/r/eestikeel

Photograph via snooOG

A subreddit for those who learn Estonian. Tere tulemast!

Welcome to r/eestikeel! This is a subreddit for people who are learning or want to learn the Estonian language. Any and all ability levels are welcome! Ask questions, get advice, and discuss the learning process.

Related Subreddits
/r/Eesti
/r/LearnFinnish
/r/languagelearning

/r/eestikeel

1,179 Subscribers

11

When to use "karske and when to use "kaine

"Karske kui ma näiteks spordimees olen, ja alati proovin hea elu elada, hea toidu süüa ja mitte palju alkohooli juua.

Kaine on kui alkohol näiteks mind ei möjuta sel hetkel.

Kas see on õige mõte? 1. Ta on noor ja karske õpilane. 2. Ma olen täiesti kaine kui ma oma autoga sõidan.

4 Comments
2024/09/17
06:52 UTC

3

Protsentide puhul kumba käänet ma peaksin kasutama?

Protsentide puhul kumba käänet ma peaksin kasutama, mitmuse seestütlevat või osastavat?

Ma ise arvan, et käänete valik sõltub kontekstist, kuid ma ei ole päris kindel. Palun vaadake järgmisi lauseid animafilmist The Mitchells vs. the Machines. Esimene lause on just nagu soome keeles, ja on mu meelest palju loogilisem.

  • Teadsid, et 90% emade kõnetest ignoreeritakse? (dub)

  • Kas teadsid, et 90% kõnesid emadelt eiratakse? (sub)

Aitäh abi eest!!

3 Comments
2024/09/03
15:04 UTC

5

vaja vs vajalik

Title is pretty self explanatory.

Could someone please define vaja and vajalik and tell me the differences in uses? (with examples please!)

From my understanding 'vaja' means something is needed (e.g. running out of milk, you need milk) whereas 'vajalik' means necessary (e.g. breathing air is necessary to live)

Thanks

4 Comments
2024/08/16
07:38 UTC

8

Shy estonians make practising difficult.

Polite and friendly as they cartainly are, I find it extremely challenging to talk with estonians i meet, since the shyness I encounter is very visible. It feels as if I trespass some taboo simply by initiating some smalltalk. The explanation I get is: We estonians do not talk to strangers.

11 Comments
2024/08/15
04:28 UTC

5

Being polite

Grammar has polite form and more direct form of pronoun and verb combined. Is the polite form in decline? How do one know when it is inappropriate to use formal form talking to (not elderly) people in everyday life in Estonia?

8 Comments
2024/08/07
06:16 UTC

2

Keep on learning (your target language)! 😉🎉

0 Comments
2024/06/30
08:31 UTC

6

Does having an Italian singsongy accent while speaking Estonian make it too difficult to be understood?

Have you met any Italian that speak Estonian? If so, was it too difficult to understand him/her because of his/her accent? I don’t know what else I can do to get rid of my singsongy accent, if you have any advice I would greatly appreciate it too. I face the same problem with Spanish, and because of that people always assume I’m Argentinian 🤣

3 Comments
2024/06/07
15:58 UTC

6

Children tales in Estonian?

I want to translate and analyze simple texts so I decided to start with folklore. Is there a resource where I can find them? Preferably without many archaisms or complex topics, not too long, 1-2 A4 pages

6 Comments
2024/05/13
12:18 UTC

4

Kost laaluq saaduq- which language?

hey hey, Duo Ruut has one song called "Kost laaluq saaduq" could anyone tell me which language they are singing in and maybe even can translate it? I already tried searching Google, but that hasn't been very successful.

https://youtu.be/VuSi2Nn6S08?si=fV0nyG4rXvicZT-d

5 Comments
2024/04/23
14:46 UTC

5

Lyrics / Translation for this song

Tere r/eestikeel !!!

I know some of you must be tired of these kinds of posts as I've seen quite a few of them while I was scrolling but I would thank you a lot if any of you could provide a website where I can find the lyrics to the song ''Ära Paranda Mu Maailma'' by Reket. I've been listening to his music since 2020 and I've fallen in love with his music. I absolutely love his debut album ''Kajapark'', but turns out this album is so so underground I can't even find lyrics for 90% of the songs in the album. One of these songs I can't find the lyrics from is ''Ära Paranda Mu Maailma'', which is my favourite song from the album.

After two years of on-and-off language learning and intense research, I only know that:

  1. The title translates to 'Don't change my world'.
  2. I can hear the words 'mees' & 'skisofreeni(a)' in the middle of the song.
  3. The chorus says 'don't change my world, please'.
  4. A very old comment on one of the few YouTube videos that display the song says that the lyrics and the story of the song are very hard (he just said 'kõva lugu') so I think that the vibe of the song is 'the world is very fucked up but I'm not gonna change it for whatever reason', lol.
  5. On the same YouTube video there was a comment that displayed the first line of the song and it said something related to a Palestinian street boy whose house was destroyed, but the comment is not available anymore, at least on my device.

If there is not a website where these lyrics can be found, at least tell me what the song is actually about. If you're feeling like translating the whole song, sure, go on, but it's a rap song so there's a lot to translate xd. You don't need to translate the whole song if you dont want to.

Here is the link to the song: https://youtu.be/GYFO5gdeuHA?si=Ua68_VCc3RV-A4M3

The rest of the album is also a complete mystery, but I only want to focus on the song that intrigues me the most. Suur aitäh!!

4 Comments
2024/04/22
22:36 UTC

6

How do you know what to add to proper nouns to make it possessive?

I'm having a hard time in my solo Estonian studies and the book does not have an explanation for this. I am wanting to know how you know what to add to proper nouns to make it possessive. For example, I am trying to say "Carl has one dog." The example in the book that's similar says "Portusel on kaks silma." would it be "Carlel" or "Carlil" or how do you know? Another example was "Lili" to "Lilil"

It would be helpful if you could show me the following for illustration (or something similar... dumb example I know) then maybe I would understand from here:

  • Carl has one dog.
  • Carl's dog has two eyes.
  • His dog has two eyes.
  • Carl has one dog with two eyes.

Suur aitäh!

4 Comments
2024/03/17
17:55 UTC

5

palun tooge näiteid omastavat

Tere,

I am trying to understand the case system. Currently: genitive. For example in the polyglot club wiki under genitive, it says

the genitive case is formed by adding the suffix "-i" or "-ni" to the noun

Yet none of the given examples end with an "i" or "ni". Am I misreading something? Please help.

õpilase

raamatu

laua

tüdruku

koera

Suur Aitäh

12 Comments
2024/02/26
18:46 UTC

6

How would you say 'just under' when talking about quantities? (e.g., just under 100 meters)

Hi everyone.

How would you translate this accurately and naturally? Is the opposite, just over 100, also possible or would that sound funny?

Interested in both common and uncommon ways. Checked online translation sites, but I'm not sure they're totally accurate with phrases like this. Especially since not all languages use spatial prepositions (e.g., over/under/above/below) for this, unlike English.

Thank you in advance.

3 Comments
2024/01/23
11:03 UTC

6

Anyone know where I can find graded readers in Estonian?

3 Comments
2024/01/06
12:46 UTC

7

What does "can be declined" in Speakly mean?

Hi, I'm learning Estonian as a third language, also my English isn't my first so I still have some trouble understand some exact meanings. I'm using the app Speakly and often they use "decline" to refer to some things on the grammar section, what does it mean exactly?

Edit: I'm gonna put an example of when it's used: Reflexive pronoun The reflexive pronoun “ise” shows that someone is doing something to oneself. “Ise” can be declined.

4 Comments
2024/01/06
04:07 UTC

5

Kas see on õige?

"Iga kord, kui ma suhtlen eesti keelt" Hey, basically by this I want to say "Every time I talk on Estonian" in meme context. Will that be correct? :)

Või "millal" soobib parem?

Suur aitäh!

4 Comments
2024/01/05
18:51 UTC

3

Website where I can find nouns & their declensions?

1 Comment
2023/12/09
06:39 UTC

5

'Colloquial Estonian' or 'Complete Estonian'

Tere! I'm new to learning Estonian and I'm looking for a textbook. I'm between Routledge's Colloquial Estonian and Teach Yourself's Complete Estonian. Without having looked through either of them, I'm inclined towards Colloquial Estonian, since I have enjoyed a number of books from the Colloquial series in the past, namely Colloquial Finnish with the way grammatical topics were explained. For those who have used both books, which do you recommend?

4 Comments
2023/11/12
23:05 UTC

7

How important is it to pronounce the "r"s correctly?

In estonian every "r" in a word is rolled the way it is in a lot of other languages, however since my mother language is german and in german the "r" is pronounced more like "ea" I never actually learned how to roll my "r"s. Does pronouncing the "r"s correctly in estonian matter a lot for understanding the word or could I be understood just as well by trying as hard as I can to roll it?

10 Comments
2023/11/02
20:35 UTC

3

Mis variandid peale "labürindi" veel eksisteerivad sõna "maze" tõlkimiseks?

2 Comments
2023/10/16
16:09 UTC

5

Sõgis, mitte Sügis?!? Miks?

Üks tuttav kirjutas paar nädalad tagasi FB-s "Sõgis on käes" (või midagi sellist, ma täpselt ei mäleta). Miks ta kirjutas 'Sõgis', mitte 'Sügis'? Üritasin Google'ist vaadata aga ma ei leidnud selgitust

4 Comments
2023/09/30
06:43 UTC

9

Isamaa ilu hoieldes

Tere kõigile mu eestlastele,

Olen praegu siin istumas ja kuulan laulu, mis on üks paljudest põhjustest, miks ma Eestisse kolisin, siin ettevõtte lõin ja olen uhke, et maksan makse maailma parimas riigis.

Ja nüüd istun siin pisarates kuulates: Isamaa ilu hoieldes. Võite küsida endalt, miks ta seda kirjutab ja jagab? Vastus on: sest tunnen, et pean seda ütlema, mis võib olla loll.

Ilusat päeva!

0 Comments
2023/09/16
10:54 UTC

2

Luuletaja nimi

Eelmisel 2022 ( või äärmisel juhul 2021) suri kuulus Eesti luuletaja suvel. Kelle nime olen unustanud. Uudistest loeti ilusti lõik tema ühest luuletusest.

Kas keegi teab kellega võiks olla tegu ja, kui oskaksid luulekogu soovitada või on sul hea tuttav kes seda teab, siis palun küsi tema käest.

P.S. uudistest loeti lühike lõik: Mis läks umbes "miks Sa jumal mind kätel kandsid ja hoidsid mind elu raskustest vms." Täpset sõnastust ei tea.

Palju kuulsaid luuletajad/ kirjanikke on meie seast viimase 2a. jooksul laskunud, pealegi veel suvisel ajal?

Palun aidake!

Ette tänades, Kristian

1 Comment
2023/09/16
02:05 UTC

6

Speakly app

Does anyone have experience with Speakly app? Is it good for learning?

8 Comments
2023/08/21
19:08 UTC

11

Free Help

ENG

Hello!
If there's anything that needs to be explained about Estonian, feel free to ask me. I'll be happy to help!

EST

Tere!
Kui soovite mingil teemal (seoses eesti keelega) selgust saada, võite vabalt minult küsida. Olen valmis aitama!

0 Comments
2023/08/18
22:40 UTC

3

Does anyone know where to find the lyrics to this song?

It's "Puudutus" by Marianne Leibur: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbR8j3cm8vA

I think it's really beautiful, and have learned most of the sounds just by listening over and over, but I want to know the correct words that are being said. I have looked for lyrics before but couldn't find them, and I even tried to have an app transcribe the lyrics for me - but I think it has a lot of mistakes.

Any help is appreciated, suur aitäh.

2 Comments
2023/08/09
05:20 UTC

1

Where can I find child books online?

I started studying Estoinan and one of the best ways is to read simple books, stories. Do you have any suggestions and experiences?

3 Comments
2023/08/07
04:55 UTC

3

Is there an learn Estonian discord server?

wanting to learn more about the language and thought that Estonian language would have an server to learn it in

1 Comment
2023/08/02
21:07 UTC

5 Comments
2023/06/30
01:08 UTC

6

Are vowels in "ma, sa, ta, me, te, nad" pronounced long?

or not?

3 Comments
2023/06/15
01:14 UTC

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