Estonian/Partitive

Osastav kääne

As we'll try to cover the first three cases as heavily as possible before moving on, in this lesson we'll talk about accusing partitive and total direct objects. The English language uses "of" to mark part of a noun, for instance it can be used to form the direct object "part of a noun", used with the verb "mark" earlier in this sentence.

The Estonian Accusative case is actually partitive in some verbs. In other verbs the partitive makes no sense, but the Accusative remains the only option despite talking about the whole of something:

• Ma tean seda - I know this/that

With some verbs, the Genitive is used to mark the total or final of a direct object.

This clearly does not happen with teadma:

• Ma tean selle - this is incorrect

The partitive can talk about part of a direct object (such as uncountable nouns like water) or that of an unfinished action.

Verbs

Here are the verbs we'll be using in this lesson:

English	-ma Infinitive	mina	sina	tema	meie	teie	nemad
to want	tahtma	tahan	tahad	tahab	tahame	tahate	tahavad
to take	võtma	võtan	võtad	võtab	võtame	võtate	võtavad
to paint	värvima	värvin	värvid	värvib	värvime	värvite	värvivad

Keep in mind that when using the Genitive case, the question determiner for the noun will always be mille? or kelle? (persons).

Vocabulary

• sein - seina - .seina (n) - wall
• vesi - vee - vett (n) - water
• ära (adv) - perfective situation marker
• ära (positional) - away. This sometimes substitutes the adverbial "ära" entirely
• .kaasa (adv) - along with (implied Comitative (with-saying, XIV) noun)

Examples

Sa tahad seda Translation You want that (that one) Ma värvin .seina Translation I'm painting the wall Ma värvisin seina ära Translation I painted the wall (entirely) Ma võtan vett Translation I'm taking some water Ta võtab lapse kaasa Translation He/She takes the child along Me tahame maja Translation We want a house Ma värvisin seda Translation I was painting this Note: here the finished action would require "ära" with the Genitive Ta võtab vee ära Translation He/She takes the water away He/She cuts off the water supply Ta võtab selle Translation He/She takes this one