Koira pelkää ilotulitusta.

the dog

Breakdown of Koira pelkää ilotulitusta.

• 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; is the (dictionary form).