Learn Hardcore Finnish: Minä pelkään, että myöhästyn bussista.

Että is a subordinating conjunction meaning that. It introduces a content clause (a “that-clause”) which functions as the object of the main verb pelkään (I fear). So the structure is essentially: I fear + that + clause.

Do I need the comma before että?

Yes. In standard written Finnish, a comma is placed before a subordinate clause introduced by että. So Pelkään, että … is the normal punctuation.

Why is myöhästyn in the present tense if the fear concerns the future?

Finnish often uses the present tense to refer to future events when the time is clear from context. Myöhästyn can thus mean I will be late / I’m going to miss (the bus) in this context.

Why is it bussista (with -sta) and not some other case?

Because the verb myöhästyä (to be late, to miss) governs the elative case (mistä? from what). You are literally “late from” something:

myöhästyä bussista = miss the bus
myöhästyä junasta = miss the train
myöhästyä kokouksesta = be late for/miss the meeting

This is a verb-specific case requirement (a rection).

Could I use bussiin, bussille, bussin, or bussia instead?

Not with myöhästyä. Here’s how those forms are used with other verbs:

bussiin (into the bus, illative): nousta bussiin (get on the bus)
bussille (onto/to the bus, allative): usually you’d instead say pysäkille (to the bus stop)
bussin (the bus, genitive object): used with verbs like missata → missaan bussin (colloquial “I’ll miss the bus”)
bussia (the bus, partitive object): e.g., odotan bussia (I’m waiting for the bus)

With myöhästyä, stick to the elative: bussista.

Can I drop the pronoun Minä?

Yes. Finnish usually omits subject pronouns because verb endings show the person. Pelkään, että myöhästyn bussista is perfectly natural. Keeping Minä adds emphasis or clarity.

What’s the difference between minä pelkään and minua pelottaa?

Minä pelkään, että … = I fear that … (the subject is actively doing the fearing)
Minua pelottaa, että … = I feel afraid that … / It frightens me that … (impersonal; the feeling happens to me) Both are correct; minua pelottaa often sounds a bit more about the emotion itself.

How would I say “I was afraid I would be late (for the bus)”?

Use past in the main clause and conditional in the että-clause:

Pelkäsin, että myöhästyisin bussista. You may also hear the present kept in the subclause (… että myöhästyn …) in everyday speech, but the conditional clearly marks “would.”

How do I negate the että-clause? Do I write että en?

You can write either separate or fused forms; the fused forms are very common:

etten, ettet, ettei, ettemme, ettette, etteivät Example: Pelkään, etten ehdi bussiin (I fear that I won’t make it to the bus).
With your verb: Pelkään, etten myöhästy is grammatical but semantically odd; more natural is to negate a different verb like ehtiä (make it) as above.

Can the että-clause come first?

Not by itself in neutral style. You’d normally keep the main clause first: Pelkään, että …
To front the content for emphasis, Finnish uses a correlating pronoun: Sitä minä pelkään, että myöhästyn bussista. (That’s what I fear: that I’ll miss the bus.)

Is there a more compact alternative without että?

Yes, a participial structure is common in written Finnish:

Pelkään myöhästyväni bussista. (= I fear [my] being-late-from the bus) Here myöhästyväni is the -VA participle with the possessive suffix -ni marking the subject as “I.”

What’s the difference between myöhästyä bussista, jäädä bussista, missata bussin, and olla myöhässä?

myöhästyä bussista = miss the bus (standard, slightly more formal/neutral)
jäädä bussista = miss the bus (literally “be left from the bus”; common and natural)
missata bussin = miss the bus (colloquial, from English/Swedish)
olla myöhässä = be late (in general), no complement: Olen myöhässä = I’m late

Does bussista literally mean “from the bus”? That sounds odd in English.

Yes, literally it’s “from the bus,” but Finnish packages the idea of missing/being late differently. The natural English translation is “miss the bus,” even though Finnish uses the elative case with myöhästyä.

Any pronunciation tips for this sentence?

Primary stress on the first syllable of each word: MInä PELkään, ETtä, MYÖhästyn, BUSsista.
Long sounds matter: kk/tt/pp double consonants are held longer; in että, the tt is geminate.
Front vowels: ä, ö, y are fronted (rounded for ö, y). y is like French u or German ü.
ä is like the a in “cat”; ö like British “sir” (without r); y like German ü.

Is there a colloquial version of this sentence?

Yes, in speech you might hear reductions:

Mä pelkään, et mä myöhästyn bussista. Here minä → mä and että → et (don’t confuse this with the 2nd-person negative et). In writing, keep the standard minä and että.