Estonian/Everything and Nothing
In this lesson we'll go over some important determiners in Estonian.
What are Determiners?
[edit | edit source]Determiners are a class of words that span over several types of words, such as pronouns and adjectives, which are used to specify nouns. These primarily act like adjectives in general, and include words like my, this, every, no, each, as well as question determiners that can be used to begin interrogative sentences and specify nouns in declarative sentences, such as what, which and who.
Common determiners in Estonian
[edit | edit source]| Estonian | English | Corresponding Question |
Question in English | Declension? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| iga | each/every | ~ mitmes? | which one? (ordinal num.) | iga - iga - iga(t) |
| mõni | some | missugune? | which one? (ordinal num.) | mõni - mõne - mõnda |
| paar | a couple (of) | mitu? | how many? (cardinal num.) | paar - paari - .paari |
| see | this | missugune? | which one? (adjective) | see - selle - seda |
| selline | like this | missugune? | what kind? (adjective) like what? |
selline - sellise - sellist |
| kumb | which | missugune? | which one? | kumb - kumma - .kumba |
| mingi mingisugune |
some, some kind of (mingi can refer to both nouns or adjectives) |
missugune? | which one? what kind? |
mingi - mingi - mingi(t) mingisugune - mingisuguse - mingisugust |
- milline - informal short form of missugune
Non-Determiner Vocabulary
[edit | edit source]The following words are included in this lesson, but are not Determiners because they are standalone words. However, some may be composed of determiners.
| Estonian | English |
|---|---|
| midagi miski |
something (nothing) |
| keegi | someone |
| mitte | not |
| mitte midagi eimiski |
nothing |
| mitte keegi eikeegi |
nobody |
| (mitte) kumbki | neither (subject) |
| (mitte) kumbagi | neither (object) |
- kõik - kõige - .kõike - all, everything, everyone
- inimene - inimese - inimest - person, human
- elu - elu - elu - life
- kiri - kirja - .kirja - letter
Verbs (shorthand)
[edit | edit source]- nägema - näe - ei näe - to see
Enumeration of nouns
[edit | edit source]Nominative Nouns preceded by an ordinal determiner (1st, 2nd, 3rd, first, last, every etc.) are written in the Nominative. The determiner (e.g. number) will decline along with the noun in all other cases.
The Accusative case (III) marks the partitive in Estonian, and the partitive is used when talking about several (plural) of something (preceded by a cardinal determiner). In this case, the Nominative becomes the Accusative, but all other cases remain the same:
- paar + kass = kolm .kassi (kass becomes Accusative)
- paari + kassi = kolme kassi
- .paari + .kassi = .kolme .kassi
Phrases
[edit | edit source]|
Iga inimene teab midagi Translation
Every person knows something Siin on paar õuna Translation
Here are a couple of apples Mõni kass oskab seda Translation
Some cats know how to do this Selline on elu Translation
That's life Mitte keegi ei tea seda Translation
Nobody knows this Ma ei taha kumbagi Translation
I don't want either one Ma kuulen mõnda inimest Translation
I hear some people Kumba sa tahad? Translation
Which one do you want? Kas see peab selline olema? Translation
Does it have to be like that? Ma ei näe kumbagi kirja Translation
I see neither letter Kõik on siin Translation
Everything is here |