Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Update May 2 2008: I've decided to upload this to scribd.com in order to make it
available to the public (up to now it's just been on my computer and on Google
Docs). If you have any questions, contact me on my Wikipedia user page here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mithridates
Everything below this line is as it was back in May 2000 when I last looked at it.
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As far as I know this is the first Estonian language course to be found on the web, and
should fill a large void in internet-based Estonian language resources. It is strange that I
have created this, though, for my Estonian is most definately not perfect. My experiences
consist of three months of study, and then living for a month in Tallinn. Nevertheless, I
consider myself a good teacher, and can convey what I know. I have written this page up
with the help of a few grammatical books I own, and so as far as I know this page is mostly
accurate.
There are no sound files here, but one may find them at travlang.com. (select foreign
languages for travellers, and then click on the Estonian flag.) Travlang has pages with basic
phrases for a large number of languages, but no resources for forming one's own sentences,
which is what this page is for. I really can't recommend learning Estonian without hearing it
as well, and hopefully this should help.
Also, some of the individual vocabulary here may be lacking in an explanation; if unsure as
to the meaning of a word, try the On-line English-Estonian-English Dictionary by The
Institue of Baltic Studies.
Besides my experiences in Estonia, I have used a book called Colloquial Estonian to learn
what I know.
The whole course is contained on this one page. In this format it can easily be saved and
printed out in its entirety.
Lastly, even after completion I may make changes and improvements to this page. As well,
since I am not a native speaker there will be a few (or perhaps more) errors to the Estonian
on this page, so if you are one I urge you to mail me and help me out. In this regard, many
thanks to Andrus Varnik and also Madis Remmik for their corrections, ideas and suggestions
which have improved the accuracy of this course dramatically. Many others have
contributed as well, and I have included many of their comments. In most cases I have
integrated them into the course, but at times their comments seem to stand on their own,
in which case I have differentiated them from the rest of the course by converting them to
fixed width fonts, inside a block quote.
"To give you an example of what the comments from others look like
- they appear in this form. This is a fixed width font inside a
block quote."
1. Basics
• About Estonian
• Pronunciation
• Basic Phrases
2. Grammar
• Pronouns
• Numbers
• Verb Conjugation
• Noun Cases
• Adjectives
About Estonian
Estonian, as some know, is a Finno-Ugric tongue with close ties to Finnish, both outside the
better known Indo-European language family. Finnish is the main language on the Finno
side, while Hungarian is the main language on the Ugric side. It may be assumed then that
learning Estonian will give on some knowledge of Hungarian. Unfortunately, this is not true
(but it is with Finnish - more on that in a bit). Apparently Hungarian is similar to Estonian
only in its grammatical structure, such as the usage of noun cases on the ends of words,
and so on. However, the two languages barely sound alike at all. Finnish and Estonian,
however, sound very much alike and one usually has to listen to the words to learn which is
actually being spoken or sung.
Finnish, however, is another story. Many words in Finnish are similar or identical to those in
Estonian. The difference lies in the fact that Finland has had more of a Swedish influence on
its language, while Estonia's influences have been linked more closely to German and
Russian. The Estonian ü is pronounced the same as the Finnish y, and Finnish has no letter
õ. Also, Finnish words tend to be much longer than Estonian ones. Here are a few
examples.
"Word order can alter meaning, too. Mis kurat sa teed? Is closer to
'What the hell are you doing?' whereas Mis sa kurat teed? would be
more like 'What the hell are you doing?' Kurat as a word is
somewhat like the British “bloody.” In usage both carry a stronger
connotation than their literal tanslations. - In the Estonian movie
“City Unplugged” [?], the English subtitles inserted the F-word
everytime kurat was used to add emphasis. Wonder what impression
the non-Estonian speaking audience members took away with them! [In
all honesty, I must admit that the Estonian F-word was used once!]"
Jumalaga. - 'Goodbye.' Nobody says this, in fact; perhaps only members of the clergy. I
have put it here because sometimes a book will state that this is a way to say goodbye in
Estonia, but it really isn't (even though I like it). Literally it means 'with God.' An example of
the Comitative case.
Kohtumiseni- ‘till we meet again’.
Pronouns
Estonian pronouns differ noticeably from those in English. Compared to English, they are
both more, and less specific. As with many other languages, there are two ways of saying
'you' - a formal, and an informal way (more on that below). There are also two forms of
each pronoun - a long, and a short form. The short form is used more frequently, and the
long form is used to emphasize the pronoun. Examples will follow below. Here is the chart of
Estonian pronouns.
Numbers
Estonian numbers are similar to English in how they are formed.
1 - üks
2 - kaks
3 - kolm
4 - neli
5 - viis
6 - kuus
7 - seitse
8 - kaheksa
9 - üheksa
10 - kümme
11 through 19 are formed by adding the suffix -teist to the number (üksteist, kaksteist,
kolmteist, etc.) Numbers 20 and above are formed by adding the suffix -kümmend to the
number. (Note: many Estonians shorten this to just -kend in daily speech. Twenty, for
example, will be kakskümmend, or just kakskend.)
"The -kend is not good practice and should not be encouraged on this
page! It’s like teaching someone to say “twenny”!"
As somebody commented once. So it's apparently not good practice, but I did hear it quite a
bit while in Estonia, so at the least one should understand it.
Some more examples:
51 - viiskümmend üks (viiskend üks)
73 - seitsekümmend kolm (seitsekend kolm)
And so on.
100 - sada
1 000 - tuhat
10 000 - kümme tuhat
100 000 - sada tuhat
1 000 000 - miljon
1 000 000 000 - miljard
So the Estonian numbers present no difficulty. They only require memorization.
Verb Conjugation
Estonian verbs actually have two infinitive forms, the -da and the -ma infinitive. Don't let
this discourage you, for in most cases the da may be interchanged with the ma with no
adverse effects. But not all the time... for now we will only deal with the -ma infinitive, as it
is the form listed in most dictionaries, and the form we can most easily conjugate from.
Estonian verbs are conjugated as French verbs are - meaning there is a clear difference
between whether it is you, I, they, we, etc. initiating the action. Here is how they are
conjugated, using the verb kirjutama (write) as an example.
Pronoun Conjugation English Past tense English
Ma (Mina) kirjutan I write kirjutasin I wrote
Sa (Sina) kirjutad (inf.) You write kirjutasid (inf.) You wrote
Te (Teie) kirjutate You write kirjutasite You wrote
Ta (Tema) kirjutab He/She/It writes kirjutas He/She/It wrote
Me (Meie) kirjutame We write kirjutasime We wrote
Nad (Nemad) kirjutavad They write kirjutasid They wrote
The verb endings are extremely important to learn, as sometimes Estonians will leave out
the pronoun when wishing to be brief, as the ending specifies who is initiating the verb. The
ending -s is used quite frequently in newspapers and books, specifically when quoting
others. For example, 'Me vihkame tööpuudust,' ütles ta. - 'We hate unemployment,' he
said. (or she or it. We must learn from the context.) Here we have vihkame, a form of the
verb vihkama, to hate. ütlema means to say, and in these cases the word order is
reversed (literally, said he).
Negative forms of verbs
It is very easy to refuse something in Estonian. Just say 'Ma ei...' plus the stem of the verb
(ie, the verb minus the ma. See below for the conjugational form). 'Ma ei taha su vastikut
teed.' -'I don't want some of your disgusting tea.' Here taha is the stem of the verb
tahtma, to want. or: 'Ma ei tule, kui sa seal oled.' -'I won't come if you'll be there.' or,
lastly: 'Ma ei aita sind.' -'I won't help you.
Also, negative forms of verbs to not conjugate according to the person doing the action. ma
ei aita, sa ei aita, meie ei aita, etc.
Noun Cases
Noun cases are extremely important in Estonian. In fact, they are so important that there
are fourteen of them (compared to six in Russian, about the same in Latin, I think...). But
do not despair. The noun cases are quite convenient, and often take the place of
prepositions, so in this way they are easier to use and remember. Also, only the second and
third of the fourteen present any difficulty for the prospective student. First I shall illustrate
the cases in a chart, after which I will deal with them separately, and provide examples and
further help. I will illustrate the cases with the example word meri, 'sea.' Here they are.
The partitive form is used in such cases, and generally ends with a t or a d. Once again, all
good dictionaries should include the Partitive form along with the Genitive. It is also
frequently used when talking about a language. For example, 'Ma räägin inglise keelt.'
means 'I speak English'. However, keelt is the partitive form of keel, meaning language.
So even if you were to speak fluent English, you would still say some, because nobody can
learn such things perfectly, and there will always be words we don't know.
This case will take much effort to acquire an easyness with, but rest assured that it is worth
it. It is quite useful.
Here are the partitive forms of the pronouns.
Mina (Ma) - Mind
Sina (Sa) - Sind
Teie (Te) - Teid
Meie (Me) - Meid
Tema (Ta) - Teda
Nemad (Nad) - Neid
Illative (Sisseütlev, from sisse = into)
This case begins those that merely add on to the Genitive, for which we are thankful. The
Inessive has a slight difficulty, however, as there are two ways of stating it. Nevertheless, it
is easier than the other two.
The Illative case states where something is going. 'Ma lähen Eestisse,' means 'I am going
to Estonia,' which is what I did. In many examples the Illative case will add on -sse to the
Genitive stem, but not all the time. Sometimes it will merely lengthen a consonant by one
letter. For example, take the word 'kino,' which means cinema or movie theatre. If I were
to state that I am going to the cinema, I would not say 'Ma lähen kinosse,' but instead
say 'Ma lähen kinno.' In this case it doubles the consonant in the word, just before the
vowel. This is the primary difficulty in dealing with the Illative case. However, there is a
general tendency one can use to know which form to use: generally, with important words
or place names, one will add on -sse to the end. In most cases, where it is possible, one
should merely add a consonant. And in some cases we need not worry, such as the word
linn for city. The genitive form is linna, which already has a double consonant. In this
cases, we need not do anything to change it to the Illative form.
Elative (Seestütlev, from seest = (motion) from within/out of)
The Elative, along with the rest of these cases, are simple and straightforward. The Elative
case adds -st to the Genitive stem, and means 'from' or 'about', when concerning a noun. It
can be used in a non-physical sense as well, such as 'Nende meelest on Eesti väike
maa.' -'They think Estonia is a small country.' They are right. This literally means, 'From
their mind,' or 'From their thoughts...' A different way of expressing such things.
"The names of countries are capitalized but not when talking about
the people or their languages: Eesti (Estonia), Eestimaa (Estonia -
land), eestlased (Estonians), eesti keel (Estonian (language))."
"Note: "Ma läksin mööda teed kuni pangani, aga sind ei olnud seal" (I
walked down the road until I reached the bank, but you weren't there)
sounds better in everyday use."
Or...
Nad võitlesid kella seitsmeni ning jõid siis kokku. -'They fought until seven, and then
drank together.'
Essive (Olev, from olema = to be/exist)
We are on our twelfth case now... The Essive case denotes the function something
performs. It is often translated as 'as', and takes upon the ending -na. It is often used when
referring to careers or occupations, such as 'Ma töötan arstina,' which means 'I work as a
doctor.' Arst means doctor, arsti is the genitive stem. Or, 'Ma tahaksin sind oma
teenijana.' -'I would like you as my servant.'
"Sinu teenijana kuuletun sulle alati" - "As your servant, I shall always obey you".