Lessons for English speakers
Learn to read Estonian
A short, active path into reading Estonian: four new vowel letters and nine real words decoded before anything is explained, endings where English has little words, the verb that never changes after ei, and two short stories before your first book.
13 core sections · ≈ 33 min + 3 optional lookups · ≈ 46 min with everything
16
Into your first book
≈ 1 min
What you'll learn
- Start with the Green Hill fables, which use deliberately limited language.
- Read the Estonian line before looking across at the English.
- One habit matters more than everything else: keep going.
- After Green Hill, move to Winnie-the-Pooh, then Doctor Dolittle.
Three things skipped on purpose
| What you will meet | What to do with it |
|---|---|
| sõbragaSUHB-rah-gah, metsaniMET-sah-ni, rebaseksREH-bah-seks | More endings from the same family: with, as far as, into being. Read the front of the word, take the meaning from the sentence, and move on. |
| raamatukoguRAAH-mah-too-koh-goo | A long word is nearly always short words glued together — here book and collection, so a library. Split it at the seam and read each half. |
| on läinudohn LAY-nood, oli läinud | Two words where the stories used one: has gone, had gone. The second word ends in -nud, the shape you already met after ei. |