Älä pelkää heitä.

Don't be afraid of them.

Breakdown of Älä pelkää heitä.

• älä: don't
• pelätä: to be afraid
• heitä: them

Questions & Answers about Älä pelkää heitä.

What does "Älä" do here, and why isn’t "ei" used?

Älä is the negative imperative for the 2nd person singular: it means don’t (you). In commands and prohibitions, Finnish uses special negative imperative forms:

• 2nd person singular: älä (Don’t you…)
• 2nd person plural: älkää (Don’t you all…) By contrast, ei is the ordinary negative verb used in statements and questions (e.g., En pelkää = I don’t fear), not in direct commands.

Why is the verb pelkää shaped like that (long ää, no -t)?

• The dictionary form is pelätä (to fear). In the 2nd person singular present, you’d say pelkäät (“you fear”).
• In the imperative (a command), the 2nd person singular form is pelkää! (“fear!”).
• In a negative imperative, you use älä
  • the verb’s imperative/connegative form: Älä pelkää (“don’t fear”).
• The ää is a long vowel; length matters in Finnish. pelkää is pronounced with a long final vowel [æː], not short.

Why is it heitä and not he?

Because pelätä governs the partitive case for its object. The pronoun he (“they”) in the partitive plural is heitä, so you get pelkää heitä (“fear them”).
This also aligns with a general Finnish tendency for negative clauses to take a partitive object.

Does heitä ever mean “throw”? How do I know it means “them” here?

Yes, heitä! is also the 2nd person singular imperative of heittää (“to throw”). Context and word order tell them apart:

• If the verb were “throw,” it would sit immediately after älä: Älä heitä! = “Don’t throw!”
• In your sentence, älä is followed by pelkää, so heitä is the object “them.”

How do I say this to more than one person?

Use the plural negative imperative: Älkää pelätkö heitä.

• älkää = don’t (you all)
• pelätkö is the imperative connegative form used after älkää
  Same meaning, addressed to multiple people.

Where’s the “you”? Why isn’t sinä used?

Finnish imperative forms encode the subject, so the pronoun is usually omitted. Älä pelkää already means “don’t (you) fear.”
You can include sinä for emphasis or contrast: Älä sinä pelkää heitä (“You, don’t be afraid of them”).

Can I move the words around? For example, can I put heitä first?

Yes, for emphasis you can front the object: Heitä älä pelkää. That strongly emphasizes “them.”
But don’t put the object between älä and the verb: Älä heitä pelkää is parsed as “Don’t throw fear,” i.e., it sounds wrong and confusing, because Älä heitä reads first as “Don’t throw.”

Can I omit the object and just say Älä pelkää?

Yes. Älä pelkää is a very common standalone reassurance (“Don’t be afraid”). Adding heitä just specifies who/what not to fear.

Is there another common way to say “Don’t be afraid (of them)”?

Yes, with the “be in fear” construction:

• To one person: Älä ole peloissasi (heistä/heitä kohtaan).
• To several people: Älkää olko peloissanne (heistä/heitä kohtaan).
  The pelätä verb (“to fear”) is simpler and very common: Älä pelkää (heitä).

How do I say “Don’t be afraid of him/her/me/us/them (things)”?

• him/her: Älä pelkää häntä.
• me: Älä pelkää minua.
• us: Älä pelkää meitä.
• them (people): Älä pelkää heitä.
• them (things)/those: Älä pelkää niitä.
  For speaking to several people, use Älkää pelätkö … with the same objects.

Why is there no word for “of,” like in “afraid of them”?

Finnish doesn’t need a preposition here because pelätä directly governs its object (usually in the partitive). So pelätä heitä literally maps to “fear them,” which covers English “be afraid of them.”

How do I pronounce the sentence?

• Älä: [ˈælæ] — both vowels are short; ä like the “a” in English “cat.”
• pelkää: [ˈpelkæː] — stress on the first syllable, and the final ää is long.
• heitä: [ˈheitæ] — the ei is like “ay” in “say,” and final ä like “a” in “cat.”
  Overall: [ˈælæ ˈpelkæː ˈheitæ]. Finnish always stresses the first syllable of each word.

Is there any difference between heitä and niitä for “them”?

• Standard Finnish uses he/heidän/heitä for people and ne/niiden/niitä for things/animals.
• In everyday colloquial speech, ne/niitä is often used for people too. In careful/standard style about people, prefer heitä.

What’s the difference between pelätä and olla peloissaan?

• pelätä = “to fear, be afraid of” and takes a (usually partitive) object: pelkään pimeää / heitä.
• olla peloissaan = “to be in a state of fear,” often about a person’s emotional state. It’s used with possessive suffixes:
  
  • I am afraid: olen peloissani
  • you (sg) are afraid: olet peloissasi
  • he/she is afraid: on peloissaan
    For prohibitions: Älä pelkää (heitä) or Älä ole peloissasi are both idiomatic; the first targets the act of fearing, the second the state of being afraid.

How do I ask “Are you afraid of them?” in Finnish?

Pelkäätkö heitä?
That’s the 2nd person singular present with the question clitic -ko/‑kö attached to the verb. Answering negatively: En pelkää (heitä).

Is “Älä” capitalized for any special reason?

No—only because it’s the first word of the sentence. If it appeared mid-sentence, it would be lowercase älä. The letter ä simply has its regular uppercase Ä at the start of a sentence.