Future tense that is.
In Finnish, the future is expressed using the present tense – leaving it to the context to make clear that the action is to take place at a later date:
Huomenna menen kaupunkiin
[Literally] Tomorrow, I go to the city
To be fair, having no future is not that unusual. Languages such as Hebrew or Japanese don't have one either apparently(1). In contrast, French has at least 3 ways of expressing the future (future simple, future perfect and near future). What does that say about the respective nations' attitude to life?
As I wrote this, I couldn't help wondering how many Finnish punks listened to the Sex Pistols' “God Save The Queen” back in 1977 and thought: “no future, so what?” OK, that would be just the Finnish punks with an interest in linguistics and grammar. And with a very silly sense of humour. Mmmm, probably not that many then...
Still, it gives me an excuse to include this:
“No future / No future / No future for you.....”
(1) Pedants will also point out that English (and other Germanic languages) don't have a proper future tense either, as the future is expressed with the help of an auxiliary (“I will go”) rather than a morphological inflection (“je partirai" in French). But that's just being pernickety.
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