Verbs
Inflectional endings as listed below are added to the stem of a verb, which is formed from:
- indicative mood active voice singular first person of positive present tense (by dropping -n): indicative mood active voice of present tense, conditional mood active voice of present tense, imperative mood active voice singular second person of present tense,
- -ma infinitive (by dropping -ma; if the stem ends with a consonant, an additional -i- is added in the singular third person of the imperfect or an additional -e- is added in the singular nominative of the participle, the consonant is doubled if it was short and preceding a short vowel; if the stem ends with -e while being two-syllable or if it ends with a long vowel, then the -s- is left out in all numbers and persons, ei is changed to i, a long vowel becomes short and o, ö are changed to õ): indicative mood active voice of positive imperfect, quotative mode active voice of present tense,
- -da infinitive (by dropping -da / -ta / -a; long final l, r become short, in spoken language -nud is shortened to -nd): indicative mood active voice of negative imperfect, indicative mood active voice of pluperfect, imperative mood active voice of present tense except singular second person, active voice of perfect,
- participle of passive voice perfect (by dropping -tud): passive voice.
-ma infinitive and -da infinitive are not predictable and have to be taken from the vocabulary. Present tense form and -tud participle are derived from the infinitives on the basis of gradation.
-ma infinitive is used after verbs of motion and after participles. It can be declined: -ma (illative), -mas (inessive), -mast (elative), -maks (translative), -mata (abessive).
-da infinitive is used after verbs of emotion, after impersonal expressions, after et (in order to) and as a subject. It can be declined: -des (inessive).
Verb derivation: -ta- (transitive/passive), -u- / -i- (reflexive), -el- / -le- (reciprocal), -ne- (translative), -ata- (momentane), -el- / -skle- (frequentative), -tse- (continuous).
Emphasis: verb + -gi (after a final voiced consonant or vowel) / -ki (after a final voiceless consonant), verb + küll (positive), verb + mitte (negative).
| Conjugation of verbs | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tense | |||||||||||
| Present | Imperfect | Perfect | Pluperfect | ||||||||
| Mood | Voice | Number | Person | Positive | Negative | Positive | Negative | Positive | Negative | Positive | Negative |
| Indicative | |||||||||||
| Active | |||||||||||
| Singular | First | -n | ei - | -sin | ei -nud | olen -nud | ei ole -nud | olin -nud | ei olnud -nud | ||
| Second | -d | -sid | oled -nud | olid -nud | |||||||
| Third | -b | -s | on -nud | oli -nud | |||||||
| Plural | First | -me | -sime | oleme -nud | olime -nud | ||||||
| Second | -te | -site | olete -nud | olite -nud | |||||||
| Third | -vad | -sid | on -nud | olid -nud | |||||||
| Passive | / | -takse | ei -ta | -ti | ei -tud | on -tud | ei ole -tud | oli -tud | ei olnud -tud | ||
| Conditional | |||||||||||
| Active | |||||||||||
| Singular | First | -ksin | ei -ks | / | oleksin -nud | ei oleks -nud | / | ||||
| Second | -ksid | oleksid -nud | |||||||||
| Third | -ks | oleks -nud | |||||||||
| Plural | First | -ksime | oleksime -nud | ||||||||
| Second | -ksite | oleksite -nud | |||||||||
| Third | -ksid | oleksid -nud | |||||||||
| Passive | / | -taks | ei -taks | oleks -tud | ei oleks -tud | ||||||
| Imperative | |||||||||||
| Active | |||||||||||
| Singular | First | / | / | / | / | ||||||
| Second | - | ära - | |||||||||
| Third | -gu | ärgu -gu | olgu -nud | ärgu olgu -nud | |||||||
| Plural | First | -gem | ärgem -gem | / | |||||||
| Second | -ge | ärge -ge | |||||||||
| Third | -gu | ärgu -gu | olgu -nud | ärgu olgu -nud | |||||||
| Passive | / | -tagu | ärgu -tagu | olgu -tud | ärgu olgu -tud | ||||||
| Quotative | |||||||||||
| Active | |||||||||||
| Singular | First | -vat | ei -vat | / | olevat -nud | ei olevat -nud | / | ||||
| Second | |||||||||||
| Third | |||||||||||
| Plural | First | ||||||||||
| Second | |||||||||||
| Third | |||||||||||
| Passive | / | -tavat | ei -tavat | olevat -tud | ei olevat -tud | ||||||
Read more about this topic: Estonian Grammar
Famous quotes containing the word verbs:
“He crafted his writing and loved listening to those tiny explosions when the active brutality of verbs in revolution raced into sweet established nouns to send marching across the page a newly commissioned army of words-on-maneuvers, all decorated in loops, frets, and arrowlike flourishes.”
—Alexander Theroux (b. 1940)