So today we will have the first Grammar video of LearningEstonian.com
You know, in English, things are so easy. When you are using words like “chocolate”, “book”, “cat” etc, it is always the same thing. The nouns do not change in the sentence according to the role they play because we use prepositions.
So when I say coffee with sugar, it is “coffee” and “sugar”. And the “with” is the part that gives the meaning to the sentence, indicating that sugar goes on the coffee.
But in Estonian, we would have “kohv” for coffee and “suhkur” for sugar. But we do not have a preposition similar to “with” that would go between the words. We say “kohv suhkruga”, which would be more or less like “sugaRED coffee”.
If you have seen the previous videos on our YouTube channel or on LearningEstonian.com you may have noticed how I often talk about the suffix and that is quite complicated, but we will manage.
Another example. Teater is theatre. But “teatris” means “in the theatre”
To make things just a little more complex (and fun/challenging), Estonian also has postpositions that are written as separate words, such as “teatri juures” meaning near the theatre.
SO. HOW TO ADD THE CASE ENDINGS?
They are added not on the first form of the dictionary. We do not say kohv suhkurGA. We say kohv sukruGA. This “second form” is the genitive and according to our reference book, it always ends with i, e, a or u. So when I’m thinking of “suhkur”, it is clearly not the format to add the case ending. It should end with eiter i, e, a or u.
Suhkur and sukru are more or less similar. But it can change A LOT. Do not be fooled!
Example: turg is market, and it is in the first form. But when it is “near the market” or “at the market”, we have to know the second form, which is “turu”.
So “near the market” becomes turu juures.
And “at the market” is turul.
This is why when we build our vocabulary in Estonian we have to know both the first and second forms. Do not freak out, we will do it slowly.
So far the words we have added on the vocabulary at LearningEstonian.com are only on the first form to keep it simple. From now on, we will follow our reference book and also add the second form, because only now with this explanation we can understand their function and purpose.
The way you will see in most books is not the fully written version. For example, tourist, which is turist. You do not see on the dictionary turist / turisti. That would take too much space. So people write turist / -i. This indicates that you should add a -i at the end. Turist becomes turisti.
Only when the word is very different on the first and second form that we write them. This is the case of trepp and trepi.
There is a little more of grammar. Let’s just pause here and I will do another video just afterwards.