Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

Finnish

### I Wonder: The Clitic -kohan / -köhän

In Finnish, you can express curiosity, uncertainty, or simply soften a question by adding the fused clitic **-kohan / -köhän**. 

This ending combines the question clitic *-ko / -kö* and the softening clitic *-han / -hän*. Like all suffixes, it obeys vowel harmony: use *-kohan* with back vowels and *-köhän* with front vowels.

### Attaching to Question Words

If your sentence uses a question word (like *mitä* or *kenen*), attach the clitic directly to the end of it. This translates naturally to "I wonder what..." or "I wonder whose..."

{{item:922431}}

{{item:922439}}

### Attaching to Verbs for Yes/No Questions

If you want to ask an "I wonder if..." question, attach the clitic directly to the verb. Just like standard yes/no questions in Finnish, the verb carrying the clitic moves to the very front of the sentence.

{{item:922436}}

{{item:922438}}

This works identically across different tenses. If you are wondering about something in the past, simply attach the clitic to a past-tense verb:

{{item:922444}}

You can attach this clitic to any verb to soften your curiosity, not just the verb *olla* (to be). Added to an action verb, it makes the question less direct and more reflective:

{{item:922447}}

Wondering questions (-kohan / -köhän)

adjective

adposition

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

postposition

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Demonstrative pronouns (tämä, tuo, se)

Singular personal pronouns (minä, sinä, hän)

Plural personal pronouns (me, te, he)

Plural demonstratives (nämä, nuo, ne)

Coordinating conjunctions (ja, mutta, tai)

Yes/no questions (-ko / -kö)

Basic question words (kuka, mikä, missä)

Negation of to be (en ole, ei ole)

The inessive case (-ssa / -ssä)

Double consonant gradation (kk, pp, tt)

Consonant gradation (-ssa/-ssä)

Verb Type 1 (puhun, puhut, puhuu)

Verb Type 1 with consonant gradation

Negative verbs (en puhu, et lue)

External location (-lla/-llä)

There is / there are (kaupungissa on)

Possession (minulla on)

Numbers 1 to 10 (yksi, kaksi, kolme)

The partitive singular (-a/-ä, -ta/-tä)

Quantities with numbers (kaksi autoa)

Negative possession (ei ole)

Numbers 11 to 100 and 1000

Partitive verbs

Partitive personal pronouns (minua, sinua)

Verb Type 2 (-da/-dä)

Partitive for mass nouns (-a/-ä, -ta/-tä)

Partitive for negative objects

Adjective agreement

Verb Type 3

The elative case (-sta/-stä)

Negative possession (minulla ei ole…)

The illative case (-Vn, -hVn, -seen)

Numbers 21 to 99

Static vs. movement verbs

Verb Type 4 (-Vta / -Vtä)

Verb Type 5 (-ita / -itä)

Genitive singular for possession (-n)

Total object (-n)

Accusative personal pronouns (-t)

Obligation (täytyy)

Into places (-Vn, -hVn, -seen)

Postpositions with the genitive

My and your (-ni, -si)

Onto and to someone (-lle)

From someone or somewhere (-lta, -ltä)

Telling time (kello on...)

Months of the year (-ssa, -ssä)

Days of the week (-na, -nä)

When and why (milloin, miksi)

The illative case (mihin, -Vn, -hVn, -seen)

Past tense of to be (olin, olit, oli)

The seasons (kevät, kesä, syksy, talvi)

The imperative mood (lue!, syö!, mene!)

The past tense of to be (olin, oli)

The illative case (-hVn, -seen)

Greetings and goodbyes (hei, näkemiin)

Thank you and sorry (kiitos, anteeksi)

Liking things (pitää / tykätä + -sta/-stä)

Temporary states and roles (-na/-nä)

Change of state (-ksi)

Ongoing actions (-massa/-mässä)

Going to do an action (-maan/-mään)

Returning from an action (-masta/-mästä)

Third-person possessives (-nsa/-nsä or -Vn)

Plural possessives (-mme, -nne)

Indefinite pronouns (joku, jokin, kaikki)

Negative indefinite pronouns (ei kukaan, ei mikään)

Commands for verb types 4 and 5

Adverb formation (-sti)

Past tense for verb type 1 (-i-)

Past tense vowel changes for verb type 1 (-o- / -i-)

Past tense for verb type 2 (-i-)

Past tense for verb type 3 (-i-)

Past tense for verb type 4 (-si-)

Past tense for verb type 5 (-itsi-)

Past tense consonant gradation

Past participles for verb types 1 and 2 (-nut / -nyt)

Past participle singular for verb types 3-5 (-nnut, -llut)

Active past participle plural (-neet)

Past tense negative (en mennyt, emme olleet)

The perfect tense (olen ollut)

The perfect tense negative (en ole nähnyt)

Total plural objects (-t)

Partitive plural (-ia / -iä)

Partitive plural (-ja / -jä)

Question	Answer
attic	ullakko
I wonder what is here in the attic?	Mitäköhän täällä ullakolla on?
dusty	pölyinen
ghost	kummitus
There is a ghost in this dusty attic.	Tällä pölyisellä ullakolla on kummitus.
junk	romu
I wonder if there is a treasure or junk in grandfather's chest?	Onkohan isoisän arkussa aarre vai romua?
stash	kätkö
I wonder if there is a stash behind this old box?	Onkohan tämän vanhan laatikon takana kätkö?
I wonder whose junk this is?	Kenenköhän romua tämä on?
cobweb	hämähäkinverkko
pocket watch	taskukello
Under this big cobweb is an old pocket watch.	Tämän ison hämähäkinverkon alla on vanha taskukello.
album	albumi
Was the pocket watch next to the dusty album, I wonder?	Olikohan taskukello pölyisen albumin vieressä?
I wonder what I will do with all this junk?	Mitäköhän mä teen tällä kaikella romulla?
to peek	kurkistaa
I wonder if one dares to peek into that chest?	Uskaltaakohan tuonne arkkuun kurkistaa?
Do you dare to peek at what is in the old stash?	Uskallatko sinä kurkistaa, mitä vanhassa kätkössä on?
painting (painted artwork)	maalaus
I wonder if this album or that painting is valuable?	Onkohan tämä albumi tai tuo maalaus arvokas?
I wonder whose painting this is?	Kenenköhän maalaus tämä on?
I wonder if there is a ghost behind the spiderweb?	Onkohan hämähäkinverkon takana kummitus?