Finnish: expressing future

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In Finnish there are no specific verb forms for expressing future. You use the present tense instead, and rely on the context. There are lots of little ways of making clear whether the verb implies the present or the future. You can, for example...

Choose the correct case for the object:

Luen kirjaa. - I am reading a book. (Partitive: present tense)
Luen kirjan. - I will read a book. (Genetive: future tense)

Use adverbs of time:

Tänään on lämmintä. - It is warm today. (Today: present tense)
Huomenna on lämmintä. - It will be warm tomorrow. (Tomorrow: future tense)

(More examples to come)

Note: In colloquial Finnish, people sometimes use the verb tulla ("to come") as an auxiliary verb. It might not seem to make much sense, but the logic is that you will "become to do" something in the future, the action will "come", in a sense. This is similar to saying "going to" do a certain action in English to denote prospective or future sense. Translated this expression would simply be "will do". This is mainly used for emphasizing futureness.

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