jokin

Finnish

Etymology

Pronoun stem jo- + enclitic particle -kin.

Pronoun

jokin ‎(stem jo-)

1. (indefinite) something.
2. (indefinite, adjectival) some, one, a.
3. what have you, what-have-you, whathaveyou

   Nyt tarvittaisiin vasara tai jotain.

   Now we would need a hammer or what have you.

Declension

Case suffixes are regular; only the first part jo- is declined, the enclitic particle -kin doesn't change its form. Some cases have parallel forms without the k. The instructive and abessive cases are extremely rarely or never used. The sublative, lative and causative forms are used as adverbs.

Declension of jokin noun case singular plural adverbial form singular plural nominative jokin jotkin superessive – – genitive jonkin joidenkin joittenkin delative – – partitive jotakin jotain joitakin joitain sublative jonnekin – accusative jokin, jonkin jotkin lative joskin – inessive jossakin jossain joissakin joissain temporal – – elative jostakin jostain joistakin joistain causative jotenkin – illative johonkin joihinkin multiplicative – – adessive jollakin jollain joillakin joillain distributive – – ablative joltakin joltain joiltakin joiltain temp. dist. – – allative jollekin joillekin prolative – – essive jonakin jonain joinakin joinain situative – – translative joksikin joiksikin oppositive – – instructive – (joinkin) abessive (jottakin) (joittakin) comitative – –

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 (above) 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)

Derived terms

• jollakin tavalla (adessive sg.) = somehow, someway (or another), in some way (or another), (in) one way or another, by some means

Related terms

Pronouns with same stems:

• joka
• joku
• jompikumpi
• kuka
• kukaan
• kukin
• kumpi
• kumpikaan
• kumpikin

See also

• eräs
• yksi