The verbs a story runs on, and how to say no or ask

A verb is the word for an action or a state. Estonian puts the person on the end of it, and denying one takes ei plus a single short form that serves everybody.

≈ 4 min of reading · Practise at your own pace

What’s in this chapter

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

A verb is the word for an action or a state: come, go, be. Estonian puts the person on the end of it.

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

These eight carry both stories. The middle column is how a dictionary lists each one, and the last is the he or she form a sentence uses.

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.

Say it, then say “not”

Compare each pair. The word for not goes in front, and the verb falls back to one plain form that never changes.

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

Work out who is doing it

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?”

Come back to these chapters whenever you need them.All Estonian chapters ↗