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Eesti Keel Estonian
Family	Sub-family	Language of	Script
Finno-Ugric	Baltic-Finnic	Estonia European Union	Extended Latin

Estonian employs what is known as a case system. Cases can be a very daunting thing to learn, especially when you find out that Estonian has fourteen noun cases. However, commonly cases are further complicated by gender, number and definiteness. However, in Estonian, it is simplified by a lack of gender and definiteness, and the fact that the majority of the cases are built off the genitive case.

Contents 1 Comparison 2 Inessive Case 2.1 Objects 2.2 Languages 3 Elative Case 3.1 About 4 Adessive Case 4.1 Possession ("to have") 4.2 Locative 4.3 "to like" 5 Abessive Case 6 Comitative Case 6.1 Prepositions

Comparison

The following table shows 5 common nouns in all 14 productiveCommonly used cases.

English	friend	person	dog	car	house
Grammatical Cases
NOM	sõber	inimene	koer	auto	tüdruk
PART	sõpra	inimene1	koeri	autot	tüdrukut
GEN	sõbra	inimese	koera	auto	tüdruku
Locative Cases
ILL	sõbrasse1	inimesse1	koerasse1	autosse1	tüdrukusse1
INE	sõbras	inimeses	koeras	autos	tüdrukus
ELA	sõbrast	inimesest	koerast	autost	tüdrukust
INE	sõbras	inimeses	koeras	autos	tüdrukus
ALL	sõbrale	inimesele	koerale	autole	tüdrukule
ADE	sõbral	inimesel	koeral	autol	tüdrukul
ABL	sõbralt	inimeselt	koeralt	autolt	tüdrukult
Other Cases
TRA	sõbraks	inimeseks	koeraks	autoks	tüdrukuks
TER	sõbrani	inimeseni	koerani	autoni	tüdrukuni
ESS	sõbrana	inimesena	koerana	autona	tüdrukuna
ABE	sõbrata	inimeseta	koerata	autota	tüdrukuta
COM	sõbraga	inimesega	koeraga	autoga	tüdrukuga

• Note: The majority of these words are hypothetical just to point out the usage of the case endings and may not actually be used.
• 1: Needs to be confirmed

Inessive Case

The Inessive case describes "in" something. The suffix for this in Estonian is -s which is attached to the end of the genitive noun.

sõber (friend.NOM) > sõbra (friend.GEN) > sõbras (friend.INE)

Objects

This needs to be checked
Examples:

Ma loeksin seda raamatus. I read it in a book

• This example expresses something that uses the preposition "in" in English.

Examples:

Ma olen koos emaga kodus. I am at home with Mum
Ma õpin inglise keelt koolis. I learn English at school.

• In this example, we translate as "at" even though it uses the Inessive case. This is because in the action you are inside your house, not on it or the likes.
• "At" school - like the example above - is considered to be "in" one location.

Examples:

Ma elan eestis. I live in Estonia

• The Inessive can be used for places too - like where one lives. Please note that if the place name ends in -maaIsland.NOM you need to use the Adessive case.

Languages

Examples:

Ma tahan rääkida sinuga soome keeles. I want to talk with you in Finnish

Elative Case

The Elative Case in Estonian generally tends to be used with constructs meaning "from" or "about". In Estonian we attach the suffix -st to the genitive stem of the noun.

sõber (friend.NOM) > sõbra (friend.GEN) > sõbrast (friend.ELA)

About

• The Elative can be used like below to mark when something is "about" something.

Examples:

Ma rääkisin emaga filmist. I spoke with my mum about the movie.

Adessive Case

The Adessive case in Estonian has multiple meanings. It is formed by adding the suffix -l to the end of a genitive noun.

sõber (friend.NOM) > sõbra (friend.GEN) > sõbral (friend.ADE)

Possession ("to have")

Examples:

mul on koer. I have a dog
Naisel ei ole autot. The woman does not have a car.

• The verb "to have" is expressed using: possessor.ADE on
• It literally means "at me is ..."

Locative

As a locative marker, the Adessive case means "at" or "on" or "in" for open areas.
Examples:

Raamat on laual. The book is on the table.
Kas sa elad uus-meremaal? Do you live in New Zealand?

• The first example using "on" shows that the book is physically on top of the table.
• When talking about where you live when it is an island, the adessive case is used as above. This is because Islands are considered open areas.

"to like"

The Adessive case is also used in conjunction with the verb meeldimato be liked (meeldi-).
Examples:

Mul meeldib sõnaraamatuit. I like dictionaries.

• This literally means something along the lines of "Dictionaries are liked by me". The conjugation of meeldima depends on the object of the phrase.
• The object must be in PART

Abessive Case

The Abessive case in Estonian expresses "without" something or someone or without doing something.

In Estonian, they attach the suffix -ta to the end of the genitive noun.

sõber (friend.NOM) > sõbra (friend.GEN) > sõbrata (friend.ABE)

Please note the usages:

• With a noun:

Examples:

Ma olen ilma emata kodus. I am at home without my mother.
Ma lähen turul ilma sõbrata. I am going to the market without a friend.

• First thing to note is you use the -ta suffix
• Second thing is you must preceed the noun by the preposition ilma

• With a verb:

Examples:

Ma pean tõlkima seda lugemata sõnaraamatutsõnaraamat.PART. I have to translate it without reading a dictionary.
Ma läksin kooli sulgemata ustuks.PART. I went to school without closing the door.

• The -ta is attached to the end of the -ma infinitive
• The preposition ilma can not be used here
• The noun used with the abessive verb must be in paritive case.

Comitative Case

The Comitative case expresses "with" someone or something or shows a "means" of doing something.

In Estonian they attach the suffix -ga to the end of the genitive noun.

sõber (friend.NOM) > sõbra (friend.GEN) > sõbraga (friend.COM)

It has several meanings in English.

Examples:

Hea meelega vestlen teiega eesti keeles! I will happily (with pleasure) talk with you in Estonian!

(Literally: with a good mind I talk with you in Estonian

Prepositions

There is two main prepositions you also use with the Comitative case when talking about going together with a person. They are kaasa(s) and koos. They mean practically the same thing, but slightly different way to use.

Examples:

Ma läksin koos¹ sõbraga Tartusse rongiga. I went by² train to Tartu with³ my friend.

• 1: Koos always precedes the thing it is describing.
• 2: This usage is the by means off rather than with.
• 3: This with is shown with koos and the -ga ending together.

Examples:

Ma lähen emaga kaasa turule. --OR-- Ma lähen koos emaga turule.
I am going to the market with my mum.

• koos goes before the object (emaga in this case)
• kaasa goes after the object (also emaga here)

Examples:

Ma olen koos emaga kodus. I am at home with my mum.
Ma olen koos sõbraga koolis. I am at school with my friend.

• koos can be used for locative places as opposed to motion.
• kaasa can not.

Instead you would say
Examples:

Ma olen emaga kaasas kodus. I am at home with my mum.
Ma olen sõbraga kaasas koolis. I am at school with my friend.

• The above uses the Inessive case of kaasa which is kaasas to mark a location rather than a direction.

Similarly in these examples:
Examples:

Ma olen sõbraga kaasas linnas. I am with my friend in town
Ma olen sõbraga kaasas saarel. I am with my friend on an island.

• You still use kaasas in Inessive case even though saarel in the latter example is in Adessive case.

Estonian pages
Introduction · Adpositions · Cases · Conjunctions · Lexicon · Numbers · Modal Verbs · Pronouns · Verbs · Vocabulary

Finno-Ugric Languages
Baltic-Finnic	Estonian · Finnish · Ingrian · Karelian · Livonian · Veps · Votic · Võro
Permic	Komi · Udmurt
Ugric	Hungarian · Khanty · Mansi
N/A	Erzya · Mari · Moksha