mikä
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Etymology
From Proto-Finnic *mi, from Proto-Uralic *mi. The nominative and genitive singular forms, which would have otherwise been monosyllabic, have been extended with -kä (as with joka and kuka), possibly even in Proto-Finnic (*mikä), as reflected in Ingrian mikä and Voro mikä. Other cognates include Estonian mis, Veps mi, Erzya мезе (meźe), мее (meje), Komi-Zyrian мый (myj), Hungarian mi.
Pronunciation
Pronoun
mikä
- (interrogative) what, which
- Mikä tuo on?
- What is that?
- Mitä teet?
- What are you doing?
- Minkä annoksen tilasit?
- Which dish did you order?
- (relative) which, that, what (see usage notes)
Usage notes
- (relative) mikä is used to refer to:
- the previous clause or sentence (joka is used instead with individual words or phrases)
- Kaikki menikin lopulta hyvin, mikä oli suuri helpotus.
- Ultimately, everything went well which was a great relief.
- superlative or a noun modified by a superlative
- Se on parasta, mitä minulle on koskaan tapahtunut.
- It/That is the best that has ever happened to me.
- Se on paras elokuva, minkä (~jonka) olen koskaan nähnyt.
- It/That is the best film that I have ever seen.
- a pronoun not referring to a person (for a person, joka is used), when referring to a broadly abstract or undefined concept (as opposed to joka for concrete, well-defined concepts)
- Hän todisti sen, mikä oli todistettavissa.
- He proved what was provable.
- Hän sai sen, mitä halusi.
- He got what he wanted.
- Hän todisti kaiken, mikä oli todistettavissa.
- He proved everything that was provable.
- when used as a kind of independent relative pronoun which has no referent in the previous clause: kuka is used for persons in this case
- Hän sai mitä halusi.
- He got what he wanted.
- En tiedä mitä hän haluaa.
- I don't know what he wants.
- sometimes in the locative cases even when referring to the previous word when used to signify location or direction (in free variation with joka)
- paikka, jossa kävimme / paikka, missä kävimme ― the place (that) we visited
- the previous clause or sentence (joka is used instead with individual words or phrases)
- mikä may behave as an indefinite pronoun with an additional word like ikinä, hyvänsä, tahansa (after mikä), or vaikka (before mikä). Some relative uses may also be indefinite:
- Oli mikä oli. (dismissive nuance)
- Whatever it was.
- (literally, “[It] was what [it] was.”)
Determiner
mikä
Inflection
- Irregular. Some cases are never used.
Declension of mikä
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Synonyms
- (relative): mi (archaic, poetic)
Derived terms
- kuin mikä
- mihinkään
- mihinpäin
- mikin
- mikäkin
- mikäli
- mikälie
- mikään
- millainen
- milloin
- milloin mikäkin
- miltei
- mimmoinen
- minkinlainen
- minkähintainen
- minkäikäinen
- minkäkinlainen
- minkäkokoinen
- minkälainen
- minkäluonteinen
- minkämaalainen
- minkämakuinen
- minkämerkkinen
- minkäniminen
- minkänäköinen
- minkävärinen
- minkäänarvoinen
- minkäännäköinen
- minne
- mistäpäin
- miten
- mitätön
Further reading
- “mikä”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-01
Anagrams
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Alternative forms
Etymology
From Proto-Finnic *mikä. Cognates include Estonian mis and Finnish mikä.
Pronunciation
Pronoun
mikä
- (interrogative) what?
- 1936, N. A. Iljin and V. I. Junus, Bukvari iƶoroin șkouluja vart, Leningrad: Riikin Ucebno-pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva, page 42:
- Mikä ono, arvatkaa?
- What is it, guess?
- (indefinite) whatever
- (relative) which, that, what
- 1936, N. A. Iljin and V. I. Junus, Bukvari iƶoroin șkouluja vart, Leningrad: Riikin Ucebno-pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva, page 52:
- Möö määmmä sitä teetä, minen näytti meille Lenin.
- We follow this way, which Lenin showed us.
Declension
Derived terms
References
- V. I. Junus (1936) Iƶoran Keelen Grammatikka, Leningrad: Riikin Ucebno-pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva, page 100
- Ruben E. Nirvi (1971) Inkeroismurteiden Sanakirja, Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, page 309
- Olga I. Konkova, Nikita A. Dyachkov (2014) Inkeroin Keel: Пособие по Ижорскому Языку, →ISBN, page 73
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Alternative forms
Etymology
From Proto-Finnic *mikä, from Proto-Uralic *mi.
Pronunciation
Pronoun
mikä
Determiner
mikä
- Synonym of milläin (“what kind of, which”)
Inflection
| Inflection of mikä | ||
|---|---|---|
| singular | plural | |
| nominative | mikä | migäd |
| genitive | migä | — |
| accusative | migä | — |
| partitive | mitä | — |
| illative | migäse | — |
| inessive | migäz | — |
| elative | migässe | — |
| allative | migäle migälle |
— |
| adessive | migälle | — |
| ablative | migälte | — |
| translative | migässi | — |
| **) the terminative is formed by adding the suffix -ssaa to the short illative (sg) or the genitive. ***) the comitative is formed by adding the suffix -ka to the genitive. | ||
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