Mikä on 'mitäs'?

[weijie]

What is the difference between 'mitäs' and 'mitä'?

[sandyla96]

Hi! Those two words mean exactly the same thing, you can say "mitä kuuluu?" or "mitäs kuuluu?" for example and they mean the same.

[EP]

Mitäs is colloquial, mitä is literary. It is literary language that people should learn first, colloquial (street speech) comes later automatically.

[Jukka Aho]

What is the difference between 'mitäs' and 'mitä'?

That’s a good question. Adding the -s can create subtle differences in tone and meaning but there’s no simple, straightforward answer... and it all depends on the context as well. (VISK § 837 discusses the topic in some depth but there are no hard and fast rules in there, either.)

For example, if the word mitäs is used with a friendly tone of voice (Mitäs sulle kuuluu?) it could make the question a bit more casual and conversational. Then again, with an angry tone of voice (Mitäs helvettiä sinä luulet täällä tekeväsi?!) it could signal an aggressive, challenging, or defensive attitude.

One of the possible meanings for the -s, as described in VISK, is marking a rhetorical/cheeky/sarcastic question.

— Tankkasin meidän autoomme dieseliä ja nyt se ei käynnisty! Ei kai moottori mennyt rikki?
— (with a sarcastic tone of voice:) No mitäs luulet? (“Well, what do you think?”)

In practice, mitä and mitäs are (nearly?) always interchangeable and the difference in tone between them is small and subtle enough it doesn’t really matter, at least in normal circumnstances. Also, the -s form is only used in a conversation or a dialog, not in normal text.

[skandagupta]

Mitäs < Mitä sinä../ mitä se..

[Jukka Aho]

Mitäs < Mitä sinä../ mitä se..

That’s a different phenomenon called rajageminaatio (see VISK § 34) or “gemination of a morpheme-initial consonant”, which is a form of sandhi. Admittedly, if the word following mitä begins with an “s” it is impossible to tell whether the clitic -s was used or not.
 

[FinnGuyHelsinki]

Admittedly, if the word following mitä begins with an “s” it is impossible to tell whether the clitic -s was used or not.
 

The difference may be subtle, but it definitely is there.