Koira leikkii taas ulkona.

the dog

Breakdown of Koira leikkii taas ulkona.

• 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 or a separate preposition?