Breakdown of Hän ei pidä urheilusta.
hän
he / she
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
pitää
to like
urheilu
sports
Questions & Answers about Hän ei pidä urheilusta.
Why does the word for sports end in -sta here?
The verb pitää (to like) requires the thing you like to be in the elative case. This case is formed by adding -sta or -stä to the end of the word. Because urheilu (sports) has back vowels, it takes the -sta ending, becoming urheilusta.
Why is the verb pidä and not pitää?
In negative sentences, the main verb drops its personal ending and takes a special negative form. For the verb pitää, the basic stem undergoes consonant gradation where the strong t softens to a d, making the negative form pidä.
How would I say this using the other verb for "to like", tykätä?
You would say Hän ei tykkää urheilusta. Both pitää and tykätä require the thing you like to be in the elative case, so urheilusta stays exactly the same!
Could this sentence also mean "She does not like sports"?
Yes! Finnish does not have gendered pronouns. The pronoun hän means both "he" and "she", so you always have to rely on the surrounding context to know which person is meant.