Datasheet

Subjunctive

This section does not apply to Estonian.

Symbols & Non-Breaking Spaces

This section does not apply to Estonian.

Syntax

In Estonian, verbal phrases are more common and more natural than nominal phrases. So where possible, try to

use verbal phrases instead of nominal ones

1. Preparing to install: Installimiseks valmistumine

BETTER: Valmistub installimiseks

2. Continue dialing: Valimise jätkamine

BETTER: Jätkab valimist

Please see „Eesti keele käsiraamat‖ for detailed information.

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.