Asking questions
In this article you will learn how to ask two kind of questions.
Yes/No -questions with ko-suffix
Every sentence can be transformed into question by using -ko-particle (remember the vowel harmony). These questions can be answered only "yes" or "no".
| Tarja Halonen on Suomen presidentti. -> Onko Tarja Halonen Suomen presidentti? Tarja Halonen is President of Finland. -> Is Tarja Halonen President of Finland? |
| Pihalla on auto. -> Onko pihalla auto? There's a car on the yard. - > Is there a car on the yard? |
Note, that you can make various kinds of questions very easily, by adding the particle after the element you inquire after:
| Onko teillä auto? Do you have a car? |
| Teilläkö on auto? Are you the one who has the car? |
| Autoko teillä on? Is it the car what you have? (not e.g bicycle)? |
Because the word order is very free in Finnish, you can put the words in almost any order (it's the -ko-particle which tells this is a question, not the word order like in English) but normally you start with the word which has the -ko-particle.
Questions with question words
You get more questions by using question words. These are called wh-questions, because in English these pronouns start with "wh", such as "what", "where" or "why". (In Finnish, most of these words start with m. Surprisingly, it's w upside down. )
- Mitä hän syö? Hän syö leipää.
- What is he/she eating? He/she is eating bread.
Here you replace the unknown element (the thing you inquire) with an appropriate pronoun:
- Mitä hän syö? / Kuka syö leipää?
- What is he eating?´/ Who is eating bread?
- Mikä on maailman korkein vuori?
- What is the highest mountain of the world?
- Missä on maailman pisin joki?
- Where is the longest river of ther world?
- Mistä ovat kotoisin appelsiinit?
- Where do the oranges come from?
- Minne Tonava laskee?
- Where does the Donau end?
- Milloin solmittiin Tarton rauha?
- When was Tartu peace concluded?
- Miten mämmiä valmistetaan?
- How mämmi is made?
- Miksi kirahvilla on pitkä kaula?
- Why the giraffe has a long neck?
- Millainen eläin on vompatti?
- What kind of an animal is a wombat?
You are here > Frontpage > grammar > syntax > Questions in Finnish