There are some differences between question sentences in Finnish spoken language and written language. You can find information about these below.

1. Spoken Language -ko/kö Questions

Regular “yes or no” question sentences in standard Finnish contain the suffix -ko/kö. In spoken language, we have a little more variation. This is the most basic of the question sentences in Finnish spoken language.

1.1. Sinä-questions (Oletko sinä?)

In spoken language, sinä is often replaced by sä. This is also apparent in questions, where the -sä gets added to the end of the question instead of the -ko/kö element. Yep, in spoken language, we won’t be using -ko/kö at all!

For example, luet-sä is short for “luetko sinä“. Some assimilation of the consonants is likely to occur, thus turning luet-sä into lueksä. In the table below, I’m giving multiple options for the spoken language form, because you’re bound to hear some variation in people’s speech.

1.2. Te-questions (Oletteko te?)

In sentences aimed at multiple people, you will often hear -ks at the end of the verb instead of -ko/kö.

1.3. Possessive Questions

The same thing also takes place in minulla on-sentences: the -ko/kö will be replaced with -ks. Note how instead of hän (hänellä) and he (heillä) we use se (sillä) in the singular and ne (niillä) in the plural. This is not limited to just the –lla form, nor only to questions: it’s a general phenomenon in spoken language.

1.4. Quantative Questions

Spoken language questions that ask for an amount or quantity, can lose all indicators that we are asking a question.

2. Questions with a Question Word

2.1. Question Words

Some of the question words are fairly easy in spoken language: you just drop the final letter (e.g. Miks? Mist?). For other question words, the changes are more dramatic. For example, paljonko “how much” loses its -ko completely in spoken language, making the question word just paljo. The question work kuinka “how” also loses a big chunk, leaving us with just kui.

The question word milloin “when” is important to note, because in spoken language, it is commonly replaced by koska. In written language koska means “because”, but in spoken language koska can also fulfill the role of the question word “when”.

The question word mimmonen is very typical for spoken Finnish and you can find out more about it in my article on tämmonen, semmonen and mimmonen.

2.2. Question Word Redundancy (Tuuksä milloin?)

When we use a question word (e.g. Missä? Milloin? Miksi?), you will come across an interesting sentence construction that doesn’t happen in standard Finnish.

In standard Finnish, when you use a question word, you don’t need to use the suffix -ko/kö. You put the question word at the beginning of your sentence and continue the phrase as it would be in an affirmative sentence (e.g. Milloin sinä tulet?).

In spoken Finnish, it is possible to combine the suffix -ko/kö with the question word. In these spoken language questions, the verb will appear at the beginning of the phrase with (some spoken language version of) -ko/kö attached to it, after which you will find the question word and, then, the rest of the phrase.

3. Reaffirmation Questions

A reaffirmation question is used when the speaker wants to make sure they’re correct about something. In spoken language, these types of questions are very common. They consist of a statement, followed by the word vai “or”.

This spoken language feature is actually much easier than the roundabout way in which you’d have to confirm your fact in standard Finnish! In addition to just vai, you can also hear “vai kuinka” or “vai mitä”.

4. Questions as Requests

When you’re requesting someone to do something (e.g. go to the store or give you something), standard language most often uses voitko “can you” or voisitko “could you”.

In spoken Finnish, it’s pretty common to present these requests using the negative. A sentence like “Et sä sattuis tietään tätä?” translates directly as “You don’t happen to know this?”. Some of these sentences can occasionally also occur in standard Finnish, but they’re much less common.

5. Some common verbs in questions

5.1. Spoken language questions with the verb olla

5.2. Spoken language questions with the verb haluta

5.3. Spoken language questions with the verb puhua

So there you have it! Some special question sentences in Finnish spoken language! This article deals with syntax, which is always harder to get a grasp on than just plain morphology. I hope this article helps you!

Related posts:

Finnish Question Words – Interrogative Pronouns How to Say Yes and No in Finnish – Kyllä ja Ei Elefantti or Norsu? Loanwords vs Finnish Words Kysymyslause – Making Questions in Finnish – Lausetyypit