Pelkkä ajatus riittää.

The mere thought is enough.

Breakdown of Pelkkä ajatus riittää.

• riittää: to be enough
• ajatus: the thought
• pelkkä: mere; only

Questions & Answers about Pelkkä ajatus riittää.

What does pelkkä mean here?

Pelkkä means something like mere, just, nothing but, or alone.

So pelkkä ajatus means the mere thought or just the thought. It emphasizes that nothing more is needed than the thought itself.

In Finnish, pelkkä is very commonly used in this kind of expression:

• pelkkä ajatus = the mere thought
• pelkkä mahdollisuus = the mere possibility
• pelkkä sana = a mere word / just one word

It often adds a stronger nuance than plain vain.

What case are pelkkä and ajatus in?

They are in the nominative singular.

• pelkkä = nominative singular of the adjective
• ajatus = nominative singular of the noun

This is because the whole phrase pelkkä ajatus is the subject of the sentence, and subjects are very often in the nominative.

Also, in Finnish, adjectives normally agree with the nouns they describe in case and number, so both words appear in the same form.

Why is the adjective pelkkä in the same form as the noun?