mikä

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See also: mika, Mika, mīka, and Míka

Finnish

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 (meze), мее (meje), Komi-Zyrian мый (myj), Hungarian mi.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈmikæ/,
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -ikæ
  • Syllabification(key): mi‧kä
  • Hyphenation(key): mi‧kä

Pronoun

mikä

  1. (interrogative) what, which
    Mikä tuo on?
    What is that?
    Mitä teet?
    What are you doing?
    Minkä annoksen tilasit?
    Which dish did you order?
  2. (relative) which, that, what (see usage notes)

Usage notes

  • (relative) As a relative pronoun, mikä is used as follows:
Use of mikä as a relative pronoun
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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
  • 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, “ was what was.”)

Determiner

mikä

  1. (interrogative) what, which
    Minkä takia teit noin?
    Why did you do that? / What did you do that for?

Inflection

  • Irregular. Some cases are never used.
Declension of mikä
noun case singular pluraladverbial form singular plural
nominative mikä mitkäsuperessive – –
genitive minkä minkädelative – –
partitive mitä mitäsublative minne –
accusative mikä, minkä mitkälative – –
inessive missä missätemporal milloin –
elative mistä mistäcausative miten –
illative mihin mihinmultiplicative – –
adessive millä millädistributive – –
ablative miltä miltätemp. dist. – –
allative mille milleprolative – –
essive minä minäsituative – –
translative miksi miksioppositive – –
abessive – –
instructive – –
comitative – –

Synonyms

  • (relative): mi (archaic, poetic)

Derived terms

compounds

Further reading

Anagrams

Ingrian

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *mikä. Cognates include Estonian mis and Finnish mikä.

Pronunciation

Pronoun

mikä

  1. (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?
  2. (indefinite) whatever
  3. (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

Declension of mikä
singular plural
nominative mikä mit
genitive minen
partitive mitä
illative mihe
inessive mis
elative mist
allative mille
adessive mil
ablative milt
translative miks
essive minennä
*) the accusative corresponds with either the genitive (sg) or nominative (pl)

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

Votic

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *mikä, from Proto-Uralic *mi.

Pronunciation

Pronoun

mikä

  1. (interrogative) what
  2. (relative) which, that, what
  3. (indefinite) something, whatever

Determiner

mikä

  1. 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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