Vaelluskenkä on vedenpitävä.

Vaelluskenkä is a compound noun:

• vaellus = hike, trek
• kenkä = shoe

Together, vaelluskenkä means hiking boot or hiking shoe.

Finnish forms compounds very often, and unlike English, they are usually written as one word. So Finnish prefers vaelluskenkä, not vaellus kenkä.

Finnish does not have articles like a, an, or the.

So Vaelluskenkä on vedenpitävä can mean:

• A hiking boot is waterproof
• The hiking boot is waterproof
• Hiking boots are waterproof in a generic sense, depending on context

You understand which one is meant from the situation, not from an article.

On is the third-person singular form of the verb olla, which means to be.

So:

• minä olen = I am
• sinä olet = you are
• hän on = he/she is
• se on = it is

In this sentence, vaelluskenkä is singular, so Finnish uses on = is.

Because the subject is already stated: vaelluskenkä.

Finnish does not need to add a separate pronoun like it when the noun itself is there. English says:

• The hiking boot is waterproof

Finnish says:

• Vaelluskenkä on vedenpitävä

The noun itself is the subject, so no extra pronoun is needed.

Vedenpitävä is also a compound word. It is made from:

• veden = of water / water’s (from vesi, water)
• pitävä = holding, keeping, not letting through

So the literal idea is something like:

• water-holding
• keeping water out
• therefore waterproof

This is a very common Finnish way to build descriptive adjectives.

Because veden is a different form of vesi.

• dictionary form: vesi = water
• genitive form: veden = of water

In many Finnish compounds and expressions, the first part appears in a form that looks like the genitive. So vedenpitävä uses veden-, not vesi-.

This kind of stem change is normal in Finnish. Vesi is one of those words whose stem changes:

• vesi
• veden
• vettä

So this is not random; it is part of how that noun behaves.

Yes. In this sentence, vedenpitävä is an adjective meaning waterproof.

The structure is:

• Vaelluskenkä = subject
• on = is
• vedenpitävä = predicate adjective

So this works like English The hiking boot is waterproof.

It is in the basic singular form because the subject is singular.

Finnish predicate adjectives often agree with the subject in number. So here:

• Vaelluskenkä on vedenpitävä = The hiking boot is waterproof

If the subject were plural, the adjective would normally be plural too:

• Vaelluskengät ovat vedenpitävät = The hiking boots are waterproof

So the form matches the singular subject.

It is singular.

You can tell because:

• the noun is in its basic singular form: vaelluskenkä
• the verb is singular: on

The plural would be:

• vaelluskengät = hiking boots

So the sentence is talking about one boot/shoe, or about the item type in a general sense.

Yes. Finnish often uses the singular to talk about something in a general or class-level way.

So Vaelluskenkä on vedenpitävä could mean:

• A hiking boot is waterproof
• The hiking boot is waterproof
• A hiking boot, as a type of item, is waterproof

Context decides whether it means one specific boot or a general statement.

Yes, it is grammatical and natural.

However, in real life, a speaker might often say one of these depending on context:

• Tämä vaelluskenkä on vedenpitävä. = This hiking boot is waterproof.
• Vaelluskengät ovat vedenpitävät. = Hiking boots are waterproof / The hiking boots are waterproof.
• Vaelluskenkä on vedenkestävä. = A hiking boot is water-resistant.

But Vaelluskenkä on vedenpitävä is a perfectly good sentence.

This is a useful vocabulary question because both can be translated in similar ways.

• vedenpitävä = waterproof
  • does not let water through
• vedenkestävä = water-resistant
  • can withstand water to some degree, but not necessarily fully waterproof

So if something is truly waterproof, vedenpitävä is the stronger word.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

VAEL-lus-ken-kä on VE-den-pi-tä-vä

A few helpful points:

• stress in Finnish is usually on the first syllable of each word
• ä is not like English a; it is more like the vowel in British cat for many speakers
• double letters matter in Finnish, but there are no double letters in this sentence

You do not need to reduce unstressed syllables as much as in English; Finnish vowels are usually pronounced clearly.