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Definition 2024
joku
joku
Finnish
Etymology
- From the pronoun stems jo- and ku-.
Pronoun
joku
- (indefinite) someone, somebody:
- (indefinite, colloquial) something:
- joku muu = "something else" and "somebody else"
- (indefinite, colloquial, adjectival) one, a, any:
- ~ muu = other (not the one previously referred to).
Inflection
- Case suffixes are regular. Both the parts get the case suffix. Some cases are practically never used (those forms are in brackets in the table). The lative and causative cases are used as adverbs with completely different meanings than "some" or "someone".
Declension of joku
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Usage notes
- In colloquial Finnish, the paradigms of jokin (used of non-human referents in the standard language) and joku (for human referents) have merged. Thus, colloquially, the word joku is used for the nominative singular and its plural form jotkut is used for the nominative plural when referring to both human and non-human referents, but for all other case categories, the forms originating in the paradigm of jokin are used. This leads to the following pairs:
- joku mies / jollekin miehelle
- some man / to some man
- joku pöytä / jollekin pöydälle
- some table / onto some table
- (colloquial; compare with the forms in the standard language:)
- joku mies / jollekulle miehelle
- (meanings as above)
- jokin pöytä / jollekin pöydälle
- (meanings as above)
- joku mies / jollekin miehelle
Related terms
Pronouns with same stems: