mi (kérdőszó)

The question word mi is one of the most frequent words in Hungarian. Note that it is a homonym with the subject pronoun mi (we), but context usually makes the meaning clear. Here is a breakdown of its usage:

1. Objects vs. Roles
Use mi for things, animals, or abstract concepts. Crucially, while ki (who) is used for a person's identity, mi is used to ask about a person's profession, nationality, or role. For example, while Mi vagy? (What are you?) is grammatically correct to ask about someone's profession, it can sound blunt or rude in real-life conversation. Native speakers overwhelmingly prefer Mivel foglalkozol? (What do you do?) or Mi a foglalkozásod? (What is your occupation?).

2. Plural Form
If you are asking about multiple things, use the plural form mik. For example: Mik ezek? (What are these?). This follows the standard plural -k rule.

3. Case Inflections
Because Hungarian is agglutinative, mi changes based on its role in the sentence:

• Nominative: Mi ez? (What is this?)
• Accusative: Mit csinálsz? (What are you doing?) — Note the accusative -t suffix.
• Instrumental: Mivel mész? (With what/How are you going?) — Uses the -val/-vel suffix. Note that mivel is also one of the most common Hungarian conjunctions meaning 'since' or 'because'.
• Dative: Minek? (To what / For what?) — Often used colloquially to mean 'why' (e.g., Minek csinálod ezt? - Why are you doing this?). Important: Minek heavily implies skepticism, pointlessness, or disapproval (like "What's the point?"). Do not use it as a neutral substitute for Miért.
• Causal-final: Miért haragszol? (Why [for what] are you angry?) — This is the origin of the word for 'why'.

4. Spatial Cases
Hungarian relies heavily on spatial cases for abstract concepts and verb government. The spatial forms of mi are highly frequent:

• Superessive: Min nevetsz? (What are you laughing at? / lit. On what)
• Delative: Miről beszéltek? (What are you talking about?)
• Sublative: Mire gondolsz? (What are you thinking about?)
• Inessive: Miben segíthetek? (How can I help you? / lit. In what can I help?)
• Elative: Miből van ez? (What is this made out of?)
• Illative: Mibe kerül? (How much does it cost? / Into what does it go?)
• Ablative: Mitől félsz? (What are you afraid of? / lit. From what)
• Allative: Mihez kezdesz most? (What will you do now? / lit. To what)

5. Verb Conjugation
When you ask a question starting with mit (the object form), the verb must be in the indefinite conjugation. This is because the question word itself is considered indefinite.

6. Question Word vs. Relative Pronoun
Interrogative mi differs from the relative pronoun ami. When you want to say 'what' in a statement as a relative pronoun (e.g., 'This is what I want'), you must use ami (e.g., Ez az, amit akarok). Crucially, ami takes all the same case suffixes as mi (e.g., amit, amiben, amiről).

7. Tag Questions
In casual speech, mi is often placed at the end of a sentence to mean 'right?' or 'eh?'.
Example: Szép idő van, mi? (Nice weather, isn't it?).

8. Related Question Words: Milyen and Melyik
Do not confuse mi with its common derivatives. Use milyen to ask 'what kind of' or 'what is it like' (e.g., Milyen az idő? - What is the weather like?). Use melyik to ask 'which' when choosing from a specific set (e.g., Melyik a tiéd? - Which one is yours?).