Relative pronouns

The basic relative pronouns joka and mikä

The basic relative pronouns are joka and mikä. They both correspond to English “which”, “that”, and “who”, so that both joka and mikä can start either a restrictive relative clause or a non-restrictive relative clause.

In practice, this causes much less confusion than you might expect. Finnish frequently uses the demonstrative pronoun se when a relative clause is restrictive. For example, se koirani, joka voitti kilpailun (or se koiristani, joka voitti kilpailun) means “my dog that won the contest”. Without the word se, the expression koirani, joka voitti kilpailun is ambiguous in the sense that the relative clause may or may not be restrictive. Its meaning can be the same as with se, or it can mean “my dog, which (by the way) won the contest”.

In Finnish, the use of a comma before a personal pronoun does not depend on whether the relative clause is restrictive. Normally a comma is used, but it may be omitted according to general punctuation rules in some contexts.

The inflexion of joka

The normal relative pronoun is joka. It is inflected so that the ka part is omitted except in genetive singular (jonka) and nominative plural (jotka). In informal style, the ka part is included in some other forms, too. For example, the illative is johon in singular, joihin in plural, but johonka and joihinka are also used in speech. The forms in use are shown in the table below.

The inflexion of mikä

The alternative relative pronoun mikä has the same inflection as in its use as an interrogative pronoun: mikä : minkä : minä etc. This means that the inflection is rather similar to that of joka.

Choice of case forms

The case form of a relative pronoun is determined by its grammatical role in the relative clause. This form may well differ from the case form of the word that the pronoun refers to, the antecedent. Example: Muistatko hotellin, jossa asuimme viime matkallamme? (Do you remember the hotel where we lived during our last trip?) Here the relative pronoun jossa is in the inessive, indicating location, whereas its antecedent hotellin is in the genitive, as it is the object of the main clause.

Choosing between joka and mikä

In standard language, the pronoun mikä is used instead of joka in the following contexts:

• The pronoun relates to an entire clause (containing a predicate) before it, e.g. Ehdotus hylättiin, mikä aiheutti kaaoksen (The proposal was rejected, which caused a chaos); the pronoun relates to ehdotus hylättiin.
• The pronoun relates to a superlative adjective, e.g. parasta, mitä tiedän (the best that I know). In these expressions, the superlative is in the partitive form. However, if the superlative is an attribute of an implied noun, the rules in the following item apply. For example, Tämä auto on paras, joka ∼ mikä minulla on ollut (This car is the best that I have had), since paras is here short for paras auto.
• The pronoun relates to an expression containing a superlative attribute, e.g. paras koira, minkä tunnen (the best dog that I know). However, in this type, joka may alternatively be used, and must be used if the expression refers to a person, e.g. paras mies, jonka tunnen (the best man that I know).
• The pronoun relates to another pronoun used in singular and not denoting a person, e.g. kaikki, mitä olen nähnyt (all that I have seen) and se, mitä tapahtui (the thing that happened). When the antecedent pronoun refers to a person, joka is used, e.g. se, jota odotin (the person that I was waiting for). The same applies when the antecedent is in plural form, e.g. nämä, jotka nyt näet (these that you now see) versus tämä, minkä nyt näet (this that you now see).
• The pronoun refers to an implied pronoun, e.g. Tee, mitä haluat = Tee se, mitä haluat.
• The pronoun refers to an expression of place, e.g. Kävin Vaasassa, missä olen syntynyt (I visited Vaasa, where I was born). In this type, joka can also be used.; in the example, the inessive jossa would be used. Typically, joka makes the reference more localized, referring to an exact place.

In spoken language, mikä is often used much wider instead of joka, though normally not about people. This is probably a source of the misconception (among some native speakers) that joka should be used about people, mikä about anything else.

Sentences that begin with joka

When a sentence begins with the pronoun joka in some case form, the pronoun is usually part of a relative clause that constitutes the subject of the main clause. This structure is common in proverbs, e.g. Joka torjuu moitteet, pilaa elämänsä (Whoso is refusing instruction is despising his soul; Proverbs 15:32). In such contexts, joka always refers to a person. However, a sentence may begin with the word joka in a different meaning, “every”, e.g. Joka päivä... (Every day...).

Such a relative clause does not relate to any word in the main clause, i.e. it has no antecedent, so it may sound somewhat special. Partly for such reasons, the pronoun se is often placed at the start, so that it acts as the antecedent: Se, joka torjuu moitteet, pilaa elämänsä. Another method is to use the pronoun se or hän after the relative clause: Joka torjuu moitteet, se pilaa elämänsä.

Use of kuka ∼ ken as relative pronouns

The interrogative pronoun kuka ∼ ken (who) is also used as a relative pronoun, but only in some special contexts. Normally, the English relative pronoun “who” corresponds to joka in Finnish, e.g. nainen, jota rakastan (the woman whom I love). When a relative pronoun referring to a person is used as standalone, not relating to any word in the preceding clause, kuka ∼ ken is used, e.g. Hän voi valita, kenet hän haluaa (He can choose whomever he wants).

Adjectives and adverbs used like relative pronouns

The pronoun-like adjective jollainen (of which kind) is relatively rare and mostly literary. For example, the expression auto, jollaista et ole ennen kokeillut means “a car of a kind that you have not tried before”. A similar adjective millainen is used when mikä would be used instead of joka, e.g. Sellainen koira, millainen isäntä (like dog, like master).

The pronoun-like adverbs jolloin and milloin similarly mean “at which time”, and the pronoun-like adverbs jonne and minne mean “where to” or “into which”. Example: Jatkoimme matkaa Jyväskylään, jonne saavuimme kello 23 (We continued the trip to Jyväskylä, where we arrived at 11 PM).

Word order in relative clauses

Although word order can generally vary a lot in Finnish, especially in poetry, relative clauses always start with a relative pronoun or a comparable adjective or adverb. It cannot thus have a preposition; instead, a postposition is used. For example, we can say ennen tätä or tätä ennen (before this), but ennen can be used only as a postposition can be used in Järjestelmä otetaan käyttöön keväällä, mitä ennen sitä testataan (The system will be taken into use in spring, before which it will tested).

Associating a relative pronoun with an antecedent

A relative pronoun refers to a noun phrase (noun with its attributes), known as its antecedent. The antecedent appears most often immediately before the relative pronoun. For example, puhelimeni akku, jonka ostin eilen means “the battery (in my phone) that I bought yesterday”, so it says that yesterday I bought the phone, not the battery.

If the antecedent is farther, it should be preceded by the demonstrative pronoun se, in the form required by the context. This is possible only when the relative clause is restrictive. For example, sen puhelimeni akku, jonka ostin eilen means “the battery of that phone of mine that I bought yesterday” and implies that I have several phones and I am now referring to one of them, identified by the relative clause.

Instead of se, some other restrictive attribute such as sellainen (such) and ainoa (the only) can sometimes be used to associate an antecedent with a relative pronoun. Example: Hän kysyi sellaisten tuotteiden hinnoista, joita meillä ei ole myynnissä (He asked about the prices of products that we do not have for sale). If the relative clause is non-restrictive, such methods cannot be used: the antecedent must precede the pronoun. We can say Ostin auton, jonka hinta oli 5 000 euroa (I bought a car, the price of which was 5,000 euros). If we wish to add an adverbial to the main clause, e.g. Villeltä (from Ville), it needs to be placed before auton: Ostin Villeltä auton, jonka hinta oli 5 000 euroa.

In informal language, the rules are often broken. If someone says Hän kysyi tuotteiden hinnoista, joita meillä ei ole myynnissä, he will be understood, though perhaps with some difficulty. The listener needs to realize that joista cannot refer to hinnoista but to tuotteiden; products are sold, not prices.

Standard Finnish rules now allow a relative pronoun to refer to antecedent “over” a postposition. Example: Pekka keskusteli asiasta Liisan kanssa, joka näytti hajamieliseltä (Pekka discussed the matter with Liisa, which looked absent-minded). Here Liisan is the antecedent of joka, despite the intervening postposition kanssa. Though accepted, such expressions are best avoided, if possible, typically by turning the relative clause to a sentence.