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

Verb lookup: the endings in full, and the shapes that surprise

Optional lookup · ≈ 4 min

What you'll learn

Open this when an ending blocks you; the two stories at the end need none of it.
One verb aside — olema, whose is-form is on — every Estonian verb takes the same six present endings, and there are no verb families.
A dozen everyday verbs, each with its story past.
The two dictionary shapes a verb has, and why a book shows you both.

The endings, present and past

Who	Now	Then	Denied, now	Denied, then
I	tulen	tulin	ei tule	ei tulnud
you	tuled	tulid	ei tule	ei tulnud
he, she	tuleb	tuli	ei tule	ei tulnud
we	tuleme	tulime	ei tule	ei tulnud
you all	tulete	tulite	ei tule	ei tulnud
they	tulevad	tulid	ei tule	ei tulnud

The two denied columns are the point of this table: one form each, for everybody. Estonian pays for that simplicity elsewhere — in the nouns.

Everyday verbs, and their story past

English	Dictionary form	Now	Then
to want	tahtmaTAHHT-mah	tahabTAH-hahb	tahtisTAHH-tis
to eat	söömaSURR-mah	sööbsurrb	sõisuhy
to drink	joomaYOHH-mah	joobyohhb	jõiyuhy
to sleep	magamaMAH-gah-mah	magabMAH-gahb	magasMAH-gahs
to run	jooksmaYOHHKS-mah	jooksebYOHHK-seb	jooksisYOHHK-sis
to sit	istumaIS-too-mah	istubIS-toob	istusIS-toos
to look	vaatamaVAAH-tah-mah	vaatabVAAH-tahb	vaatasVAAH-tahs
to hear	kuulmaKOOHL-mah	kuulebKOOH-leb	kuulisKOOH-lis
to find	leidmaLEHYD-mah	leiabLEHY-ahb	leidisLEHY-dis
to get, to be able	saamaSAAH-mah	saabsaahb	saisahy
to give	andmaAHND-mah	annabAHN-nahb	andisAHN-dis
to live	elamaEH-lah-mah	elabEH-lahb	elasEH-lahs

Several of them change the middle of the word between columns. When a consonant shifts — andma against annab — it is called gradation, and it runs through the nouns as well; sööb against sõi is one vowel swapped for another. No reader needs to predict either: the front of the word stays recognisable, which is all reading asks.

The second dictionary shape

tulemaTOO-leh-mah

tullaTOOL-lah

both mean “to come”; the second is the shape that follows another verb — ma tahan tullamah TAH-hahn TOOL-lah“I want to come”

minemaMI-neh-mah

minnaMIN-nah

ta tahab minnatah TAH-hahb MIN-nah“he wants to go”

söömaSURR-mah

süüaSEWW-ah

this pair looks like two different words and is not

Telling somebody to do it

Estonian	What it is
Tule!TOO-leh	come! — the same short form that follows ei
Vaata!VAAH-tah	look!
Ära tule!A-rah TOO-leh	do not come! — orders deny with ära, not with ei

An order and a denied verb wear the same short shape, which is one shape fewer to learn.