Question Word: Kuka? Who? – Interrogative Pronoun
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the question word kuka, which is translated in English as “who”. This issue is much more complicated than in English due to all the cases words can be inflected in.
“Kuka” is one of the interrogative pronouns aka question words. These are one of the many different types of pronouns that exist. The question word kuka is just the tip of the iceberg!
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- Nominative: Kuka? Ketkä? Who?
- Partitive: Ketä? Keitä?
- Genitive: Kenen? Keiden?
- Adessive: Kenellä? Keillä?
- Allative: Kenelle? Keille?
- Ablative: Keneltä? Keiltä?
- Inessive: Kenessä? Keissä?
- Illative: Keneen? Keihin?
- Elative: Kenestä? Keistä?
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1. Nominative: Kuka? Ketkä? Who?
The nominative forms of “who” are kuka in the singular and ketkä in the plural. You use these forms when the question word kuka is the subject of your sentence. Subjects generally express who is the do-er or experiencer of the sentence.
| Sg/Pl | Finnish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | Kuka pelaa? | Who is playing? |
| Plural | Ketkä soittavat? | Who are playing? |
| Singular | Kuka osaa auttaa meitä? | Who can help us? |
| Plural | Ketkä osaavat auttaa meitä? | Who can help us? |
| Singular | Kuka tuli juhliin? | Who came to the party? |
| Plural | Ketkä tulivat juhliin? | Who come to the party? |
2. Partitive: Ketä? Keitä? Who?
You can start by reading more about the partitive itself to get some background on this issue.
The singular partitive form of kuka is ketä and the plural keitä. These are used pretty rarely. Most of the time, the partitive form of kuka is used for certain types of objects. However, not all objects are automatically put in the partitive. Some of them are also put, for example, in the genitive case.
Ketä and keitä are used when:
- the sentence’s main verb is a partitive verb (Ketä sinä rakastat? Keitä sinä odotat?)
- with feeling verbs (Ketä suututtaa niin paljon? Keitä oikein naurattaa näin surullinen asia?)
- they’re the object in a negative sentence (Ketä sinä et halua ystäväksesi? Keitä ei ole kutsuttu?)
| # | Sg/Pl | Finnish | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Singular | Ketä sinä rakastat? | Who do you love? |
| 1 | Plural | Keitä sinä odotat? | Who are you waiting for? |
| 2 | Singular | Ketä suututtaa tänään? | Who’s angry today? |
| 2 | Plural | Keitä naurattaa nyt? | Who feels like laughing now? |
| 3 | Singular | Ketä et halua ystäväksesi? | Who don’t you want as a friend? |
| 3 | Plural | Keitä ei ole kutsuttu? | Who haven’t been invited? |
3. Genitive: Kenen? Keiden? Whose?
You could start by reading about the genitive case in general first. Kenen and keiden are translated to English as “whose” when they have their possessive meaning, but in other cases it can also be simple “who”. This is one of the things that makes the question word kuka so complicated.
Kenen and keiden are used when:
- they’re inquiring about the possession of items (Kenen takki tämä on? Keiden asunto tuo on?)
- they’re the word connected to a postposition (Kenen kanssa juttelet? Keiden mukaan menet kotiin?)
- we’re dealing with a necessity sentence (Kenen täytyy siivota tänään? Keiden on pakko tehdä ryhmätyötä yhdessä?)
| # | Plural | Finnish | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Singular | Kenen takki tämä on? | Whose coat is this? |
| 1 | Plural | Keiden asunto tuo on? | Whose apartment is that? |
| 2 | Singular | Kenen kanssa olet? | Who are you with? |
| 2 | Plural | Keiden mukaan menet kotiin? | With whom do you go home? |
| 3 | Singular | Kenen täytyy siivota tänään? | Who has to clean today? |
| 3 | Plural | Keiden pitää tehdä tämän yhdessä? | Who have to do this together? |
4. Adessive: Kenellä? Keillä? Who has?
You could start by reading about the adessive case in general first. Kenellä and keillä are often translated as “who has” or “who have”.
They’re used when we’re talking about possession (Kenellä on nälkä? Keillä ei ole tätä paperia?).
| Sg/Pl | Finnish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | Kenellä on kysymys? | Who has a question? |
| Singular | Kenellä oli eilen koe? | Who had a test yesterday? |
| Singular | Kenellä on oma auto? | Who has their own car? |
| Plural | Keillä on oma auto? | Who have their own car? |
| Plural | Keillä ei ole tätä paperia? | Who doesn’t have this paper? |
| Plural | Keillä olisi aikaa minulle? | Who would have time for me? |
5. Allative: Kenelle? Keille? To whom?
You could start by reading about the adessive case in general first. The question words kenelle and keille are usually translated as “to whom”.
Kenelle and keille are mainly used with certain verbs (see: rections) (Kenelle sinä annat paperin? Keille sinä valehtelin?)
| Sg/Pl | Finnish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | Kenelle annat paperin? | Who do you give the paper to? |
| Singular | Kenelle lainaat rahaa? | Who do you lend money to? |
| Singular | Kenelle puhut? | Who are you talking to? |
| Plural | Keille soitat näin myöhään? | Who are you calling to this late? |
| Plural | Keille valehtelit? | Who did you lie to? |
| Plural | Keille kirje on osoitettu? | Who is the letter addressed to? |
6. Ablative: Keneltä? Keiltä? From whom?
You could start by reading about the ablative case in general first. The question words keneltä and keiltä are usually translated as “from who”.
These interrogatives are mainly used with certain verbs (see: rections) (Keneltä sinä sait paperin? Keiltä sinä varastit tämän?)
| Sg/Pl | Finnish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | Keneltä sait sen? | Who did you get it from? |
| Singular | Keneltä lainasit rahaa? | Who did you borrow money from? |
| Singular | Keneltä pyysit apua? | Who did you ask help from? |
| Plural | Keiltä varastit tämän? | Who did you steal this from? |
| Plural | Keiltä perit rahat? | Who did you inherit the money from? |
| Plural | Keiltä sinä kuulit huhun? | From who did you hear the rumor? |
7. Inessive: Kenessä? Keissä? In who?
It’s hard to find any use for this form. It exists, but mostly as a theoretical option. I suppose you could ask “Kenessä rakkaus asuu?” (In who does love live?) but even that seems awkward.
8. Illative: Keneen? Keihin? To whom?
You could start by reading about the illative case in general first. These interrogatives are mainly used with certain verbs (see: rections).
| Sg/Pl | Finnish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | Keneen sinä rakastuit? | Who did you fall in love with? |
| Singular | Keneen sinä tormäsit? | Who did you bump into? |
| Singular | Keneen hän on ihastunut? | Who is he infatuated with? |
| Plural | Keihin sinä tutustuit? | Who did you meet? |
| Plural | Keihin sinä luotat? | Who do you trust? |
| Plural | Keihin sinä nyt viittaat? | Who are you referring to now? |
9. Elative: Kenestä? Keistä? From / about who?
You could start by reading about the elative case in general first. The question words kenestä and keistä are usually translated as “about whom”. These interrogatives are mainly used with certain verbs (see: rections)
| Sg/Pl | Finnish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | Kenestä te puhutte? | Who are you talking about? |
| Singular | Kenestä te riitelette? | Who are you arguing about? |
| Singular | Kenestä sinä tykkäät? | Who do you like? |
| Plural | Keistä sinä pidät? | Who do you like? |
| Plural | Keistä te huolehditte? | Who do you take care of? |
| Plural | Keistä te olette kiinnostuneita? | Who are you interested in? |
Please also check out how to say “nobody“!
That’s all for the question word kuka in its inflected form. Hopefully you found this useful!
It’s great to see the pronouns and case forms presented in this question-answer style — an excellent way to learn in context!
Wiktionary has a nice entry for kuka that goes into historical usage and more rare case forms, such as the following tidbits:
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