Which one should you use?
In Finnish, the distinction between mitä and mikä depends on what you are asking. Mikä is the nominative case used to ask for the identity of a specific thing, such as in 'What is your name?' In contrast, mitä is the partitive case used when asking about an ongoing action or an unspecified amount or object. Additionally, while mitä and miten can both mean 'in what way', other words like kuinka and millainen can be used to begin exclamations.
Is it said differently in some regions?
The variation mitäs is used primarily in spoken language in certain parts of Finland.
Related words
How does it change in a sentence?
mitä is the partitive case of the interrogative pronoun. It can be used as a singular partitive or as the plural partitive form to ask 'what' regarding multiple items. In informal spoken Finnish, you may encounter the word sä used instead of the standard sinä for 'you'.
How do you pronounce it?
/ˈmitæ/
Did you know?
- While mitä asks 'what', the Finnish language has a unique word kulta meaning 'gold' that is used as a common term of endearment similar to 'honey' or 'sweetheart'.
- In very informal contexts, mitä is often replaced by mitä ihmettä when the speaker is bewildered, which translates literally to 'what wonder'.
- Finnish grammar allows the word mitä to change its ending into many different forms to indicate direction, possession or location, which is not possible with the English 'what'.
Examples in context
- Mitä se voi olla?What can it be?This sentence is useful for asking what something might be using mitä.Tatoeba #3782438 by Silja, translation #3737747 by CK
- Mitä tuo ääni on?What is that noise?This sentence is useful for asking about the identity of a noise using mitä.Tatoeba #4401845 by Silja, translation #2213721 by Hybrid
- Mitä sä aiot tehä?What do you intend to do?This sentence is useful for asking about intentions using mitä and the informal 'you' sä.Tatoeba #3242658 by Silja, translation #16259 by CK
- Mitä teet?What are you doing?
- Mikä tämä on?What is this?
- Mitäs sinä ajattelet?What do you think?
- 1991 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Emma and Matti are looking at a strange object on the table.
- EmmaMitä tämä on?What is this?
- MattiSe on uusi lahja.It is a new gift.
- EmmaMitä sinä olet ostanut?What have you bought?
- MattiOstin tämän sinulle.I bought this for you.
Sources
- Pronunciation: Wiktionary entry mitä, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
