Highlighting With se ... joka

Level 5

The se ... joka pattern (cleft sentence) is used to say 'It is X who/that...' It singles out one specific piece of information to emphasize it over all other possibilities.

How It Works

In Finnish, emphasis is usually achieved by changing the word order. However, to provide a 'heavy' or 'isolating' focus—often to correct someone or be very specific—you use a cleft construction with 'se... joka'.

1. Agreement of the Copula (olla)
Unlike English, where we say 'It is me,' the Finnish verb 'olla' must agree with the person being focused. The dummy pronoun 'se', however, remains singular even if the focus is plural:

  • Se olin minä... (It was I...)
  • Se olitte te... (It was you [plural]...)

2. Negation Agreement
When negating the cleft construction, the negative verb must also conjugate to agree with the focused person. This is a common trap for English speakers. For example:

  • Se en ollut minä... (It wasn't me...)
  • Se et ollut sinä... (It wasn't you...)

3. Agreement Inside the Relative Clause
In standard Finnish, a relative-clause subject referring directly to minä/sinä/me/te normally takes that person's verb form. Third-person forms occur in speech; they are not a general substitute for person agreement. Compare:

  • Se olin minä, joka tein sen. (1st person)
  • Se olin minä, joka teki sen. (third-person form encountered in speech)

4. The Relative Pronoun: joka vs. mikä vs. kuka
The choice and form of the relative pronoun are crucial:

  • Number and Case: The pronoun 'joka' must agree in number with the focus (joka for singular, jotka for plural). Its case is determined strictly by its grammatical role within the relative clause. (Note that 'mikä' and 'kuka' also take their case entirely from their grammatical role in the relative clause.) For example: Se oli Matti, jonka minä näin. (It was Matti whom I saw.)
  • Using mikä: Use mikä for an abstract superlative such as parasta, an abstract indefinite expression such as jotain or kaikki meaning 'everything', or a whole preceding idea. A pronoun referring to people or a concrete entity can instead take joka. However, if a superlative modifies a noun (e.g., paras mies), 'joka' is still used for people, and both 'joka' and 'mikä' are acceptable for things.
  • Using kuka: In spoken Finnish, 'kuka' is frequently used as a relative pronoun in cleft constructions referring to people (e.g., Se olin mä, kuka sen teki), though this is avoided in formal writing (kirjakieli).

5. Register and Usage
This construction is common in speech, but in very formal writing, simple fronting (e.g., Minä sen tein) is often preferred to avoid looking like a direct translation from other languages. Additionally, focus clitics (-han/-hän, -pa/-pä) are a primary native tool for heavy emphasis. For example: Minähän sen tein. (It was me who did it.)

Case of the Focus
In the identifying person/thing cleft, the focus is normally nominative even when its counterpart has another role inside the relative clause: Se oli Pekka, jonka näin and Se oli Pekka, jolle soitin. The relative pronoun takes the case required inside its own clause. Do not turn this into a rule that every word after olla must be nominative: parasta in the abstract superlative example is partitive.

Further Connections

  • mikä: The relative pronoun 'mikä' is used instead of 'joka' in specific contexts, such as with superlatives.

Examples (5)

  1. Se oli Liisa, joka voitti kilpailun.

    It was Liisa who won the competition.

    Word by Word: It was Liisa, who won competition.

    Here, Liisa is the focus. Since Liisa is a third-person subject, the relative clause verb 'voitti' is in the third person singular.

  2. Se olin minä, joka soitin sinulle eilen.

    It was I who called you yesterday.

    Word by Word: It was-I I, who called-I to-you yesterday.

    In standard Finnish, both the copula 'olin' and the relative clause verb 'soitin' agree with the first-person pronoun 'minä'.

  3. Se oli parasta, mitä tiesin.

    It was the best thing I knew.

    Word by Word: It was best-partitive, what-partitive I-knew.

    When the focused element is a superlative, the relative pronoun 'mikä' (here in the partitive 'mitä') is used instead of 'joka'.

  4. Se olitte te, jotka autoitte meitä.

    It was you who helped us.

    Word by Word: It were-you you, who-plural helped-you us.

    The dummy pronoun 'se' remains singular even when the focus ('te') is plural. The verb 'olla' agrees with the focus, and the relative pronoun 'jotka' agrees in number.

  5. Se olet sinä, jota me etsimme.

    It is you whom we are looking for.

    Word by Word: It are-you you, whom-partitive we look-for.

    The relative pronoun 'jota' is in the partitive because its grammatical role in the relative clause is the object of the verb 'etsiä', which takes a partitive object.

Common Mistakes

  • Choosing the relative pronoun only from the English word that.

    Se oli parasta, jota tiesin.
    Se oli parasta, mitä tiesin.

    The abstract standalone superlative parasta takes mikä, inflected here as mitä. This does not mean that ainoa or every superlative noun phrase excludes joka: ainoa ihminen, jonka tunnen uses joka.

  • Failing to make the verb 'olla' agree with the focused subject.

    Se oli minä, joka tein sen.
    Se olin minä, joka tein sen.

    In Finnish, the copula verb must match the person (1st, 2nd, 3rd) of the noun or pronoun it describes. Use 'olin' for 'minä', not 'oli'.

  • Using the nominative 'joka' when the relative clause requires a different case.

    Se oli Pekka, joka minä näin.
    Se oli Pekka, jonka minä näin.

    Because 'Pekka' is the object of the verb 'näin' (I saw), the relative pronoun must be in the genitive-accusative form 'jonka'.

How It Connects

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

Highlighting With se ... jokaLevel 5

Learn This First

To understand cleft-like emphasis (e.g., 'Se oli Anna, joka soitti'), you need to be familiar with the demonstrative pronoun 'se', how to form basic sentences with the verb 'olla', and how to use the relative pronoun 'joka' to start a relative clause.

Words in This Pattern

joka