1. Estonian grammar 1
Estonian grammar
Estonian grammar is a grammar of the Estonian language.
Nouns
Inflectional endings as listed below are added to the stem of a
noun, which is formed from:
• singular genitive: singular cases except nominative and
partitive, plural nominative,
• singular partitive: plural genitive,
• plural genitive: plural cases except nominative and partitive.
Singular nominative, singular genitive and singular partitive are
not predictable and have to be taken from the vocabulary
(gradation may also apply).
Singular genitive can take the following endings: -a, -e, -i, -u.
Singular partitive can take the following endings: -d, -t, -a, -e, -i,
-u.
Plural partitive is formed from either singular genitive or singular
partitive and can take the following endings (some words have two Estonian Grammar (1637) by Heinrich Stahl
forms):
• -id: one-syllable words with long vowels aa, ee, õõ, uu, öö, ää, two-syllable words with long vowels or endings
-em, -en, -el, -er, -ar, -ur, -e, -ne, -s or singular genitive with one or three syllables, three-syllable words with
endings -ne, -s,
• -sid: one-syllable words with long vowels ii, üü or a diphthong, two-syllable words with short vowels,
three-syllable words with endings -um, -on, -er, -ar, -är, -ov, -nna,
• -e: words with singular partitive endings -i, -u, -j, or singular partitive ending -a with the preceding syllable
containing u,
• -i: words with singular partitive ending -e, or singular partitive ending on consonant with singular genitive ending
-e, or singular partitive ending -a with the preceding syllable containing vowels e, o, ä, ö, ü or a diphthong with
one of these vowels as the first sound with the exception of ei, äi,
• -u: words with singular partitive ending -a with the preceding syllable containing vowels a, i, õ or diphthongs ei,
äi.
Singular illative has a short form in some words. It can take the following endings: -de, -he, -hu, -a, -e, -i, -u. In case
it takes the vowel ending, this vowel is the same as the ending vowel of the singular genitive form of the given word,
but the vowel (if it is already long or a diphthong) or its preceding consonant (if the vowel is short and the consonant
either short or long) is lengthened to the third degree and thus becomes overlong. If illative ends with -sesse, then the
short form is -sse.
Plural illative, inessive, elative, allative, adessive, ablative, translative have a short form in some words. If the plural
partitive ends with -id, then the short plural stem is this form without -d (instead of plural genitive with -de-); if it
ends with a vowel, then the short plural stem is this form; if it ends with -sid, then the short plural cannot be formed.
Emphasis: noun + -gi (after a final voiced consonant or vowel) / -ki (after a final voiceless consonant).
New nouns can be derived from existing nouns, adjectives and verbs using suffixes like -ja (agent, from -ma
infinitive), -mine (gerund, from -ma infinitive), -la, -nna, -tar, -ur, -stik, -ndik, -nik, -ik, -k, -ng, -lane, -line, -kene,

2. Estonian grammar 2
-ke, -e, -ndus, -dus, -us, -is, -kond, -nd, -istu, -u.
Pronouns
• personal (nominative - genitive - partitive, singular / plural): m(in)a - m(in)u - mind / m(ei)e - m(ei)e - meid (I),
s(in)a - s(in)u - sind / t(ei)e - t(ei)e - teid (you), t(em)a - t(em)a - teda / n(em)ad - nende - neid (he/she/it);
reflexive: ise - enese/enda - ennast/end / ise - eneste/endi - endid (-self)
• demonstrative (nominative - genitive - partitive, singular / plural): see - selle - seda / need - nende - neid
(this/that), too - tolle - toda / nood - nonde - noid (yonder)
• interrogative (nominative - genitive - partitive): kes - kelle - keda (who), mis - mille - mida (what), milline -
millise - millist (which out of many), kumb - kumma - kumba (which out of two)
• existential (nominative - genitive - partitive): keegi - kellegi - kedagi (someone), miski - millegi - midagi
(something), mõni - mõne - mõnda (some), ükski - ühegi - ühtegi (one)
• free choice (nominative - genitive - partitive): mingi - mingi - mingit (anyone/anything/any), kumbki - kummagi -
kumbagi (either)
• universal (nominative - genitive - partitive): kõik - kõige - kõike (everyone/everything/each), mõlemad - mõlema -
mõlemat (both)
Declension of nouns
Case
Number Nominative Genitive Partitive Illative Inessive Elative Allative Adessive Ablative Translative Terminative Essive Abessive Comitative
Singular - - - -sse -s -st -le -l -lt -ks -ni -na -ta -ga
Plural -d -de / -te -id / -sse -s -st -le -l -lt -ks -ni -na -ta -ga
-sid / -e
/ -i / -u
Cases
In Estonian, there are 14 cases.
# Case Singular Plural
Example in Estonian Example in English Example in Estonian Example in English
1 Nominative ilus raamat a beautiful book ilusad raamatud beautiful books
2 Genitive ilusa raamatu of a beautiful book; ilusate raamatute of beautiful books;
a beautiful book beautiful books
(as total object) (as total object)
3 Partitive ilusat raamatut a beautiful book ilusaid raamatuid beautiful books
(as a partial object) (as a partial object)
4 Illative ilusasse raamatusse into a beautiful book ilusatesse raamatutesse into beautiful books
5 Inessive ilusas raamatus in a beautiful book ilusates raamatutes in beautiful books
6 Elative ilusast raamatust from a beautiful book ilusatest raamatutest from beautiful books
7 Allative ilusale raamatule onto a beautiful book ilusatele raamatutele onto beautiful books
8 Adessive ilusal raamatul on a beautiful book ilusatel raamatutel on beautiful books
9 Ablative ilusalt raamatult from on a beautiful book ilusatelt raamatutelt from on beautiful books
10 Translative ilusaks raamatuks [to turn] (in)to a beautiful book ilusateks raamatuteks [to turn] (in)to beautiful books
11 Terminative ilusa raamatuni up to a beautiful book ilusate raamatuteni up to beautiful books

3. Estonian grammar 3
12 Essive ilusa raamatuna as a beautiful book ilusate raamatutena as beautiful books
13 Abessive ilusa raamatuta without a beautiful book ilusate raamatuteta without beautiful books
14 Comitative ilusa raamatuga with a beautiful book ilusate raamatutega with beautiful books
Adjectives
Inflectional endings as listed below are added to the stem of an adjective, which is formed like the one for nouns.
The stem for the comparative and superlative forms is the singular genitive of an adjective; if a word has two
syllables in the genitive or a vowel following -ke(se), then -ke(se) is left out and the last vowel in the stem changes to
-e. The genitive and the partitive of the comparative itself are formed with -a and -at.
New adjectives can be derived from existing words by means of suffixes like:
-v (active present participle, from -ma infinitive),
-nud (active perfect participle, from -da infinitive),
-tav (passive present participle, from -tud participle),
-tud (passive perfect participle), and -lik, -line, -lane, -ne, -ke, -kas, -jas, -tu.
Antonym can be formed by preprending eba or mitte to an adjective. Eba- is considered to be the only derivational
prefix in Estonian; as mitte can also occur as a separate word, mitte + adjective can be regarded as a compound rather
than derivative. Alternatively, for an adjective formed from a noun or a verb, an antonym can often be constructed
using the suffix -tu or -matu.
Pro-adjectives
• numeral (nominative - genitive - partitive, with noun in singular nominative for 1 and in singular partitive for
others): null - nulli - nulli (0), üks - ühe - üht (1), kaks - kahe - kaht (2), kolm - kolme - kolme (3), neli - nelja -
nelja (4), viis - viie - viit (5), kuus - kuue - kuut (6), seitse - seitsme - seitset (7), kaheksa - kaheksa - kaheksat (8),
üheksa - üheksa - uheksat (9), kümme - kümne - kümmet (10), -teist(kümmend) - -teist(kümne) - -teist(kümmet)
(11-19), -kümmend - -kümne - -kümmet (20-90), sada - saja - sadat (100), -sada - -saja - -sadat (200-900), - tuhat
- - tuhande - - tuhandet (1.000-999.000), - miljon - - miljoni - - miljonit (1.000.000-999.000.000), - miljard - -
miljardi - - miljardit (1.000.000.000); ordinal: esimene - esimese - esimest (1.), teine - teise - teist (2.), kolmas -
kolmanda - kolmandat (3.), cardinal_genitive-s - cardinal_genitive-nda - cardinal_genitive-ndat (others)
• demonstrative (nominative - genitive - partitive, singular / plural): niisugune - niisuguse - niisugust (this kind), see
- selle - seda / need - nende - neid (this/that), too - tolle - toda / nood - nonde - noid (yonder)
• interrogative (nominative - genitive - partitive): missugune - missuguse - missugust (what kind), milline - millise -
millist (which)
• existential (nominative - genitive - partitive): mingisugune - mingisuguse - mingisugust (some kind), mõni - mõne
- mõnda (some)
• free choice (nominative - genitive - partitive): mingisugune - mingisuguse - mingisugust (any kind), ükskõik
milline - ükskõik millise - ükskõik millist (any)
• universal (nominative - genitive - partitive): kõik - kõige - kõike (every kind), iga - iga - iga (every)

4. Estonian grammar 4
Declension of adjectives
Case
Number Nominative Genitive Partitive Illative Inessive Elative Allative Adessive Ablative Translative Terminative Essive Abessive Comitative
Singular - - - -sse -s -st -le -l -lt -ks - - - -
Plural -d -de / -te -id / -sse -s -st -le -l -lt -ks - - - -
-sid / -e
/ -i / -u
Comparison of adjectives
Type
Degree General
Positive -
Comparative -m
Superlative -im / kõige -m
Adpositions
The following lists are not exhaustive.
Postpositions
• with the genitive case and declinable (illative/allative - inessive/adessive - elative/ablative): alla - all - allt
(under), ette - ees - eest (in front of), juurde - juures - juurest (at), järele - järel - järelt (after), keskele - keskel -
keskelt (in the middle), kohale - kohal - kohalt (above), kõrvale - kõrval - kõrvalt (beside), kätte - käes - käest (in
the hand of), lähedale - lähedal - lähedalt (near), peale - peal - pealt (on), sisse - sees - seest (in), taha - taga -
tagant (behind), vahele - vahel - vahelt (between), äärde - ääres - äärest (by)
• with the genitive case and non-declinable: eest / jaoks (for), järgi (according to), kaudu (via), kohta (about),
pärast (on account of), vastas (vis-à-vis), vastu (against), üle (over), ümber (around)
• with the partitive case: mööda (along)
• with the elative case: alla (down), läbi (through), peale / saadik (since)
Prepositions
• with the genitive case: läbi (through), peale (besides), üle (over), ümber (around)
• with the partitive case: alla (down), enne (before), kesk / keset (amid), mööda (along), piki (alongside), pärast
(after), vastu (against)
• with the terminative case: kuni (until)
• with the abessive case: ilma (without)
• with the comitative case: koos / ühes (with)

5. Estonian grammar 5
Verbs
Inflectional endings as listed below are added to the stem of a verb, which is formed from:
• indicative mood active voice singular first person of positive present tense (by dropping -n): indicative mood
active voice of present tense, conditional mood active voice of present tense, imperative mood active voice
singular second person of present tense,
• -ma infinitive (by dropping -ma; if the stem ends with a consonant, an additional -i- is added in the singular third
person of the imperfect or an additional -e- is added in the singular nominative of the participle, the consonant is
doubled if it was short and preceding a short vowel; if the stem ends with -e while being two-syllable or if it ends
with a long vowel, then the -s- is left out in all numbers and persons, ei is changed to i, a long vowel becomes
short and o, ö are changed to õ): indicative mood active voice of positive imperfect, quotative mode active voice
of present tense,
• -da infinitive (by dropping -da / -ta / -a; long final l, r become short, in spoken language -nud is shortened to -nd):
indicative mood active voice of negative imperfect, indicative mood active voice of pluperfect, imperative mood
active voice of present tense except singular second person, active voice of perfect,
• participle of passive voice perfect (by dropping -tud): passive voice.
-ma infinitive and -da infinitive are not predictable and have to be taken from the vocabulary. Present tense form and
-tud participle are derived from the infinitives on the basis of gradation.
-ma infinitive is used after verbs of motion and after participles. It can be declined: -ma (illative), -mas (inessive),
-mast (elative), -maks (translative), -mata (abessive).
-da infinitive is used after verbs of emotion, after impersonal expressions, after et (in order to) and as a subject. It
can be declined: -des (inessive).
Verb derivation: -ta- (transitive/passive), -u- / -i- (reflexive), -el- / -le- (reciprocal), -ne- (translative), -ata-
(momentane), -el- / -skle- (frequentative), -tse- (continuous).
Emphasis: verb + -gi (after a final voiced consonant or vowel) / -ki (after a final voiceless consonant), verb + küll
(positive), verb + mitte (negative).
Conjugation of verbs
Tense
Present Imperfect Perfect Pluperfect
Mood Voice Number Person Positive Negative Positive Negative Positive Negative Positive Negative
Indicative
Active
Singular First -n ei - -sin ei -nud olen -nud ei ole -nud olin -nud ei olnud
-nud
Second -d -sid oled -nud olid -nud
Third -b -s on -nud oli -nud
Plural First -me -sime oleme -nud olime
-nud
Second -te -site olete -nud olite -nud
Third -vad -sid on -nud olid -nud
Passive / -takse ei -ta -ti ei -tud on -tud ei ole -tud oli -tud ei olnud -tud

6. Estonian grammar 6
Conditional
Active
Singular First -ksin ei -ks / oleksin -nud ei oleks -nud /
Second -ksid oleksid -nud
Third -ks oleks -nud
Plural First -ksime oleksime
-nud
Second -ksite oleksite -nud
Third -ksid oleksid -nud
Passive / -taks ei -taks oleks -tud ei oleks -tud
Imperative
Active
Singular First / / / /
Second - ära -
Third -gu ärgu -gu olgu -nud ärgu olgu
-nud
Plural First -gem ärgem /
-gem
Second -ge ärge -ge
Third -gu ärgu -gu olgu -nud ärgu olgu
-nud
Passive / -tagu ärgu -tagu olgu -tud ärgu olgu -tud
Quotative
Active
Singular First -vat ei -vat / olevat -nud ei olevat -nud /
Second
Third
Plural First
Second
Third
Passive / -tavat ei -tavat olevat -tud ei olevat -tud
Adverbs
Inflectional endings as listed below are added to the stem of an adverb, which is formed from:
• singular genitive of an adjective (-sti, -ti, -ldi, -li, -kesi): genetival type,
• singular ablative of an adjective (-lt; some are declinable in allative, adessive, ablative): ablatival type.
Some adverbs are special words - original or vestigial forms of an ancient instructive case.
Pro-adverbs
• demonstrative (illative/allative - inessive/adessive - elative/ablative): siia - siin - siit (here), sinna - seal - sealt
(there), nüüd (now), siis (then), seega (thus), seepärast (therefore)
• interrogative (illative/allative - inessive/adessive - elative/ablative): kuhu - kus - kust (where), millal (when),
kuidas (how), miks (why)
• existential (illative/allative - inessive/adessive - elative/ablative): kuhugi - kuskil - kuskilt (somewhere), kunagi
(sometime), kuidagi (somehow)
• free choice (illative/allative - inessive/adessive - elative/ablative): ükskõik kuhu - ükskõik kus - ükskõik kust
(anywhere), ükskõik millal (anytime), igatahes (anyhow)

7. Estonian grammar 7
• universal (illative/allative - inessive/adessive - elative/ablative): igale poole - igal pool - igalt poolt (everywhere),
alati (always)
Comparison of adverbs
Type
Degree Genetival Ablatival
Positive - -lt
Comparative -mini -malt
Superlative kõige -mini kõige -malt
Syntax
The neutral word order in Estonian is subject–verb–object (SVO). Conjunctions: aga (but), et (that), ja (and), kas
(whether), kui (if), nagu (as), sest (because), või (or). Questions begin with an interrogative word (interrogative
pro-forms or kas (yes/no-question), eks (yes-question), ega (no-question)), followed by the SVO word order (in
spoken language, interrogative words are sometimes left out, but instead there is either a change in intonation or
VSO word order); answers: jah/jaa (yes), ei (no). An adjective precedes the noun it modifies. An adverb of time
precedes an adverb of place.
However, as one would expect from an agglutinative language, the word order is quite free and non-neutral word
order can be used to stress some parts of the sentence or in poetic text, as in Finnish grammar. For example, consider
the sentence mees tappis karu which means (a/the) man killed (a/the) bear and uses the neutral SVO word order. The
sentence can be rephrased using OVS word order as karu tappis mees — a normal Estonian sentence that could be
more precisely translated as it was (a/the) man who killed the bear, i. e. the sayer emphasizes that the killer was a
man, probably assuming the listener knows that a bear was killed. The other four word orders (tappis mees karu,
tappis karu mees, mees karu tappis, karu mees tappis) are also possible in certain contexts, especially if more words
are added to the three-word sentences.
Sometimes the form of the verb, nouns and adjectives in the sentence are not enough to determine the subject and
object, e. g. mehed tapsid karud (the men killed the bears) or isa tappis karu (father killed the bear) — in the first
sentence because in plural, the nominative case is used in Estonian both for subject and telic object, and in the
second sentence because in singular, the nominative, genitive and partitive forms of the word isa are the same, as
well as those of the word karu (unlike the word mees which has different forms: sg. nom. mees, sg. gen. mehe, sg.
part. meest). In such sentences, word order is the only thing that distinguishes the subject and the object: listener
presumes that the former noun (mehed, isa) is the subject and the latter (karud, karu) is the object. In such situations,
the sayer cannot interchange the subject and the object for emphasis (at least unless it is obvious from the context
which noun is the subject).
References
• Moseley, C. (1994). Colloquial Estonian: A Complete Language Course. London: Routledge.
• Tuldava, J. (1994). Estonian Textbook: Grammar, Exercises, Conversation. Bloomington: Research Institute for
Inner Asian Studies, Indiana University.

8. Article Sources and Contributors 8
Article Sources and Contributors
Estonian grammar Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=441615918 Contributors: Avellano, Biscuittin, Dub8lad1, Eallik, Greg-si, Hu, Illioplius, Iridescent, Jonathan de Boyne
Pollard, Jyril, Kwamikagami, Leopea, Mardus, Maurice Carbonaro, Merlion444, Mihkel93, Nothingbutmeat, Rushisawesome88, Sorent, Stephen C. Carlson, Stwalkerster, Termer, Tropylium,
Vuo, 29 anonymous edits
Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors
Image:EstonianGrammar1637.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:EstonianGrammar1637.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Heinrich Stahl
License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
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