Learn Finnish: Kasvaako uusi kukka täällä? - Does a new flower grow here?

The dictionary form is kasvaa (to grow). It ends in two vowels, making it a Type 1 verb. To find the stem, we drop the final -a, leaving kasva-. For the "it" form (3rd person singular), we double the last vowel, giving us kasvaa again. Finally, we add the question particle -ko to get kasvaako.

Where is the word for "does" in this sentence?

Finnish doesn't use helper verbs like "do" or "does" to make questions. Instead, it adds the question ending -ko (or -kö) directly to the word you are asking about. kasvaa means "grows", so kasvaako means "does it grow?".

Does the word with the -ko ending always have to be at the beginning?

Yes! The word carrying the -ko or -kö ending must be the very first word in the sentence. If you wanted to ask "Does a new flower grow HERE?" (focusing on the location), you would add the ending to täällä and put it first: Täälläkö uusi kukka kasvaa?.

Why is "here" translated as täällä instead of tänne?

Finnish has different words for "here" depending on movement. täällä means statically "in/at this place", while tänne means moving "to this place". Since the flower is just existing and growing in one spot rather than moving to a new one, we use the static form täällä.