My boss taught me an interesting expression that today that uses the verb muretsema. This verb normally means 'to worry'.
muretseda - 'da' form
muretsen - I worry
muretsesin - I worried
muretsenud - 'nud' form
muretsetakse - one worries
muretseti - one worried
Õpilane muretses oma hinnete pärast 'The student worried about their grades'
Ema muretseb oma poja pärast 'The mother worries after her son'
However it can also be used in the sense of 'acquiring sth' as in the example below:
Ma muretsesin endale uue auto 'I acquired myself a car'.
The path or method to acquisition is unspecified and quite often refers to either being given something or stealing it.
The sentence above literally means 'I worried myself a car'. Kind of fits if you imagine the situation of a kid stealing it. Now acquired, he worries about getting caught. Or especially in these days when money is tight and a new car would just be adding to the bills to be paid.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Sunday, September 12, 2010
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.)
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.)
Monday, June 14, 2010
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?
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?
Thursday, June 3, 2010
to go
One thing that I have always found sticky about Estonian is how to translate to go. Estonian has two basic verbs to express the meaning behind the English verb go. These two verbs are minema and käima. These are the -ma forms, the -da forms being minna and käia. See this post and this post if you are unsure of this distinction. We will start with the verb minema.
Formation Present
The conjugated form of minema is tricky for the beginner of Estonian because the stem of the verb is lähe, and not *mine as would otherwise be expected. This can be explained by a study of language change in Estonian that need not concern us here. Thus, the present indicative of minema is:
Singular: ma lähen, sa lähed, ta läheb
Plural: me läheme, te lähete, nad lähevad
The verb minema necessitates that use of the illative case (an inner locative case, characterised by the ending -sse and denoting movement into; see this post) or the allative case (an outer locative case, characterised by the ending -le and denoting movement towards).
Examples
Ma lähen Tartust Tallinnasse. I am going from Tartu to Tallinn.
Very often however, Estonians prefer to use the short form of the illative.
Tüdruk läheb kooli. The girl is on her way to school.
Me läheme kinno. We are on our way to the cinema.
The verb minema can also be used in conjunction with another verb as in the example below. In this case the second verb takes the -ma infinitive.
Ma lähen jalutama. I'm off for a walk.
Formation Past
The simple past form of minema has a similar but different stem from the present. You would expect the past form to be ma lähe/si/n. However, the stem is instead läk which combines with the past infix -si- to become läksi-.
Singular: ma läksin, sa läksid, ta läks
Plural: me läksime, te läksite, nad läksid
Pere läks kolmapäeval Pärnusse. The family left for Pärnu on Wednesday.
Ema läks tööle. Mother went to work.
Lapsed läksid poodi. The children went to the shop.
Minema and Käima
Now, the thing to realise about minema is that is signifies movement toward/ into an object or a place without reference to the return journey. This leads to trouble for the learner when they wish to translate the process of habitual going or to say that they travelled somewhere and have since returned. Before we illustrate this distinction, let us first take a look at the conjugation of the verb käima. You will be happy to know that its formation is much more regular than that of minema.
Present (käi- = stem)
Singular: ma käin, sa käid, ta käib
Plural: me käime, te käite, nad käivad
Past (käi/si- = stem)
Singular: ma käisin, sa käisid, ta käis
Plural: me käisime, te käisite, nad käisid
Before we take about the distinction between the use of minema and käima it should be noted that whereas minema takes the illative (-sse) or allative case (-le), käima takes the inessive (-s) or adessive case (-l).
Examples
Ma lähen kooli. I am on my way to school.
Ma käin koolis. I go to school (regular occurrence) = I attend school.
Isa läks tööle. Father went to work.
Isa käis tööl. Father went to work and returned.
Pere läks Tartusse. The family left for Tartu.
Pere käis Tartus. The travelled to Tartu and came back again.
That is why it's okay to write someone a note on the fridge where you say ma läksin linna 'I left for town' but when you return and see that person again you must say ma käisin linnas 'I've been to town and back again'.
Hopefully that goes some small way to explaining how to to translate to go in Estonian. It takes a while to get into your head and even after a few years I still slip up now and then, so donät worry if you are having touble with it, especially when you mix in the case change as well. It'll all come with time, I hope!
------------
Sorry that it has been so long since my last post. Hopefully there will only be a short gap between this and the next post.
Formation Present
The conjugated form of minema is tricky for the beginner of Estonian because the stem of the verb is lähe, and not *mine as would otherwise be expected. This can be explained by a study of language change in Estonian that need not concern us here. Thus, the present indicative of minema is:
Singular: ma lähen, sa lähed, ta läheb
Plural: me läheme, te lähete, nad lähevad
The verb minema necessitates that use of the illative case (an inner locative case, characterised by the ending -sse and denoting movement into; see this post) or the allative case (an outer locative case, characterised by the ending -le and denoting movement towards).
Examples
Ma lähen Tartust Tallinnasse. I am going from Tartu to Tallinn.
Very often however, Estonians prefer to use the short form of the illative.
Tüdruk läheb kooli. The girl is on her way to school.
Me läheme kinno. We are on our way to the cinema.
The verb minema can also be used in conjunction with another verb as in the example below. In this case the second verb takes the -ma infinitive.
Ma lähen jalutama. I'm off for a walk.
Formation Past
The simple past form of minema has a similar but different stem from the present. You would expect the past form to be ma lähe/si/n. However, the stem is instead läk which combines with the past infix -si- to become läksi-.
Singular: ma läksin, sa läksid, ta läks
Plural: me läksime, te läksite, nad läksid
Pere läks kolmapäeval Pärnusse. The family left for Pärnu on Wednesday.
Ema läks tööle. Mother went to work.
Lapsed läksid poodi. The children went to the shop.
Minema and Käima
Now, the thing to realise about minema is that is signifies movement toward/ into an object or a place without reference to the return journey. This leads to trouble for the learner when they wish to translate the process of habitual going or to say that they travelled somewhere and have since returned. Before we illustrate this distinction, let us first take a look at the conjugation of the verb käima. You will be happy to know that its formation is much more regular than that of minema.
Present (käi- = stem)
Singular: ma käin, sa käid, ta käib
Plural: me käime, te käite, nad käivad
Past (käi/si- = stem)
Singular: ma käisin, sa käisid, ta käis
Plural: me käisime, te käisite, nad käisid
Before we take about the distinction between the use of minema and käima it should be noted that whereas minema takes the illative (-sse) or allative case (-le), käima takes the inessive (-s) or adessive case (-l).
Examples
Ma lähen kooli. I am on my way to school.
Ma käin koolis. I go to school (regular occurrence) = I attend school.
Isa läks tööle. Father went to work.
Isa käis tööl. Father went to work and returned.
Pere läks Tartusse. The family left for Tartu.
Pere käis Tartus. The travelled to Tartu and came back again.
That is why it's okay to write someone a note on the fridge where you say ma läksin linna 'I left for town' but when you return and see that person again you must say ma käisin linnas 'I've been to town and back again'.
Hopefully that goes some small way to explaining how to to translate to go in Estonian. It takes a while to get into your head and even after a few years I still slip up now and then, so donät worry if you are having touble with it, especially when you mix in the case change as well. It'll all come with time, I hope!
------------
Sorry that it has been so long since my last post. Hopefully there will only be a short gap between this and the next post.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Locative cases
Cases
Estonian nouns and adjectives decline for two numbers (singular, plural) and up to 14 cases (14 for nouns and 10 for adjectives).
These 14 cases can be broken down into two main types: Grammatical cases and Semantic cases.
There are three grammatical cases in Estonian: Nominative, Genitive and Partitive.
The Semantic cases are the 3 Inner Locative cases: Illative, Inessive, Elative; the 3 Outer Locative cases: Allative, Adessive, Ablative; and 5 others: Translative, Terminative, Essive, Abessive, and Cominative.
In today's post we are going to take a look at the 6 locative cases. For some reason, the mention of cases seems to freak out learners whose mother tongue lacks a large case system. However, it shouldn't. It could be said that Estonian really only has three true cases and four case forms: Nominative, Genitive and Partitive (both Singular and Plural). The other 11 cases in the singular are merely suffixes that attach to the genitive singular. These suffixes are perfectly regular as is their attaching to the genitive form. The system is largely agglutinating rather than fusional (in the case of Latin). In this way, you might go as far as saying that these 11 suffixs are rather like prepositions that are widespread in the Germanic and Romance languages. Personally, I find the Estonian system of suffixes rather than extensive use of prepositions in English to be far more transparent and easier to follow. (That is not to say that Estonian doesn't also have its own array of adpositions, but those will be the topic of another day).
Overview of Locative Cases
So, back to focusing on the locative cases.
Inner Locatives
Illative: sisseütlev 'into-saying' -sse ; answers questions: kuhu? 'whither?', kellesse? 'into whom?', millesse? 'into what'
Inessive: seesütlev 'in-saying' -s ; answers questions: kus? 'where?', kelles? 'in whom?', milles? 'in(side) what?'
Elative: seestütlev 'in-saying' -st ; answers questions: kust? 'whence?', kellest? '(out) of whom?', millest? '(out) of what?'
Outer Locatives
Allative: alaleütlev 'onto-saying' -le ; answers questions: kuhu? 'whither?', kellele? '(on)to whom?', millele? '(on)to what'
Adessive: alalütlev 'on-saying' -l ; answers questions: kus? 'where?', kellel? 'on (top of) whom?', millel? 'on (top of) what?'
Ablative: alaltütlev 'off-saying' -lt ; answers questions: kust? 'whence?', kellelt? 'off/ away from whom?', millelt? 'off/ away from what?'
I plan to give an overview of all the locative cases, case by case. In this post we will look at the illative and the other locative cases will follow in later posts.
Formation of the Illative
As mentioned above, the illative is the case that indicates the space, object or person to which a motion occurs. It can translated as 'to' or 'into'. The ending for the illative is -sse and this is, like all locative cases, attached to the genitive form of the noun or adjective in question.
Nominative: -------- Genitive -------- Illative
maja 'house' -------- maja -------- maja/sse
voodi 'bed' -------- voodi -------- voodi/sse
sadam 'harbour' --- sadama-------- sadama/sse
süda 'heart' ------- südame-------- südame/sse
Some words that end in -se in the genitive have a shortened illative where this -se syllable is dropped.
õpilane 'student' -------- õpila/se -------- õpila/se/sse or õpila/sse
lühikene 'short' -------- lühike/se -------- lühike/se/sse or lühike/sse
küsimus 'question' -------- küsimu/se -------- küsimu/se/sse or küsimu/sse
võitlus 'struggle' -------- võitlu/se -------- võitlu/se/sse or võitlu/sse
Examples
Most often translated by 'to' or 'into':
Me sõidame homme Tallinnasse 'We are going to Tallinn tomorrow'.
Ma lähen täna õhtul teatrisse 'I am going to the theatre this evening'.
Laps hüppas karbisse 'The child hopped into the box'
[aabram: ----- 'laps hüppas karbisse' is unnatural, while 'laps hüppas karpi' is normal.]
It can also serve other purposes as the examples below show:
Ta ei usu Jumalasse 'She doesn't believe in God'
Naine armus mehesse 'The woman fell in love with the man'
See ei puutu minusse 'It does not concern (involve) me'
'Short' Illative
As well as the usual illative forms shown above, nouns can also take a shorter illative form. These 'short' illative forms end in -de, -te, -he, -hu or simply a vowel.
Over the words shown above, two have short illative forms:
maja -------- majja
mina -------- musse
Here are some more words:
Nominative ----------------- Illative
keel 'language' ----------------- keelesse / keelde
meel 'sense, mood, mind' ------ meelesse / meelde
suur 'big' --------------- suuresse / suurde
uus 'new' --------------- uuesse / uude
käsi 'hand' --------------- käesse / kätte
vesi 'water' --------------- veesse / vette
pea 'head' --------------- peasse / pähe
suu 'water' --------------- suusse / suhu
Often, but not always, the short illative form ends in the same vowel as that of the genitive:
Nominative ----------------- Illative
linn 'town' ----------------- linnasse / `linna
kool 'school' ----------------- koolisse / `kooli
küla 'village' --------------- külasse / `külla
maja 'house' --------------- majasse / `majja
tuba 'room' --------------- toasse / `tuppa
tuli 'fire, light' --------------- tulesse / `tulle
Note that the preceding consonant or vowel is often lengthened to the third degree. `Linna is pronounced with an extra-long 'n' and `kooli is pronounced with an extra 'o'.
The Eesti keele süntesaator will give you all the forms of the declined noun that you request. Thus you'll be given both the normal and the the short illative. Entering in pood 'shop', jõgi 'river', you'll be returned with both poesse and poodi, jõesse and jõkke. Given the choice between the two forms (i.e. if the 'short' form exists), the short form will win out, so much that you'll even forget that there is a longer form. It also has an effect on what word will be used for a given entity. The two most common words for 'shop' are pood and kauplus. They both tend to be used as much as each other in the nominative but in the illative, the short illative form of pood (poodi) will win out over the long illative (poesse) and both forms of kauplus (kauplusse, kauplusesse).
[aabram: ------ Some short illatives are never used for 'into ...' and almost exclusively for 'concerns ...'. For example you never say 'ma läksin poesse', you say 'ma läksin poodi'. But you can say 'mis sellesse poesse puutub, siis...'. In the same vein 'laps hüppas karbisse' is unnatural, while 'laps hüppas karpi' is normal.]
Estonian nouns and adjectives decline for two numbers (singular, plural) and up to 14 cases (14 for nouns and 10 for adjectives).
These 14 cases can be broken down into two main types: Grammatical cases and Semantic cases.
There are three grammatical cases in Estonian: Nominative, Genitive and Partitive.
The Semantic cases are the 3 Inner Locative cases: Illative, Inessive, Elative; the 3 Outer Locative cases: Allative, Adessive, Ablative; and 5 others: Translative, Terminative, Essive, Abessive, and Cominative.
In today's post we are going to take a look at the 6 locative cases. For some reason, the mention of cases seems to freak out learners whose mother tongue lacks a large case system. However, it shouldn't. It could be said that Estonian really only has three true cases and four case forms: Nominative, Genitive and Partitive (both Singular and Plural). The other 11 cases in the singular are merely suffixes that attach to the genitive singular. These suffixes are perfectly regular as is their attaching to the genitive form. The system is largely agglutinating rather than fusional (in the case of Latin). In this way, you might go as far as saying that these 11 suffixs are rather like prepositions that are widespread in the Germanic and Romance languages. Personally, I find the Estonian system of suffixes rather than extensive use of prepositions in English to be far more transparent and easier to follow. (That is not to say that Estonian doesn't also have its own array of adpositions, but those will be the topic of another day).
Overview of Locative Cases
So, back to focusing on the locative cases.
Inner Locatives
Illative: sisseütlev 'into-saying' -sse ; answers questions: kuhu? 'whither?', kellesse? 'into whom?', millesse? 'into what'
Inessive: seesütlev 'in-saying' -s ; answers questions: kus? 'where?', kelles? 'in whom?', milles? 'in(side) what?'
Elative: seestütlev 'in-saying' -st ; answers questions: kust? 'whence?', kellest? '(out) of whom?', millest? '(out) of what?'
Outer Locatives
Allative: alaleütlev 'onto-saying' -le ; answers questions: kuhu? 'whither?', kellele? '(on)to whom?', millele? '(on)to what'
Adessive: alalütlev 'on-saying' -l ; answers questions: kus? 'where?', kellel? 'on (top of) whom?', millel? 'on (top of) what?'
Ablative: alaltütlev 'off-saying' -lt ; answers questions: kust? 'whence?', kellelt? 'off/ away from whom?', millelt? 'off/ away from what?'
I plan to give an overview of all the locative cases, case by case. In this post we will look at the illative and the other locative cases will follow in later posts.
Formation of the Illative
As mentioned above, the illative is the case that indicates the space, object or person to which a motion occurs. It can translated as 'to' or 'into'. The ending for the illative is -sse and this is, like all locative cases, attached to the genitive form of the noun or adjective in question.
Nominative: -------- Genitive -------- Illative
maja 'house' -------- maja -------- maja/sse
voodi 'bed' -------- voodi -------- voodi/sse
sadam 'harbour' --- sadama-------- sadama/sse
süda 'heart' ------- südame-------- südame/sse
Some words that end in -se in the genitive have a shortened illative where this -se syllable is dropped.
õpilane 'student' -------- õpila/se -------- õpila/se/sse or õpila/sse
lühikene 'short' -------- lühike/se -------- lühike/se/sse or lühike/sse
küsimus 'question' -------- küsimu/se -------- küsimu/se/sse or küsimu/sse
võitlus 'struggle' -------- võitlu/se -------- võitlu/se/sse or võitlu/sse
Examples
Most often translated by 'to' or 'into':
Me sõidame homme Tallinnasse 'We are going to Tallinn tomorrow'.
Ma lähen täna õhtul teatrisse 'I am going to the theatre this evening'.
Laps hüppas karbisse 'The child hopped into the box'
[aabram: ----- 'laps hüppas karbisse' is unnatural, while 'laps hüppas karpi' is normal.]
It can also serve other purposes as the examples below show:
Ta ei usu Jumalasse 'She doesn't believe in God'
Naine armus mehesse 'The woman fell in love with the man'
See ei puutu minusse 'It does not concern (involve) me'
'Short' Illative
As well as the usual illative forms shown above, nouns can also take a shorter illative form. These 'short' illative forms end in -de, -te, -he, -hu or simply a vowel.
Over the words shown above, two have short illative forms:
maja -------- majja
mina -------- musse
Here are some more words:
Nominative ----------------- Illative
keel 'language' ----------------- keelesse / keelde
meel 'sense, mood, mind' ------ meelesse / meelde
suur 'big' --------------- suuresse / suurde
uus 'new' --------------- uuesse / uude
käsi 'hand' --------------- käesse / kätte
vesi 'water' --------------- veesse / vette
pea 'head' --------------- peasse / pähe
suu 'water' --------------- suusse / suhu
Often, but not always, the short illative form ends in the same vowel as that of the genitive:
Nominative ----------------- Illative
linn 'town' ----------------- linnasse / `linna
kool 'school' ----------------- koolisse / `kooli
küla 'village' --------------- külasse / `külla
maja 'house' --------------- majasse / `majja
tuba 'room' --------------- toasse / `tuppa
tuli 'fire, light' --------------- tulesse / `tulle
Note that the preceding consonant or vowel is often lengthened to the third degree. `Linna is pronounced with an extra-long 'n' and `kooli is pronounced with an extra 'o'.
The Eesti keele süntesaator will give you all the forms of the declined noun that you request. Thus you'll be given both the normal and the the short illative. Entering in pood 'shop', jõgi 'river', you'll be returned with both poesse and poodi, jõesse and jõkke. Given the choice between the two forms (i.e. if the 'short' form exists), the short form will win out, so much that you'll even forget that there is a longer form. It also has an effect on what word will be used for a given entity. The two most common words for 'shop' are pood and kauplus. They both tend to be used as much as each other in the nominative but in the illative, the short illative form of pood (poodi) will win out over the long illative (poesse) and both forms of kauplus (kauplusse, kauplusesse).
[aabram: ------ Some short illatives are never used for 'into ...' and almost exclusively for 'concerns ...'. For example you never say 'ma läksin poesse', you say 'ma läksin poodi'. But you can say 'mis sellesse poesse puutub, siis...'. In the same vein 'laps hüppas karbisse' is unnatural, while 'laps hüppas karpi' is normal.]
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Eesti keel ja meel
I said when I started this blog that I would not just concern myself with grammar and vocabulary but also discuss resources available to learn this beautiful language of Estonian.
One of the best resources that I have come across for learning Estonian is Eesti keel ja meel (Estonian language and mind). The idea of the course is to introduce the foreigner to the language, culture, people and places of Estonia. The course is available to buy on DVD, or to use free online. All you need to do is register and you get an email with a log-in and password in less than a minute.
The website includes: an hour long introductory video in Estonian; a gallery of photographs; a basic grammar, grammar exercises; a lexicon, and audio training using the scenes and dialogues taken from the film. You can use the site to practise all linguistic skills.
Eesti keel ja meel is available in 9 languages. These are English, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Hugarian, Greek, Romanian and Russian (though, strangely not in Spanish, Finnish nor Swedish).
What I like about the website is that it is free and fun. The video is interesting and entertaining and the grammar information gives an excellent overview of the language for those who want to pursue Estonian past the basic conversational phrases.
I would say that this website should be used in conjunction with another course. While the video is interesting it can be a little overwhleming for the beginner who is normally more interesting in building up from basic phrases such as greetings and then moving on to talking about oneself and ones home and family. Eesti keel ja meel will give you an excellent introduction to quick-paced conversational and colloquial Estonian and thus compliments nicely, rather than replaces, a more traditional beginner's course.
So, if you haven't used the website before, you should definetly check it out.
One of the best resources that I have come across for learning Estonian is Eesti keel ja meel (Estonian language and mind). The idea of the course is to introduce the foreigner to the language, culture, people and places of Estonia. The course is available to buy on DVD, or to use free online. All you need to do is register and you get an email with a log-in and password in less than a minute.
The website includes: an hour long introductory video in Estonian; a gallery of photographs; a basic grammar, grammar exercises; a lexicon, and audio training using the scenes and dialogues taken from the film. You can use the site to practise all linguistic skills.
Eesti keel ja meel is available in 9 languages. These are English, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Hugarian, Greek, Romanian and Russian (though, strangely not in Spanish, Finnish nor Swedish).
What I like about the website is that it is free and fun. The video is interesting and entertaining and the grammar information gives an excellent overview of the language for those who want to pursue Estonian past the basic conversational phrases.
I would say that this website should be used in conjunction with another course. While the video is interesting it can be a little overwhleming for the beginner who is normally more interesting in building up from basic phrases such as greetings and then moving on to talking about oneself and ones home and family. Eesti keel ja meel will give you an excellent introduction to quick-paced conversational and colloquial Estonian and thus compliments nicely, rather than replaces, a more traditional beginner's course.
So, if you haven't used the website before, you should definetly check it out.
Monday, April 5, 2010
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!'
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!'
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