Relative pronouns are used to start a subordinate clause (a side-sentence, sivulause). “Joka” in its different forms gets translated as “what”, “who”, “whom” and “whose”, as well as “which” in English. It can be inflected in all the cases. The relative pronoun joka refers to the word right before it. In that way it differs from the relative pronoun mikä.

1. The Inflection of the Relative Pronoun Joka

2. The Use of the Relative Pronoun Joka

When you have two sentences that both have a noun in common, you can make these two sentences into one by using joka.

As you can see from these examples:

• The “joka sentence” appears right after the word it refers to. It is located in the middle of the main sentence.
• The “joka sentence” will contain information that’s already known, while the end of the sentence will contain the new information.
• You will have two commas in these sentences, which are placed around the joka sentence. This is something that many Finns forget when they’re writing. Thus, it’s not really that important.

1.1. Joka (nominative)

Joka is the most basic of the list, since it’s in the nominative (ie. the basic form). The word both sentences have in common appears in its basic form. Because of that, when they’re connected, the pronoun will be in its basic form as well. The nominative will usually be used when the reference word is the subject in both sentences.

1.2. Jotka (T-plural, plural nominative)

Jotka is the plural form of joka. Both sentences have the same subject, which appears in the T-plural.

1.3. Jota (partitive)

The partitive form of joka is usually used when the subject of the first sentence appears as an object in the second sentence. There are many verbs that require their object to be in the partitive case, e.g. auttaa, odottaa and rakastaa.

1.4. Jonka (genitive)

The genitive is used in a couple of different situations, e.g. to express possession, as the marker for the object and in necessity sentences.

1.5. Jossa (inessive)

Jossa answers the question “missä?” and mainly refers to locations.

1.6. Josta (elative)

Josta answers the question “mistä?” and usually refers to locations. It can also be used in certain location case rections (e.g. tykätä).

1.7. Johon (illative)

Johon answers the question “mihin?“, which is one of the location cases. The illative also has some verb rections you might find useful to know (e.g. rakastua ja tottua).

1.8. Jolla (adessive)

Jolla answers the question “millä?“, and more often to the question “kenellä?“. This has to do with the Finnish minulla on -sentence construction.

1.9. Jolta (ablative)

Jolta answers the question “miltä?“, and more often to the question “keneltä?“. It’s used when you get/buy/take/steal something from someone, as well as with the perceptional verbs.

1.10. Jolle (allative)

Jolle answers the question “mille?“, and more often to the question “kenelle?“.

3. Example sentences

Below, you can find a very random collection of sentences that will hopefully give you more of a feel of what type of sentences you can create using the relative pronoun joka in the different cases.

3.1. Tyttö

3.2. Rakennus

3.3. Bussi

Related articles

Related posts:

Joku Jokin – Jotakuta Jollakin – Finnish Pronouns Että in Finnish – “That” – Subordinate Clauses and More Sivulause – Finnish Sentence Types: Subordinate Clauses Joka-pronomini – Jonka Jota Joista Joiden