# how?



## the pensive wombat

I've stared to teach myself Finnish and have already had help with a previous thread from some good people. I am at an early stage and use a software program along with internet sources.

I am confused about the use of *kuinka *and *miten* to translate 'how' in English. Wiktionary suggests that *kuinka *is more formal than *miten*. 

One example in the software is: *Miten sinä menet sinne? *'How do you go there?' Is it more formal to say:*Kuinka **sinä menet sinne?*

 And can I say* miten paljon* for 'how much' or must I say* kuinka paljon*?

Kiitos.


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## Grumpy Old Man

My native ear detects no difference in formality in your examples. _Miten / Kuinka paljon se maksoi? _are both fine. I would probably say _kuinka paljon? _but I can't think of a reason for that!


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## Gavril

I'm not a native speaker, but my impression (from the time I've spent studying Finnish so far) is that _miten_ is more common than _kuinka_ in standard Finnish. I most often see _kuinka_ used to modify an adjective or adverb -- _kuinka_ _nopeasti_ "how quickly ... ?", _kuinka iso_ "how big ... ?", etc. -- whereas _miten_ is more commonly applied to a whole clause: _Miten voimme tehdä sen?_ "How can we do it?", _Miten hän karkasi?_ "How did he escape?", and so on.


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## the pensive wombat

Many thanks to both of you. Clearly at my age I'm never going to master Finnish grammar. I'd need another lifetime. But when I return to Finland I would like to be able to conduct a few basic transactions and all this helps.


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