diff --git a/sklearn/datasets/_svmlight_format_io.py b/sklearn/datasets/_svmlight_format_io.py
index 2a141e1732ff7..991832c23c389 100644
--- a/sklearn/datasets/_svmlight_format_io.py
+++ b/sklearn/datasets/_svmlight_format_io.py
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 from .. import __version__
 
 from ..utils import check_array, IS_PYPY
+from ..utils._param_validation import validate_params, HasMethods
 
 if not IS_PYPY:
     from ._svmlight_format_fast import (
@@ -404,6 +405,17 @@ def _dump_svmlight(X, y, f, multilabel, one_based, comment, query_id):
     )
 
 
+@validate_params(
+    {
+        "X": ["array-like", "sparse matrix"],
+        "y": ["array-like", "sparse matrix"],
+        "f": [str, HasMethods(["write"])],
+        "zero_based": ["boolean"],
+        "comment": [str, bytes, None],
+        "query_id": ["array-like", None],
+        "multilabel": ["boolean"],
+    }
+)
 def dump_svmlight_file(
     X,
     y,
@@ -428,7 +440,7 @@ def dump_svmlight_file(
         Training vectors, where `n_samples` is the number of samples and
         `n_features` is the number of features.
 
-    y : {array-like, sparse matrix}, shape = [n_samples (, n_labels)]
+    y : {array-like, sparse matrix}, shape = (n_samples,) or (n_samples, n_labels)
         Target values. Class labels must be an
         integer or float, or array-like objects of integer or float for
         multilabel classifications.
@@ -442,7 +454,7 @@ def dump_svmlight_file(
         Whether column indices should be written zero-based (True) or one-based
         (False).
 
-    comment : str, default=None
+    comment : str or bytes, default=None
         Comment to insert at the top of the file. This should be either a
         Unicode string, which will be encoded as UTF-8, or an ASCII byte
         string.
@@ -459,7 +471,7 @@ def dump_svmlight_file(
         https://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~cjlin/libsvmtools/datasets/multilabel.html).
 
         .. versionadded:: 0.17
-           parameter *multilabel* to support multilabel datasets.
+           parameter `multilabel` to support multilabel datasets.
     """
     if comment is not None:
         # Convert comment string to list of lines in UTF-8.
diff --git a/sklearn/tests/test_public_functions.py b/sklearn/tests/test_public_functions.py
index c2f0f18a7825e..b50e469f80a1e 100644
--- a/sklearn/tests/test_public_functions.py
+++ b/sklearn/tests/test_public_functions.py
@@ -102,6 +102,7 @@ def _check_function_param_validation(
     "sklearn.cluster.ward_tree",
     "sklearn.covariance.empirical_covariance",
     "sklearn.covariance.shrunk_covariance",
+    "sklearn.datasets.dump_svmlight_file",
     "sklearn.datasets.fetch_california_housing",
     "sklearn.datasets.fetch_kddcup99",
     "sklearn.datasets.make_classification",