The Estonian Alphabet with video

It seems there is now a native Estonian speaker making videos about the language for learners, something that was until now lacking. Let's hope she continues with the good work. So far she has 5 videos about the language on her account. Check it out!

 

Agent Nouns

In today's post we are going to look at the creation of agent nouns in Estonian, nouns such as walker, builder, teacher, actor etc. as well as nationalities and other identities built from place-names.

Oftentimes we can construct such agent nouns with the suffix -ja added to the -ma infinitive stem.

õpetama 'teach', stem õpeta- + -ja = õpetaja 'teacher'
näitlema 'act', stem näitle- + -ja = näitleja 'actor'
ehitama 'build', stem ehita- + -ja = ehitaja 'builder'
tantsima 'dance', stem tantsi- + -ja = tantsija 'dancer'
kõndima 'walk', stem kõndi- + -ja = kõndija 'walker'

There are other endings too such as -lane, -nik and -ur.

For nationalities or names for inhabitants of place-names, the root word loses its final vowel.

Soome 'Finland', soom- + -lane = soomlane 'a Finn'
Läti 'Latvia', lät- + -lane = lätlane 'a Latvian'
Rootsi 'Sweden', roots- + -lane = rootslane 'a Swede'

Tallinn 'Tallinn', tallinn- + -lane = tallinnlane 'a Tallinner'

The marked female form ends in -lanna

Eesti 'Estonia', eest- + -lane = eestlane 'an Estonian'
Eesti 'Estonia', eest- + -lanna = eestlanna 'an Estonian woman'

Beware that some countries do not follow this rule. The Poles for example.

Poola 'Poland', poola- + -kas = poolakas 'a Pole'

The plural of eestlane is eestlased and the plural of poolakas is poolakad. 

Examples using -nik are:

ajakirjanik 'journalist' from ajakiri 'journal, magazine'
kunstnik 'art' from kunst 'art'
kirjanik 'writer' from kiri 'letter'
ametnik 'officer' from amet 'office, profession'
talunik 'farmer' from talu 'farmstead'

Examples using -ur, -är, -mees are:

lendur 'aviator' from lendma 'fly'
pensionär 'pensioner' from pension 'pension'
ärimess 'businessman' from äri 'business'
põllumees 'farmer' from põllu- 'agrestic'
meremess 'sailor' from meri 'sea'

description of people

Ma näen pildi peal naist ja meest. Nad on noored, võib-olla kolmekümne ja neljakümne aasta vahel. Paistab, et nad töötavad büroos, sest neil on soliidsed riided seljas.

Mees on väga pikk, või naine on väga lühike, sest mees on palju pikem kui naine, kuigi naisel on kõrged kontsad jalas. Naisel on helepruunid juuksed. Mehe juustel on sama värv, aga tal ei ole neid palju peas. Tal on siiski väike habe ja väikesed vuntsid.

Naisel on tumepruun kampsun ja tumepruun seelik seljas*. Tema kingad on ka pruunid, mitte tumepruunid vaid helepruunid.

Mehel on ülikond seljas. Ülikonna värv on tumesinine. Tal on helesinine särk ka seljas. Särgi koos tal on purpurne lips. Tal on mustad kingad jalas

* Ma ei ole kindel, kas see on kampsun ja seelik, või kleit? No, vahet pole.

kolimine - moving

Sorry it has been such a long time since my last post. I was enjoying the summer but now it is time for getting back to work and that includes working on my Estonian and posting on this blog.

I recently moved lately into an apartment in Tallinn and in the process I learned lots of new words. These will be the topic of today's post.

First things first, the verb to move is kolima (da = kolida, 1sg = kolin, -nud = kolinud). The act of moving is kolimine. The word for apartment/ flat is korter (Gsg = korteri, Psg = korterit, Ppl = kortereid). The word maja (maja, maja, maju/majasid) is used to refer to the apartment block (English: building).

As young people, we are naturally renting our apartment. To rent an apartment is korterit üürima thus ma üürin korterit (I am renting an apartment). You can also say üürile võtma thus me võtame selle korteri üürile (We will rent this apartment).

To express 'renting out' its üürile andma (give for rent) thus ma annan korteri üürile / mul on korter üürile anda (I am renting out an apartment / I have an apartment to rent). There is an alternative for this, it's välja üürima thus ema üürib oma korteri välja (mother is renting out her apartment).

Then there is the day that all renters dread, the day when you üüri maksma (pay rent) thus ma pean varsti üüri maksma (I have to pay rent soon).

Now to the rooms/ parts of the apartment. We have:

elamistuba - living room
vannituba - bathroom
magamistuba - bedroom

(toa, tuba, tube/tubasid)

We cook in the köök (köögi, kööki, kööke/köökisid). Not to be confused with a kook 'cake' (koogi/koogu, kooki/kooku, kooke/kookisid/kookusid) nor a kokk 'cook' (koka, kokka, kokki/kokkasid). We cook on a pliit (pliidi, pliiti, pliite/pliitisid) and these are either an elektripliit or a gaasipliit.

Can you understand the meaning of the following text? (answer below)

Lisaks kahele magamistoale on meil korteris suur elutuba, köök ja väike vannituba. Köögilambil roheline vari, mistõttu näeb too välja nagu arbuus. Selle tulemusena õhtuti on meie köök ainuke rohelist värvi ruum terves majas.

Now to some of the furniture (mööbel (mööbli, mööblit, mööbleid)) or appliances in the flat. We sit and relax on a sofa diivan (diivani, diivanit, diivaneid) and the carpet vaip (vaiba, vaipa, vaipu/vaipasid) on the floor keeps our feet warm. We sit on a chair tool (tooli, tooli, toole/toolisid) and read a book which we took from the riiul (riiuli, riiulit, riiuleid). In the bathroom we can find the tualett (tualeti, tualetti, tualette/tualettisid), the shower dušš (duši, dušši, dušše/duššisid) and the washing machine pesumasin (pesumasina, pesumasinat, pesumasinaid). If you are lucky you'll have a dishwasher nõudepesumasin but most places don't have one. Every place should have a table laud (laua, lauda, laudu/laudasid) for eating meals and, for security, a security door turvauks (turvaukse, turvaust, turvauksi).

Rent üür (üüri, üüri, üüre/üürisid) is not the only thing you'll have to pay when you move into a new apartment. You'll also very likely have to pay what is known as an ettemaks (ettemaksu/ettemaksa, ettemaksu/ettemaksa, ettemakse/ettemaksu/ettemaksasid/ettemaksusid) which, depending on the agreement, is a mixture of rent-in-advance and the security payment. Also you will have to pay the estate agent maakler (maakleri, maaklerit, maaklereid) a maakleritasu (tasu, tasu, tasusid), their fee for the transaction.


(In addition to the two bedrooms we have in the flat a big living room, a kitchen and a small bathroom. The kitchen lamp has a green colour, therefore it looks like a watermelon. As a result every evening our kitchen is the only green room in the building.)

Feeling sick

My partner is sick today - she has a sore throat and a bad cough. I had to go to the pharmacy this morning so I thought I would run through some phrases of the same theme in today's post.

Ma olen haige - I am sick

This is the most basic way to say you feel sick. Alternative ways to say this include:

Ma ei tunne ennast hästi - I don't feel well.
Ma tunnen end halvasti - I feel badly.

To be more specific about how you feel (or someone else feels) you could say:

Mu naisel on kurk haige - My wife has a sore throat
Tal on köha - She has a cough
Mu lapsel on nohu - My child has a cold
Mul on peavalu - I have a headache
Mu mehel on palavik - My husband has a temperature
Mul käib pea ringi - I feel dizzy

The following is for when you are about to get sick (thrown-up):

Mul on süda paha - I feel nauseous

And when at the pharmacy:

Siin on mu retsept - Here is my prescription
Kas teil on midagi peavalu vastu? - Have you anything against a headache?

clothes and putting them on

The Estonian phrase riidesse panema means 'to put on clothes'. Estonian has two words for clothes: riided and rõivad. The former is the general word for clothes whilst the latter tends to be reserved for fashionable or formal wear.

The command Put on clothes! / Get dressed! is Pane riidesse! using the 2nd person singular imperative form of panema 'put' and the illative (sisseütlev) of riided. In a hurry you may hear someone say: Pane kiiresti riidesse 'get dressed quickly'; or in winter: Pane paksult riidesse! ‘dress warmly [lit. fatly/ thickly]’.

When making a statement about what item of clothing we are putting on, we use the genitive case (omastav). When giving an order to someone as to what item of clothing to put on, we use the nomative form (nimetav). In the case of plural nouns (shoes, gloves, trousers etc.) we use the nominative form in both instances. It is normal in Estonian to also mention the body part to which the item of clothing is put, i.e. put your scarf on your neck instead of simply put your scarf on. This body part takes the illative case. Below you can find common body parts in their nomative and illative case forms as well as common items of clothing in their nomative and genitive forms [plural nouns are just listed in their nominative form].

Don't forget  that you can make use of the excellent tool Eesti keele süntesaator to get the singular and plural case forms of nouns and the conjugation of verbs [input in their -ma form].

Body Parts
(NOM, ILL)

selg, -a 'back' [ill. same as gen.]
kael, -a  'neck' [ill. same as gen.]
jalg, -a 'foot, leg'
pea, pähe 'head'
käsi, kätte 'hand, arm'

Items of Clothing
(NOM, GEN)

mantel, mantli 'coat'
jope, - 'jacket'
kampsun, -i 'cardigan, jumper, pull-over'
särk, särgi 'shirt'
sall, -i 'scarf'
müts, -i 'hat'
püksid 'trousers'
kingad 'shoes'
kindad 'gloves'
kleit, kleidi 'dress'
seelik, -u 'skirt'
pluus, -i 'blouse'
sokid 'socks'
sukad 'stockings'

Phrases:

Note that in Estonian we don't use possessive adjectives as we do in English.

Ma panen jope selga 'I am putting on my jacket' [lit. I put the jacket to the back]
Pane jope selga! 'Put on your jacket!' [lit. Put the jacket to the back]

Ma panen kampsuni selga. 'I am putting on my jumper'
Pane kiiresti kampsun selga! 'Put on your jumper quickly!'

Me paneme särgid selga 'We are putting on our shirts'
Paneme särgid selga! 'Let's put on our shirts!'

Te panete paksult riidesse 'Ye are getting dressed warmly'

Pange paksult riidesse! '(Ye) get dressed warmly!'

Ta paneb salli kaela 'He is putting on her scarf'
Pane sall kaela! 'Put on your scarf!'

Ta paneb kleidi/ seeliku selga 'She is putting on a dress/ skirt'
Las ta panna kleidi/ seeliku selga 'Let/ Leave her put on her dress/ skirt'

Ta paneb kiiresti sukad jalga 'She is putting on her stockings quickly'
Pane kiiresti sokid jalga 'Put on your socks quickly'

Ma panen kindad kätte 'I am putting on my gloves'
Sa paned kingad jalga 'You are putting on your shoes'

Ta panen mütsi pähe 'He is putting on his hat'
Pane müts pähe! 'Put on your hat!'

to be, to have, nouns and adjectives

In this post I will run though how to construct basic sentences in Estonian, showing you how to say 'I am x' and 'I have y'. You will also find what some basic forms of the Estonian pronouns are and how to ask 'yes/ no question'. So, without further a-do, let's start!

Pronouns

There are two nominative forms of the Estonian pronouns, the short forms and the long forms. The long forms are emphatic and are used when one wants to emphasise the pronoun. In English one stresses the pronoun, as in you in the following example: I play the guitar. What instrument do you play?

ma --- mina --- 'I'
sa --- sina --- 'you' (singular)
ta --- tema --- 'he / she'

me --- meie --- 'we'
te --- teie --- 'you' (plural)
nad --- nemad --- 'they'

You will notice that Estonian does not make a gender distinction in the third person singual pronoun - ta means both 'he' and 'she'.

Olema - The verb 'to be'

Here follows the present conjugation of olema. Notice the singular endings 'n' and 'd' and the plural endings 'me' and 'te'. These are important to learn by heart as they are used in the conjugation of all Estonian verbs in the present tense. All verbs that is except olema. The endings for the third person for all other verbs are 'b' and 'vad' but don't concern yourself with these now. Notice also that the third person form of olema is on regardless of number. The present tense of olema is formed by removing the infinitive ending -ma (giving you ole) and replacing it by the personal endings.

ma/ mina olen
sa/ sina oled
ta/ tema on

me/ meie oleme
te/ teie olete
nad/ nemad on

Note: In Estonian we sometimes do not even have to mention the pronoun as the ending on the verb tells us what person and number is being talked about. This is similar to in Spanish how soy means 'I am' so you don't even have to mention the pronoun yo 'I'.

I am can be translated into Estonian, depending on the context, by: ma olen, olen, and mina olen.

How to say 'I have...'

In Estonian, like in Finnish, Latvian and Irish, but unlike French, German and English, there is no verb to have. This is a common occurance cross-linguistically and many languages' verb to have dervives from verbs used to express grasping (as in Proto-Germanic), carrying and holding. In Estonian like in Finnish, Latvian and Irish one employs the verb to be plus a case ending or a preposition to indicate location. The subject of the sentence is the item that is possessed. The four examples all mean: I have a car.

Irish: Tá carr agam (Is car at-I).
Latvian: Man ir auto (I-to is car).

Finnish: Minulla on auto (I-at is car).
Estonian: Mul on auto (I-at is car).

But enough about other languages. Let's have a look at how to express this in Estonian for all the pronouns. The structure in Estonian is: pronoun-ADE on object where pronoun refers to the possesser, ADE is the case ending, on is the third person form of the verb olema 'to be' and object refers to the item that is possessed. Notice that the singular pronouns and the third person plural all have a longer (emphatic) form, while there is only one possible form for the first and second person plural pronouns.

mul on... --- sul on... --- tal on...
minul on... --- sinul on... ---- temal on...

meil on... --- teil on... --- neil on...

------------------------- nendel on...

This form uses the adessive case (shortened to ADE) and is one of the locative cases. Its name in Estonian is alalütlev kääne 'on-saying case'. Its basic meaning is translated as 'on' as in 'on the table', laual in Estonian (laud = table). Its characteristic ending is -l. Don't worry about this linguistic terminology. The most important thing is being able to use the structure.

Some Nouns

We already came across the noun auto which means 'car'. Here are some other nouns that are less internationally recognised. Note: all nouns listed are in the singular nominative case which is the base and 'dictonary' form of the noun. In this post we will not deal with plural nouns or nouns in cases other than the nominative.

õpetaja 'teacher'
õpilane 'school'
koer 'dog'
kass 'cat'
maja 'house'
raamat 'book'
pliiats 'pencil'
poiss 'boy'
tüdruk 'girl'
mees 'man', 'husband'
naine 'woman', 'wife'

Now we can start to form some simple sentences. The basic sentence structure is SUBject VERb OBJect (or in the case of I have... sentences, PROnoun-ADE on object. See the examples below:

Ta on õpetaja. 'S/he is a teacher.'
Ma olen õpilane ja mul on pliiats. 'I am a student and I have a pencil.'
Meil on auto ja teil on maja. 'We have a car and you (pl.) have a house.'
Ma olen naine. Sa oled mees. Ta on poiss ja ta on tüdruk. 'I am a woman. You are a man. He is a boy and she is a girl.'

You will notice that Estonian does not have a direct translation of a. Neither does it have a direct translation of the. (Estonian has other words that function similar to English a and the, but we'll leave those for a later lesson). The Estonian word for and is ja. (This is not to be confused with the word for yes which is jah or jaa).

Now try making your own basic sentences! Translate the following into Estonian (answers are at the end of the post):

1. I have a dog and you have a cat.
2. He is a teacher and he has a book and a pencil.
3. The student is a boy.
4. They have a house.

Some Adjectives

Here are some adjectives to help us make our sentences a little more interesting. Note: all adjectives listed are in the singular nominative case which is the base and 'dictonary' form of the adjective. In this post we will not deal with plural adjectives or adjectives in cases other than the nominative.

hea 'good'
halb 'bad'
rõõmus 'happy'
kurb 'sad'
huvitav 'interesting'
igav 'boring'
sinine 'blue'
must 'black', 'dirty'
valge 'white'
kollane 'yellow'
uus 'new'
ilus 'beautiful'
noor 'young'
vana 'old'
suur 'big'
väike 'little'

In terms of word order, adjectives in Estonian work as in English.

The man is sad. The sad man. The pencil is blue. A blue pencil.
Mees on kurb. Kurb mees. Pliiats on sinine. Sinine pliiats.

Some examples:

Meil on uus õpetaja. Ta on noor naine. Ta on ilus ja rõõmus.
We have a new teacher. She is a young woman. She is beautiful and happy.
Neil on vana ja must maja. 'They have an old and black/ dirty house'.
Ta on hea õpilane. 'S/he is a good student'.

See if you can translate the following sentences (again answers are below):

5. I have a black pencil. You have a yellow pencil. He has a blue pencil.
6. The book is interesting.
7. We have an old book. The book is boring.

Asking a 'yes/ no question'.

Asking a question that demand either a 'yes' or a 'no' in Estonian is very easy. You simply put the question word kas before the subject and you leave everything else the same. Example:

Kas sa oled õpilane? 'Are you a teacher?'
Kas ta on noor poiss? 'Is he a young boy?'
Kas neil on huvitav raamat? 'Do they have an interesting book?'

Negative of olema.

Of course, it's useless to be able to ask a question without being able to understand the answer, or understand a question without being able to answer.

Making a verb negative in Estonian is also easy. (And you thought this was a hard language?! ) You make the present tense form of the verb negative by adding ei 'no' before the verb and leaving the verb in its present stem devoid of personal endings. For example. In the sentences below we see an example of a question, a positive declaration and a negative declaration. We drop the -n ending from olen 'I am' so it becomes ole. Thus, (ma) olen becomes (ma) ei ole. This is the same for all persons and numbers, even the third person.

Kas ma olen noor? Jah, ma olen noor. Ei, ma ei ole noor.
Am I young? Yes, I am young. No, I am not young.

M(in)a ei ole õpilane. 'I am not a student'.
S(in)a ei ole rõõmus. 'You (sg.) are not happy'.
T(em)a ei ole hea õpetaja. 'S/he is not a good teacher'.
Me(ie) ei ole. 'We are not.'
Te(ie) ei ole. 'You (pl.) are not.'
N(em)ad ei ole. 'They are not.'

M(in)ul ei ole... 'I do not have...'
S(in)ul ei ole... 'You (sg.) do not have...'
T(em)al ei ole... 'S/h does not have...'
Meil ei ole... 'We do not have...'
Teil ei ole... 'You (pl.) do not have...'
Neil/ Nendel ei ole... 'They do not have...'

[As Tatsutahime points out, sentences in the form I do not have a... require the object not possessed to be in the partitive case. e.g. Mul on koer 'I have a dog', Mul ei ole koera 'I do not have a dog'. We will discuss this is a later post].

See if you can translate the following sentences:

8. I have a little beautiful cat. The cat is black and white.
9. Do you have a dog?
10. The man is not happy. He is sad.
11. The car is blue and new.
12. Is the blue car new? No, the blue car is old. The yellow car is new.
13. Is the book interesting? The book is not interesting. The book is boring.

Answers.

1. Mul/Minul on koer ja sul/ sinul on kass.
2. Ta/ Tema on õpetaja ja tal/ temal on raamat ja pliiats.
3. Õpilane on poiss.
4. Neil/ Nendel on maja.
5. Mul/ Minul on must pliiats. Sul/ Sinul on kollane pliiats. Tal/ Temal on sinine pliiats.
6. Raamat on huvitav.
7. Meil on vana raamat. Raamat on igav.
8. Mul/ Minul on väike ja ilus kass. Kass on must ja valge.
9. Kas sul/ sinul on koer?
10. Mees ei ole rõõmus. Mees on kurb.
11. Auto on sinine ja uus.
12. Kas sinine auto on uus?  Ei, sinine auto on vana. Kollane auto on uus.
13. Kas raamat on huvitav? Raamat ei ole huvitav. Raamat on igav.

[Some of these sentences are a little stilted. This is because I tried to keep the lesson as short and as simple as possible. In later lessons I will discuss on the use of the possessive adjectives and how to say this and that, these and those].

basic phrases with the BBC

The BBC Quick Fix website has 12 phrases to allow tourists to Estonia learn and use some basic phrases on their visit. You can access the phrases and listen or download the audio by this link.

These phrases are:

Jah yes
Ei no
Tere tulemast! Welcome!
Meeldiv teid kohata. Pleased to meet you.
Tere! Hello!
Head aega! Goodbye!
Tänan teid. Thank you!
Minu nimi on... My name is...
Kas te räägite inglise keelt? Do you speak English?
Vabandage, ma ei räägi eesti keelt. I'm sorry, I don't speak Estonian.
Palun aidake. Please help.
Vabandage, kus asub tualettruum? Excuse me, where is the toilet?