Word
Pelottaako tämä vuoristorata sinua?
Meaning
Does this rollercoaster scare you?
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Pelottaako tämä vuoristorata sinua?
tämä
this
sinä
you
pelottaa
to scare
vuoristorata
rollercoaster
Questions & Answers about Pelottaako tämä vuoristorata sinua?
The base verb for to fear is pelätä. How does it become pelottaa here?
Pelottaa is a causative verb formed by adding the -ttaa suffix to the root of pelätä. While pelätä means the subject feels the fear (I fear the rollercoaster), pelottaa changes the meaning so the subject causes the fear (The rollercoaster scares me).
Why is you in the partitive case (sinua)?
Causative verbs that describe causing an emotion or physical sensation, like pelottaa (to scare) or naurattaa (to make someone laugh), almost always take a partitive object. The rollercoaster is causing the emotion, and you (sinua) are the object receiving the feeling.
What are the parts of the compound word vuoristorata?
It is made up of vuoristo (mountain range) and rata (track or course). So a rollercoaster in Finnish is literally a mountain range track!
Why does the verb pelottaako come first in the sentence?
In Finnish yes/no questions, the word with the question particle -ko or -kö is always placed at the very beginning of the sentence. Since you are asking about the action of scaring, the verb gets the particle and moves to the front.