Koira leikkii taas ulkona.

The dog is playing outside again.

Breakdown of Koira leikkii taas ulkona.

• koira: the dog
• leikkiä: to play
• ulkona: outside
• taas: again

Questions & Answers about Koira leikkii taas ulkona.

Why doesn’t Finnish use articles like a or the in the sentence Koira leikkii taas ulkona?

Finnish simply has no articles. Nouns appear in their base (nominative) form, and whether you mean a dog or the dog is understood from context. So koira can be a dog, the dog, or dogs in general, depending on the situation.

What does the ending -ii in leikkii indicate?

leikkii is the third-person singular present tense of leikkiä (to play). In Finnish type-3 verbs:

1. Drop the infinitive -ä → leikki-
2. Add the present tense marker -i → leikkii
   There is no extra personal ending for he/she/it, so that final -i already means “he/she/it plays.”

What does taas mean, and why is it positioned between the verb and the place adverb?

taas means again. Finnish word order is fairly flexible, but a neutral pattern is
Subject – Verb – Adverb(s) – Place/Time.
By placing taas right after leikkii, you highlight that the dog is playing again.

Why is ulkona used instead of something like ulko or a separate preposition?

Finnish doesn’t use prepositions like in or on; it uses noun cases.

• ulko- is a root meaning “out(door),” but you need a case ending to make it locative.
• -na is the essive case, expressing “in the state of being X.”
  Thus ulkona literally means “in the state/place of being outside,” i.e. outside.

What case is ulkona, and how do Finnish locative cases compare to English prepositions?

ulkona is the essive case (-na/-nä). Finnish has several locative cases instead of prepositions:
• Inessive (-ssa/-ssä) = “in”
• Elative (-sta/-stä) = “out of”
• Adessive (-lla/-llä) = “on/at”
• Allative (-lle) = “onto/to”
The essive often expresses a temporary state or location, here “being outside.”

Can you change the word order, for example Ulkona koira taas leikkii? Does it alter the meaning?

Yes. Finnish word order is used to shift emphasis rather than to mark grammatical roles.

• Koira leikkii taas ulkona. – Neutral: “The dog is playing outside again.”
• Ulkona leikkii taas koira. – Emphasizes where: “It’s outside that the dog is playing again.”
• Taas leikkii koira ulkona. – Emphasizes again: “Again, it’s the dog playing outside.”

How do you pronounce Koira leikkii taas ulkona?

• Primary stress is always on the first syllable of each word: KOI-ra LEIK-kii TAAS UL-ko-na.
• “oi” in koira sounds like English boy.
• Double consonants (-kk- in leikkii) are held longer.
Approximate IPA: [ˈkoɪ̯rɑ ˈleikːi ˈtɑːs ˈulkonɑ].