Koira pelkää ilotulitusta.

The dog is afraid of the fireworks.

Breakdown of Koira pelkää ilotulitusta.

• koira: the dog
• pelätä: to be afraid
• ilotulitus: the fireworks

Questions & Answers about Koira pelkää ilotulitusta.

Why doesn’t the sentence have a word for “the”, like “the dog”?

Finnish has no articles (a/an/the) at all.

• Koira can mean a dog or the dog, depending on context.
• In this sentence, Koira pelkää ilotulitusta, you choose a or the in English based on what makes sense in the situation, not because Finnish marks it.

So koira is just the basic noun dog in the nominative case, and definiteness is understood from context.

What exactly is pelkää? Is it a form of a verb?

Yes.

• The basic dictionary form (infinitive) is pelätä = to fear / to be afraid of.
• pelkää is 3rd person singular, present tense: (he/she/it) fears or is afraid of.

Conjugation pattern (present tense):

• minä pelkään – I fear
• sinä pelkäät – you fear
• hän pelkää – he/she/it fears
• me pelkäämme – we fear
• te pelkäätte – you (pl) fear
• he pelkäävät – they fear

So Koira pelkää = The dog fears / is afraid.

Why is it ilotulitusta and not just ilotulitus?

Ilotulitusta is in the partitive case; ilotulitus is the nominative (dictionary form).

The verb pelätä generally takes its object in the partitive when you fear something in a general, open‑ended, or indefinite way.

• Koira pelkää ilotulitusta.
  
  • The dog is afraid of fireworks (in general, as a kind of thing).

If you used ilotulitus (nominative), the sentence would be ungrammatical with pelkää. The verb itself requires partitive here, so ilotulitusta is the correct form.

What does the ending -ta in ilotulitusta mean?

The -ta / -tä ending is one common marker of the partitive singular.

• ilotulitus = fireworks / firework show (nominative, basic form)
• ilotulitusta = fireworks (partitive singular)

The partitive is used for many things; here it marks the object of a verb of emotion (pelätä) and indicates something not seen as a single, complete, countable item, but more like “some fireworks / fireworks in general”.

Could you say Koira pelkää ilotulituksen instead? What would that mean?

Normally you wouldn’t say Koira pelkää ilotulituksen. It sounds wrong to native speakers in neutral usage.

Why:

• pelätä almost always takes a partitive object for what you fear, especially for general or habitual fear.
• ilotulituksen is genitive singular, which is used for a total/complete object with many other verbs, but not naturally with pelätä in this sense.

So:

• ✅ Koira pelkää ilotulitusta. = The dog is afraid of fireworks.
• ❌ Koira pelkää ilotulituksen. = unidiomatic / incorrect in ordinary modern Finnish.

In very unusual or archaic‑sounding contexts you might occasionally see non‑partitive objects with pelätä, but for practical learning: treat pelätä + partitive as the rule.

Why is there no separate word for “of” in “afraid of fireworks”?

In Finnish, relationships that English expresses with prepositions often appear as case endings on nouns.

• English: afraid of fireworks
• Finnish: pelkää ilotulitusta

Here:

• The idea of “of” is included in the partitive ending -ta on ilotulitusta.
• The verb pelätä simply takes its object in the partitive.

So there is no need for a separate word like of; the case ending and verb choice do the job.

Can the word order change, like Ilotulitusta koira pelkää?

Yes, Finnish word order is fairly flexible, and Ilotulitusta koira pelkää is grammatically correct.

• Koira pelkää ilotulitusta.
  
  • Neutral order, just stating a fact.
• Ilotulitusta koira pelkää.
  
  • Emphasis on ilotulitusta (it’s fireworks, specifically, that the dog fears).

The meaning (who fears what) stays the same because koira is nominative (subject) and ilotulitusta is partitive (object). Word order mainly affects focus and emphasis, not basic grammar roles.

Does this sentence describe a one‑time situation or a general habit?

By itself, Koira pelkää ilotulitusta is ambiguous between:

• habitual / general: The dog is (by nature) afraid of fireworks.
• current, ongoing: The dog (right now) fears the fireworks that are going on.

Finnish present tense covers both present and general/habitual meaning, like English “The dog fears fireworks” vs “The dog is afraid of fireworks”; context decides which is intended.

How would you make this sentence negative?

To negate, Finnish uses a special negative verb ei that is conjugated, and the main verb goes to a short form.

Positive:

• Koira pelkää ilotulitusta. – The dog is afraid of fireworks.

Negative:

• Koira ei pelkää ilotulitusta. – The dog is not afraid of fireworks.

Breakdown:

• ei = negative verb, 3rd person singular here
• pelkää → pelkää (same stem form used after ei in 3rd person)
• Object stays ilotulitusta (partitive).

What is ilotulitus made of? It looks like a compound word.

Yes, ilotulitus is a compound:

• ilo = joy
• tulitus = firing, shooting (from tuli = fire + -tus nominalizing suffix)

So literally something like “joy-shooting” / “joy-firework show”, which matches the idea of fireworks / fireworks display.

Then ilotulitusta = partitive form of that compound: (some) fireworks / fireworks (in general).

Is ilotulitus the same as individual fireworks, like rockets and firecrackers?

Not exactly.

• ilotulitus usually refers to a fireworks display / show or the activity of setting off fireworks.
• The physical devices themselves are typically called ilotulitteet (plural of ilotulite).

So:

• Koira pelkää ilotulitusta.
  
  • The dog is afraid of fireworks (the activity / the show / the phenomenon).
• Koira pelkää ilotulitteita.
  
  • The dog is afraid of the fireworks items (rockets, firecrackers, etc.).

In everyday speech, ilotulitus often covers the general idea of fireworks well enough.

What’s the difference between pelkää and pelottaa, both related to fear?

They express fear in different grammatical patterns:

1. pelätä (here: pelkää)

   • Subject is the one who is afraid.
   • Object (in partitive) is what they fear.
   • Koira pelkää ilotulitusta.
     
     • The dog fears fireworks.

2. pelottaa

   • Subject is the thing that causes fear.
   • The experiencer is in the partitive.
   • Ilotulitus pelottaa koiraa.
     
     • Fireworks scare the dog / Fireworks make the dog afraid.

So:

• Koira pelkää ilotulitusta. = The dog fears fireworks.
• Ilotulitus pelottaa koiraa. = Fireworks scare the dog.

Same situation, but the grammatical viewpoint changes.