooi kara, narubeku hayaku sigoto wo owarasetai. - Next week I have many meetings, so I want to finish work as early as possible.

は marks the topic. 来週は sets “as for next week” as the context, often with a slight contrastive feel (compared to other weeks). You could also say 来週、会議が多い (just using a time adverb), but 来週は makes “next week” the thing you’re talking about.

Relative time words like 来週/今日/明日 usually don’t take に; say 来週会議があります, not ✕来週に会議があります (except in special emphatic or formal scheduling contexts).

Why is 会議 marked with が here and not は or を?

With adjectives of quantity/frequency like 多い/少ない, the typical pattern is Nが多い/少ない. So 会議が多い means “(there) are many meetings.”

会議は多い is possible when contrasting (e.g., “Meetings are many, but …”).
会議を多い is ungrammatical because 多い is an adjective, not a verb that can take を.

Can I say 多い会議 to mean “many meetings”?

Generally no. 多い doesn’t directly modify a noun in the simple “many X” sense. Use one of these:

会議が多い
会議がたくさんある
多くの会議 (more formal/written)

What does から do here?

から introduces a reason/cause: “because/since.” It links the reason clause (来週は会議が多い) to the result (なるべく早く仕事を終わらせたい). It’s direct and natural in speech. A softer, more formal alternative is ので.

Can I put the reason second or end a sentence with から?

Yes. In conversation, you can say:

なるべく早く仕事を終わらせたい。来週は会議が多いから。 Ending with から sounds casual/spoken, as if trailing off with “because…”. In formal writing, avoid ending with から; instead use ので, ため, or reorder the clauses.

What exactly does なるべく mean, and how does it differ from できるだけ?

Both mean “as much/… as possible.”

なるべく often feels like “if possible/if you can manage,” slightly softer or request-like.
できるだけ is more literal “to the extent one can,” a bit more neutral. Both fit here: なるべく早く ≈ できるだけ早く. There’s also casual なるだけ (≈ なるべく).

Where does なるべく go? Is 早くなるべく okay?

Use なるべく早く as a unit: “as early as possible.” Placing なるべく immediately before what it modifies is best. 早くなるべく is unnatural. You can also say なるべく早めに (using the -め form) for “preferably a bit early/sooner.”

Should it be 早く or 速く here?

Use 早く.

早い/早く: early/soon (time), and sometimes “quickly” in casual contexts.
速い/速く: fast/at high speed (pace). With finishing work, 早く終わらせたい is “want to finish early/ASAP.” If you wanted to stress speed of action, 速く might appear with verbs like 走る (to run).

Why 終わらせたい and not 終えたい or 終わりたい?

仕事を終わらせたい: very common, colloquial-neutral. Formally it’s the causative of 終わる, but it’s widely used simply as “to finish (something).”
仕事を終えたい: shorter and a bit more formal/literary; also perfectly fine.
終わりたい is intransitive (“I want to end”), so you can’t say 仕事を終わりたい. You’d say 仕事が終わる (the work ends) vs 仕事を終える/終わらせる (you finish the work).

Is ～たい okay for talking about other people’s desires? How about politeness?

～たい primarily expresses the speaker’s desire. For someone else’s apparent desire, use ～たがっている (e.g., 田中さんは早く終わらせたがっている).
To be polite about your own desire, say ～たいです. To soften further (especially in business), say ～たいと思っています／～たいと考えています.

Could I say 仕事が終わらせたい instead of 仕事を終わらせたい?

No. Although with simple verbs you sometimes see the “object marked by が” pattern (e.g., 寿司が食べたい), it doesn’t work with 終わらせる here. Use 仕事を終わらせたい/終えたい.

✔ 寿司が食べたい / 寿司を食べたい (both okay; が highlights what you want)
✕ 仕事が終わらせたい (ungrammatical)
✔ 仕事が終わった (the work has ended)

Who is the subject? Does this mean “I have many meetings”?

Subjects are often omitted. 来週は会議が多い typically implies “I (or our team) have many meetings next week,” based on context. Grammatically it just states “there are many meetings next week,” but in real use it usually refers to the speaker’s schedule.

Why is non-past used for a future time (来週)?

Japanese uses the non-past form for both present and future. The time expression (来週) supplies the futurity. So 来週は会議が多い naturally refers to next week even though the verb/adjective isn’t “future-marked.”

Can I drop particles like が here?

In casual speech, yes: 来週は会議、多いから… or 来週は会議多いから… You’ll hear が dropped in conversation. In writing or careful speech, keep the particles: 会議が多い.

Is there a difference between 会議 and ミーティング?

Broadly:

会議: “meeting/conference” with a formal or official feel (agendas, decisions).
ミーティング: borrowed word, often smaller, informal, quick syncs. In many workplaces they overlap, but 会議が多い sounds like a busy, meeting-heavy schedule in a more formal sense.