Mitä

Mitä is a Finnish interrogative pronoun used to ask about the identity, nature, or content of something. It is the partitive form of the pronoun mikä and appears in many question constructions as well as in embedded clauses. In contrast to the nominative form mikä, which asks about the subject, mitä is typically used when the thing being questioned is the object of the action or is indefinite in amount or scope.

Usage and syntax

Mitä commonly appears after verbs that take a direct object. The object is placed in the partitive case, which is a hallmark of many Finnish question forms. Examples include:

- Mitä teet? (What are you doing?)

- Mitä haluat syödä? (What do you want to eat?)

- En ymmärrä, mitä sanot. (I don’t understand what you are saying.)

Mitä also introduces indirect or embedded questions, as in:

- Kysyimme, mitä hän aikoi tehdä. (We asked what he intended to do.)

Forms and related pronouns

The contrasting nominative form is mikä, used for questions about the subject or predicative nominative, as in Mikä tämä on? (What is this?). Mitta is not a standalone form; instead, kaksi main forms are used depending on grammatical role: mikä for subjects and mitä for objects or content. The use of mität is common in questions about actions, objects, contents, or explanations, and it frequently appears in subordinate clauses.

Etymology and cross-linguistic notes

Mitä derives from the Proto-Finnic interrogative system and is cognate with Estonian mida and related forms in other Finnic languages. It is a core element of Finnish question formation and interacts with the language’s case system to convey aspect, quantity, or indefiniteness in the inquiry.