Estonian to Danish: alles homme can postpone an event until tomorrow
Not until tomorrow is different from still tomorrow
Ta tuleb alles homme means that the arrival is not until tomorrow, often later than expected. The Estonian explanatory dictionary records this not-before sense of alles separately from continuing states. A Danish translation should preserve the delayed boundary rather than imply that an arrival is somehow continuing across tomorrow.
Den Danske Ordbog gives først a not-before or as-late-as meaning, alongside its ordinary first-in-order meanings. This makes først relevant to an Estonian arrival postponed until tomorrow. The choice follows the temporal relationship, not a rule that alles always means the first event in a sequence.
A continuing situation needs a different interpretation
Compare Töö on alles pooleli with Töö algab alles homme. The first says that work remains unfinished; the second postpones its beginning. The Danish dictionary describes stadig as continuing at the relevant time as before. That distinction helps keep an ongoing incomplete task separate from one that has yet to start.
If a delivery message says Pakk on alles teel, the parcel remains in transit. If it says Pakk jõuab alles homme, the relevant fact is arrival no earlier than tomorrow. Selecting the same Danish time adverb mechanically could blur the difference between the parcel’s present condition and its expected arrival boundary.
The source word can also mark a recently completed action: Ma alles sõin says that the speaker ate only recently. The Estonian dictionary records this recent-time sense separately. A rendering suggesting that the person is still eating would change a completed meal into an activity currently in progress.
Place the restriction with the event or amount it concerns
Alles kell kaheksa tells the listener that the relevant time is not before eight, rather than that eight is the first number. In a message about opening a shop, retaining that boundary matters: an earlier visit may be premature. Danish først can express this timing restriction where the source establishes it.
Kell on alles neli instead evaluates the current time as only four. It does not necessarily announce that something will begin at four. The source dictionary treats this limited-amount use separately from not-before timing. A Danish translation needs to preserve whether the speaker assesses how early it still is or gives a scheduled boundary.
Finally, Hoidke piletid alles asks people to keep their tickets. Here alles concerns remaining or preservation, another recorded sense, rather than the time of an arrival. Turning it into a first-or-still timing expression would lose the instruction to retain the documents. Across these examples, Danish wording should follow the actual relationship: an event delayed until a boundary, a condition continuing, a recent action or an item kept. That makes a short Estonian travel or work update useful without forcing every occurrence into one temporal formula.
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