kuka

See also kúka

Finnish

Etymology

From the pronominal stem ku- + the suffix -ka/kä. See also kuin.

Pronunciation

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• Rhymes: -ukɑ
• Hyphenation: ku‧ka
• Rhymes: muka, suka
• IPA: [ˈkukɑ]

Pronoun

kuka

1. (interrogative) who; (when followed by a modifier in elative case, -sta/-stä) which one (of + a noun referring to people).
2. (indefinite) whoever.
3. (relative) who, when the pronoun refers to the whole of the preceding sentence.

   En tiedä, kuka sen teki.

   I don't know who did it.

   but:

   Tässä on mies, joka sen teki.

   This is the man who did it.

4. (relative, dialectal) who

Synonyms

• (who): ken ( the nominative singular is archaic, see "Inflection" section below)
• (whoever): kuka tahansa, ken

Inflection

• Modern inflections of kuka are based around the stem form ke- or kene-.
• The modern adessive, ablative and allative singular cases have alternative forms of equal value. Thus kenellä, keneltä, kenelle can equally be expressed as kellä, keltä, kelle.
• Following the pattern of other personal pronouns the accusative form is kenet. (c.f. minut, sinut, etc.)

Forms of the word based on a stem form of ku- have become old fashioned and somewhat poetic even though the nominative singular kuka remains modern. The nominative form ken is found only in archaic or poetic language.

Thus, "Kuta sinä rakastat?" could be translated as "Whom doest thou love?

Some cases of kuka/ken are hardly used. The inflection table below shows the archaic or otherwise disappeared/disappearing forms in brackets.

The instructive plural kuin with the stem -ka*, the lative singular kun* and and the causative singular kuten* (also as the dated, archaic form: kutenka*) are used as adverbs with completely different meanings than "who".

Note: In the inflection table below, poetic and/or archaic forms are shown in brackets and modern usage without brackets. See also the declension of the negative form ei kukaan.

Declension of kuka noun case singular plural adverbial form singular plural nominative kuka / (ken) (kutka) ketkä superessive – – genitive (kunka) kenen (kuiden) keiden (kuitten) keitten delative – – partitive (kuta) ketä (kuita) keitä sublative – – accusative (kunka) kenet (kutka) ketkä lative (kun*) – inessive (kussa) kenessä (kuissa) keissä temporal – – elative (kusta) kenestä (kuista) keistä causative (kuten*) (kutenka*) – illative (kuhun) keneen (——) kehen (kuihin) keihin multiplicative – – adessive (kulla) kenellä (kuilla) keillä distributive – – ablative (kulta) keneltä (kuilta) keiltä temp. dist. – – allative (kulle) kenelle (kuille) keille prolative – – essive (kuna) kenenä (kuina) keinä situative – – translative (kuksi) keneksi (kuiksi) keiksi oppositive – – instructive – (kuin, kuinka*) (—) abessive (kutta) kenettä (kuitta) keittä comitative – –

Usage notes

• The singular forms are sometimes used colloquially instead of the actual plural forms. Ketä is particularly common for keitä. In some dialects ketä is used in place of kuka.

Related terms

joka jokin joku

jompikumpi kukaan kukaties

kukin kumpi

kumpikaan kumpikin

See also

• Kukapa tietää?

Anagrams

• akku

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Hungarian

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈkukɒ/
• Hyphenation: ku‧ka

Etymology 1

Origin uncertain; perhaps an Italian loan word, compare Northern Italian cuco (“goofy”).

Adjective

kuka

1. dumb (as a fish), tongue-tied (not saying a word)

Etymology 2

Via Czech, from German KUKA, short for Keller und Knappich Augsburg, a German firm which was manufacturing and supplying orange refuse collection vehicles. Today the company KUKA is producing industrial robots and automation technologies.

Noun

kuka (plural kukák)

1. garbage can, refuse bin

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Pitjantjatjara

Noun

kuka

1. animal
2. meat

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Quechua

Noun

kuka

1. coca.

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Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *kuka

Noun

kȕka f (Cyrillic spelling ку̏ка)

1. hook

Declension

    declension of kuka

	singular	plural
nominative	kȕka	kuke
genitive	kuke	kȗkā
dative	kuki	kukama
accusative	kuku	kuke
vocative	kuko	kuke
locative	kuki	kukama
instrumental	kukom	kukama

Related terms

• kȕk