mis

What (Mis)

Level 1

mis means what. It is a pronoun, so it takes case endings: Mis see on? (What is this?), Mida sa teed? (What are you doing?), Millest sa räägid? (What are you talking about?).

How It Works

The question word mis (what) asks about things, animals, events and ideas. For people, use kes.

The forms learners meet first

  • mis – basic form: Mis see on? (What is this?)
  • mille – genitive: Mille jaoks see on? (What is this for?)
  • mida – partitive: Mida sa tahad? (What do you want?)
  • millest – elative, "from / about what": Millest sa räägid? (What are you talking about?)
  • millega – comitative, "with what": Millega sa kirjutad? (What are you writing with?)
  • millel ~ mil, millele, millesse and so on for the other cases

How to choose the form
Answer the question in your head first. If the answer would be in a certain case, the question word takes the same case: Millest sa räägid? – Filmist. (What are you talking about? – About a film.) Millega sa sõidad? – Bussiga. (What do you travel by? – By bus.)

mis or mida?
Verbs such as tahtma (want), ootama (wait for) and armastama (love) take a partitive object, and so does an action that is still going on. That is why the standard question is Mida sa teed? (What are you doing?). In everyday speech you will also hear Mis sa teed?; in careful writing, use mida.

Good to know

  • The basic form mis is the same in the plural: Mis need on? (What are these?) The other cases also have plural forms such as milledes, but the singular forms are almost always used instead.
  • Before a noun, mis can stay unchanged and mean "what kind of / which": Mis keelt sa räägid? (What language do you speak?)
  • mis also starts relative clauses: raamat, mis on laual (the book that is on the table).

Examples (6)

  1. Mis see on?

    What is this?

    Word by Word: what this is

  2. Mida sa teed?

    What are you doing?

    Word by Word: what(PART) you do

    mida is the partitive form, because the action is still going on.

  3. Millest sa räägid?

    What are you talking about?

    Word by Word: what-from you talk

    rääkima uses the elative (-st) for the topic, so mis becomes millest.

  4. Millega sa tööle sõidad? – Bussiga.

    How do you get to work? – By bus.

    Word by Word: what-with you to-work travel – bus-with

  5. Mida sa tahad juua?

    What do you want to drink?

    Word by Word: what(PART) you want to-drink

  6. Mis keelt sa räägid?

    What language do you speak?

    Word by Word: what language(PART) you speak

    Before a noun, mis can stay unchanged while the noun takes the case ending.

Common Mistakes

  • Adding a case ending straight onto mis.

    Misest sa räägid?
    Millest sa räägid?

    Most case forms of mis are built on the stem mille-: millest, millega, millele. Forms such as misest or misga are not Estonian.

  • Using the partitive mida as the subject of olema.

    Mida see on?
    Mis see on?

    With olema, the thing you ask about is the subject, so it stays in the basic form mis. Keep mida for objects of verbs such as tahtma and tegema.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

misLevel 1What (Mis)

Learn This First

mis takes case endings, so it follows the case overview.

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.

Words in This Pattern

mismida