Estonian cases
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Lesson outline
HideCases in Estonian
All nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numbers in Estonian have 14 different case forms, in both the singular and plural. However, beginners shouldn't feel intimidated by this fact. There are only a few basic case forms, upon which the rest of the case sysem is based. You will see, that the case system is regular. The endings are constant and are added to the word stems without change, so it is easy to distinguish between the stem and the ending.
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1. Nominative case
The first and the easiest case is called the nominative. It answers the questions 'who?', 'what?' or 'what kind?'.
| English | Estonian |
|---|---|
| What is this? | Mis see on? |
| This is a table. | See on laud. |
2. Genitive case
The second case is called the genitive. It is mainly used to show possession or ownership of something.
| English | Estonian |
|---|---|
| Whose book? | Kelle raamat? |
| Father's book. | Isa raamat. |
3. Partitive case
The partitive case answers the questions 'whom?' and 'what?'. In it's basic meaning, it indicates an indeterminate whole, of which only a part is under consideration.
| English | Estonian |
|---|---|
| The boy is eating (some) bread. | Poiss sööb leiba. |
| It is snowing (some snow is falling). | Lund sajab. |
4. Inner locative cases
There are three inner locative cases in Estonian, all of which indicate location with reference to the interior of something.
- movement into something (where to? whither?)
- location inside something (where?)
- movement out of something (where from? whence?)
| Case | English | Estonian |
|---|---|---|
| Illative | I am going home. | Ma lähen koju. |
| Inessive | I am home. | Ma olen kodus. |
| Elative | I am coming from home. | Ma tulen kodust. |
5. Outer locative cases
Estonian has also three outer locative cases, which like the inner locative cases, indicate location or movement. However, they do it in relation to the surface or the environment of something.
| Case | English | Estonian |
|---|---|---|
| Allative | Put the glass on the table. | Pane klaas lauale. |
| Adessive | The glass is on the table. | Klaas on laual. |
| Ablative | I took the glass from the table. | Ma võtsin klaasi laualt. |
6. Translative case
The translative case indicates what someone or something is turning into.
| English | Estonian |
|---|---|
| I want to become a doctor. | Ma tahan saada arstiks. |
| The child has grown up (big). | Laps on kasvanud suureks. |
7. Terminative case
The terminative case is used for showing the time or place which ends (or limits) the action.
| English | Estonian |
|---|---|
| It's 2 weeks until Christmas. | Jõuludeni on 2 nädalat. |
| From here it's 5 km to my home. | Siit on mu koduni 5 km. |
8. Essive case
The essive case indicates in what capacity or form something/someone performs an action.
| English | Estonian |
|---|---|
| I work as a teacher. | Ma töötan õpetajana. |
| She was really pretty as a child. | Ta oli lapsena väga ilus. |
9. Abessive and comitative case
The comitative case corresponds to the English preposition 'with' and the abessive case, on the opposite, corresponds to 'without'.
| Case | English | Estonian |
|---|---|---|
| Comitative | I am going there with my friend. | Ma lähen sinna oma sõbraga. |
| Abessive | It's impossible to live without air. | Ilma õhuta ei saa elada. |
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My name is Diana. I am a TESOL-certified English and Estonian online teacher with more than 5 years of professional and over 20 years of international voluntary teaching experience. During these years I taught professionally more than 3000 different students by helping them to achieve their goals and dreams. My students were from different age groups, levels and backgrounds.
In my classes, you will feel at ease, have a friendly atmosphere and look forward to your next lessons. My aim is to make classes effective and my goal is to help you to :
* Advance your communication skills
* Boost your communication efficiency by improving your accent and speaking clarity
* Achieve your desired language proficiency fast by using my effective and easy methods.
I tailor my teaching material according to your level and needs. As I strongly believe that no two students are alike and one teaching method that fits all is unfair and ineffective.
Looking forward to meeting you soon and emerging on a learning journey with you.
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My name is Diana. I am a TESOL-certified English and Estonian online teacher with more than 5 years of professional and over 20 years of international voluntary teaching experience. During these years I taught professionally more than 3000 different students by helping them to achieve their goals and dreams. My students were from different age groups, levels and backgrounds.
In my classes, you will feel at ease, have a friendly atmosphere and look forward to your next lessons. My aim is to make classes effective and my goal is to help you to :
* Advance your communication skills
* Boost your communication efficiency by improving your accent and speaking clarity
* Achieve your desired language proficiency fast by using my effective and easy methods.
I tailor my teaching material according to your level and needs. As I strongly believe that no two students are alike and one teaching method that fits all is unfair and ineffective.
Looking forward to meeting you soon and emerging on a learning journey with you.
K. T.
It is so hard to find a good Estonian language teacher, especially a Russian speaker. And another important thing, that Diana motivates so much.
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Tere! I am a language teacher with more than ten years of experience. I have worked as a lecturer of Estonian language and culture at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv in Ukraine, at the Tallinn University in Estonia and in numerous language schools. Currently, I am a freelance linguist based in Berlin and teach Estonian online.
It is important for me to introduce a language as a simple logical system that is easy to understand and use. As a teacher, I structure my classes and deliver knowledge in a clear and engaging way, combining theory with practice. Besides my endeavours to make my classes useful, I aspire to make them entertaining and fun, so that my students have a great time in the lesson. By teaching students from a wide range of learning techniques, I always try to provide a personal approach to each student and adapt to their needs, so that they are able to continuously improve their grammar and vocabulary.
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Tere! I am a language teacher with more than ten years of experience. I have worked as a lecturer of Estonian language and culture at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv in Ukraine, at the Tallinn University in Estonia and in numerous language schools. Currently, I am a freelance linguist based in Berlin and teach Estonian online.
It is important for me to introduce a language as a simple logical system that is easy to understand and use. As a teacher, I structure my classes and deliver knowledge in a clear and engaging way, combining theory with practice. Besides my endeavours to make my classes useful, I aspire to make them entertaining and fun, so that my students have a great time in the lesson. By teaching students from a wide range of learning techniques, I always try to provide a personal approach to each student and adapt to their needs, so that they are able to continuously improve their grammar and vocabulary.
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I have now completed 20 lessons with Riina. I can confidently say her classes grow with you. While it is clear that she has a progression of vocabulary and grammar concepts, each lesson is still individualized to fit your interests and questions. Starting as a complete beginner with no knowledge of Estonian meant that at first, everything was new and very challenging. However, Riina presented in a way that was easy to understand. As I have gained more understanding, the lessons have added more vocabulary and grammar concepts in a way that makes sense. There is always time for questions at the beginning of each lesson in case I think of any between lessons. Additionally, there has also been more Estonian spoken each lesson, based on my progress. I recommend Riina to anyone looking for an Estonian teacher, and I am looking forward to continuing lessons with her.
Riina R.
My name is Diana. I am a TESOL-certified English and Estonian online teacher with more than 5 years of professional and over 20 years of international voluntary teaching experience. During these years I taught professionally more than 3000 different students by helping them to achieve their goals and dreams. My students were from different age groups, levels and backgrounds.
In my classes, you will feel at ease, have a friendly atmosphere and look forward to your next lessons. My aim is to make classes effective and my goal is to help you to :
* Advance your communication skills
* Boost your communication efficiency by improving your accent and speaking clarity
* Achieve your desired language proficiency fast by using my effective and easy methods.
I tailor my teaching material according to your level and needs. As I strongly believe that no two students are alike and one teaching method that fits all is unfair and ineffective.
Looking forward to meeting you soon and emerging on a learning journey with you.
G. P.
Diana is a great Estonian teacher - patient, careful, and efficient. In addition to teaching competently, she encourages the student to enjoy the learning journey. I can't wait to take more classes. Suur aitäh!
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Hello guys! I've been teaching English for three years now, it all all started when I moved to Italy to be with my loving partner and become a father. I can teach any level form beginner to advanced, with your language goal in mind. I prefer to personalize lessons to individual students and my strengths are exam preparation and conversational English for those wishing to speak like a native.
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My name is Diana. I am a TESOL-certified English and Estonian online teacher with more than 5 years of professional and over 20 years of international voluntary teaching experience. During these years I taught professionally more than 3000 different students by helping them to achieve their goals and dreams. My students were from different age groups, levels and backgrounds.
In my classes, you will feel at ease, have a friendly atmosphere and look forward to your next lessons. My aim is to make classes effective and my goal is to help you to :
* Advance your communication skills
* Boost your communication efficiency by improving your accent and speaking clarity
* Achieve your desired language proficiency fast by using my effective and easy methods.
I tailor my teaching material according to your level and needs. As I strongly believe that no two students are alike and one teaching method that fits all is unfair and ineffective.
Looking forward to meeting you soon and emerging on a learning journey with you.
E. .
A wonderful teacher- patient, knowledgeable and so pleasant in communication! Was very flexible with scheduling a class at the last moment to accommodate me. Five stars all the way!
It was a pleasure to meet Elena!❤️ She did so well pronouncing Estonian. The text was very complex but she handled it beautifully. All the best with your future endeavours!
Tere! I am a language teacher with more than ten years of experience. I have worked as a lecturer of Estonian language and culture at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv in Ukraine, at the Tallinn University in Estonia and in numerous language schools. Currently, I am a freelance linguist based in Berlin and teach Estonian online.
It is important for me to introduce a language as a simple logical system that is easy to understand and use. As a teacher, I structure my classes and deliver knowledge in a clear and engaging way, combining theory with practice. Besides my endeavours to make my classes useful, I aspire to make them entertaining and fun, so that my students have a great time in the lesson. By teaching students from a wide range of learning techniques, I always try to provide a personal approach to each student and adapt to their needs, so that they are able to continuously improve their grammar and vocabulary.
A. S.
Riina was kind enough to reschedule my trial lesson. She is a very well-spoken teacher. I would definitely recommend her and I look forward to more Estonian lessons.
Riina R.
Tere! I am a language teacher with more than ten years of experience. I have worked as a lecturer of Estonian language and culture at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv in Ukraine, at the Tallinn University in Estonia and in numerous language schools. Currently, I am a freelance linguist based in Berlin and teach Estonian online.
It is important for me to introduce a language as a simple logical system that is easy to understand and use. As a teacher, I structure my classes and deliver knowledge in a clear and engaging way, combining theory with practice. Besides my endeavours to make my classes useful, I aspire to make them entertaining and fun, so that my students have a great time in the lesson. By teaching students from a wide range of learning techniques, I always try to provide a personal approach to each student and adapt to their needs, so that they are able to continuously improve their grammar and vocabulary.
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Riina R.
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