In this lesson we'll learn about the Indicative mood of verbs and the Accusative (ACC) case.

Accusative case

Without the Accusative case, we can't form transitive verbs that allow nouns to affect other nouns. The Estonian Nominative case marks the subject and the Accusative case marks the direct object. Here are some examples of declension:

The last two provide an example of the Estonian Long and Overlong "quantities" or "stress". The syllables that are Overlong are marked with a dot. In Estonian, the stress in a word is usually on the first syllable. The stress on Overlong words is required (but not always incomprehensible to the listener), and the overlong syllable can be stretched 'forever' while Long syllables cannot.

.kassi can be stretched easily from the ss without becoming incomprehensible. .koera can be stretched from the e, or the oe diphtong, although the latter might be more difficult for the listener (and the speaker). Not all Accusative cases infer the Overlong quantity, and this makes Estonian cases for each word more difficult to remember. The last 3 words in the table are the singular pronouns - two of these are Overlong but have only one syllable.

First Estonian verbs

Example Phrases

Estonian has no definite or indefinite articles, so "a/an" and "the" can be used interchangeably.

Words that might need explanation are in bold and can be hovered over to reveal their meaning and/or case. The meaning of the entire phrase can be revealed by clicking on Translation.