joku

Borôro

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdʒoo̥kʷuu̥/

Noun

joku

1. eye

Finnish

Etymology

jo- +‎ ku-. Originally an old compound of two pronominal stems, but is practically never considered a compound by speakers.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈjoku/, [ˈjo̞ku]
• Rhymes: -oku
• Syllabification^(key): jo‧ku

Pronoun

joku

1. (indefinite) someone, somebody

   Joku odottaa sinua.

   Someone is waiting for you

   joku muu ― somebody/-one else

   joku heistä ― one of them

   joku muu ― someone else

2. (colloquial, indefinite) something

   joku muu ― "something else" and "somebody else"

Determiner

joku

1. (indefinite) one, a, any, some (of people)

   Äiti, ovella on joku kaupustelija.

   Mom, there's a salesman at the door.

   Joku kaupustelija kävi meillä eilen.

   Some salesman visited us yesterday.

2. (colloquial, indefinite) one, a, any, some (of things)

   Ota joku näistä!

   Take one of these!

3. (colloquial, indefinite) some, around, approximately

   Ostin jonkun/joku 5 kiloa mansikoita.

   I bought around 5 kilos of strawberries.

Usage notes

• In colloquial Finnish, the forms of jokin (used to refer to non-human things in the standard language) and joku (used to refer to humans in the standard language) have merged, especially when used as modifiers (for example joku mies / joku pöytä (“some man / some table”), joku meistä / joku niistä pöydistä (“one of us / one of the tables”). In referring to both humans and non-human things, joku is used as a modifier in everyday speech and writing in the nominative singular (joku) and genitive singular (jonkun) and the nominative and accusative plural (jotkut), but the forms of jokin are used in all other grammatical cases to refer to both humans and non-human things. When used alone, not as modifiers, the forms of joku and jokin are however usually still distinguished, even in everyday speech, in the nominative singular/plural, genitive singular and the partitive singular/plural. This is shown by the following examples of colloquial usage:

  joku mies tuli / antoi sen jollekin miehelle ― some man came / gave it to some man

  joku tuli / antoi sen jollekin ― someone came / gave it to someone

  joku pöytä meni rikki / laita se jollekin pöydälle ― some table broke / put it on some table

  jokin meni rikki / laita se jollekin ― something broke / put it on something

  and the following examples of formal (standard language) usage:

  joku mies / jollekulle miehelle ― some man came / to some man

  jokin pöytä / jollekin pöydälle ― some table / onto some table

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 noun case singular plural adverbial form singular plural nominative joku abbr. jk jotkut superessive – – genitive jonkun abbr. jkn joidenkuiden joittenkuitten delative – – partitive jotakuta abbr. jkta joitakuita sublative – – accusative joku, jonkun jotkut lative (joskus) – inessive jossakussa abbr. jkssa joissakuissa temporal – – elative jostakusta abbr. jksta joistakuista causative (jotenkuten) – illative johonkuhun abbr. jkhun joihinkuihin multiplicative – – adessive jollakulla abbr. jklla joillakuilla distributive – – ablative joltakulta abbr. jklta joiltakuilta temp. dist. – – allative jollekulle abbr. jklle joillekuille prolative – – essive jonakuna joinakuina situative – – translative joksikuksi joiksikuiksi oppositive – – abessive (jottakutta) (joittakuitta) instructive – (joinkuin) comitative – (joinekuine)

Derived terms

• jokunen
• jonkinlainen
• jonkunlainen
• jonkunmoinen
• joskus
• jotenkuten

 

compounds

• jokulähetys
• jonkunnäköinen

 

Related terms

Pronouns with same stems:

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

See also

• jotta

Further reading

• “joku”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[1] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02

Anagrams

• juko, koju

Japanese

Romanization

joku

1. Rōmaji transcription of じょく

Latvian

Noun

joku m

1. inflection of joks:
   1. accusative/instrumental singular
   2. genitive plural