Estonian grammar is a grammar of the Estonian language.
Contents |
Inflectional endings as listed below are added to the stem of a noun, which is formed from:
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 forms):
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, -ke, -e, -ndus, -dus, -us, -is, -kond, -nd, -istu, -u.
| 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 / -sid / -e / -i / -u | -sse | -s | -st | -le | -l | -lt | -ks | -ni | -na | -ta | -ga |
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; a beautiful book (as total object) |
ilusate raamatute | of beautiful books; beautiful books (as total object) |
| 3 | Partitive | ilusat raamatut | a beautiful book (as a partial object) |
ilusaid raamatuid | beautiful books (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 |
| 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 |
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:
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.
| 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 / -sid / -e / -i / -u | -sse | -s | -st | -le | -l | -lt | -ks | - | - | - | - |
| Comparison of adjectives | |
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Degree | General |
| Positive | - |
| Comparative | -m |
| Superlative | -im / kõige -m |
The following lists are not exhaustive.
Inflectional endings as listed below are added to the stem of a verb, which is formed from:
-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 | ||
| 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 | ||||||
Inflectional endings as listed below are added to the stem of an adverb, which is formed from:
Some adverbs are special words - original or vestigial forms of an ancient instructive case.
| Comparison of adverbs | ||
|---|---|---|
| Type | ||
| Degree | Genetival | Ablatival |
| Positive | - | -lt |
| Comparative | -mini | -malt |
| Superlative | kõige -mini | kõige -malt |
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).