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

Verbs and stories

3 sections

The verbs a story runs on, and how to deny and ask

≈ 3 min

What you'll learn

A dictionary lists the doing word with -ma; a sentence swaps that for an ending that says who.
-n is I, -d is you, -b is he or she, -vad is they.
Denying takes ei plus one short form of the verb that never changes for anybody.
A yes-or-no question opens with kas and changes nothing else.

One verb, six people

Who	Estonian	Who	Estonian
I come	ma tulenmah TOO-len	we come	me tulememeh TOO-leh-meh
you come	sa tuledsah TOO-led	you all come	te tuleteteh TOO-leh-teh
he comes	ta tulebtah TOO-leb	they come	nad tulevadnahd TOO-leh-vahd

The dictionary form is tulemaTOO-leh-mah“to come”; every row is that word with -ma swapped out. Read the end of the word and you know who — and every verb takes these six endings, bar one: olema has on for he and for they.

Eight verbs the stories run on

English	Dictionary form	He or she does it
to be	olemaOH-leh-mah	onohn
to come	tulemaTOO-leh-mah	tulebTOO-leb
to go	minemaMI-neh-mah	lähebLA-heb
to see	nägemaNA-geh-mah	näebNA-eb
to say	ütlemaEWT-leh-mah	ütlebEWT-leb
to know	teadmaTEH-ahd-mah	teabTEH-ahb
to ask	küsimaKEW-si-mah	küsibKEW-sib
to answer	vastamaVAHS-tah-mah	vastabVAHS-tahb

minema is the one that changes shape — lähen läheb lähevad — so learn läheb as its own word.

I do not know. He is not coming.

Ma ei tea. Ta ei tule.

mah ehy TEH-ah. tah ehy TOO-leh

eiehy goes in front and the verb drops back to one short form — tea, tule — the same for I, you, he and they alike. No helper word, and no ending to choose.

Saying it, then denying it

ma tulenmah TOO-len“I come”

ma ei tulemah ehy TOO-leh

the ending falls off

ta näebtah NA-eb“he sees”

ta ei näetah ehy NA-eh

ta ontah ohn“he is”

ta ei oletah ehy OH-leh

often shortened to polePOH-leh

Who is doing it, and are they?

Nad lähevad metsa.
The verb ending says who.
Show answer +Hide answer −
Nad lähevad metsa.nahd LA-heh-vahd MET-sah“They are going into the forest”
Ma ei näe.
A stripped-down verb.
Show answer +Hide answer −
Ma ei näe.mah ehy NA-eh“I do not see”
Kas sa tead?
Show answer +Hide answer −
Kas sa tead?kahs sah TEH-ahd“Do you know?”