kenestä

Kenestä is a Finnish interrogative pronoun form used to refer to the person who is the subject of discussion or inquiry. It translates roughly as “about whom” or “of whom” in English and is used in questions and in subordinate clauses that specify the person involved.

In Finnish, kenestä is the elative case form of the interrogative pronoun for “who.” The elative case generally marks movement from or origin, and in this usage kenestä indicates the person the sentence is about or from whom information is being considered. Kenestä thus serves to pinpoint the individual relevant to the statement or question.

Common usages include: Kenestä on kyse? (Who is this about?), Puhutaan kenestä? (Who is being talked about?), En tiedä, kenestä on kyse. (I don’t know who it is about.). These forms appear in both spoken and written Finnish, particularly in neutral or formal contexts such as journalism, academic writing, and official communication.

Kenestä is part of a broader system of Finnish interrogative pronouns, which decline across cases (nominative, partitive, genitive, elative, etc.). It is typically used when the topic of discussion concerns a specific person. While kenestä is standard in most contexts, speakers may sometimes choose alternative constructions in informal speech. See also Finnish grammar and interrogative pronouns for related forms and usage.