Estonian/Negative and Conjunctions

Eitav kõneliik

This lesson will be on the Estonian negative and some conjunctions.

Forming the Negative
Olevik

The negative is formed with the word "no" which is "ei", and by taking a conjugated form of a verb without the personal suffix:


 * to be: olema -> ma olen -> ei ole
 * to know: teadma -> ma tean -> ei tea
 * to want: tahtma -> ma tahan -> ei taha

One very convenient aspect about the negative is that it's the same for all persons and quantities of pronouns:

The word "ei" in verb negation is considered to be an auxiliary verb, and roughly translates to "do not" or "don't".

Minelik

Tulevik

Estonian has no auxiliary verb for the Future like "I will", so the negative future is composed of "ei" simply followed by the simple negative form of the verb (not) to be performed in the future.

Some Conjunctions
Conjunctions are called "sidesõnad" (tying words)

Vocabulary

 * sai - saia - .saia - white bread
 * leib - leiva - .leiba - black bread
 * piim - piima - .piima - milk
 * mahl - mahla - .mahla - juice
 * söök - söögi - sööki - food
 * jah - Yes
 * ei - No
 * võib-olla - maybe
 * eesti keel - Estonian language

Verbs

 * saama (to get) - also means to be able to or allowed to


 * * - When specifying an action, these verbs refer to a -da Infinitive, which we haven't learned yet. Notice that pidama takes the -ma Infinitive.

Conjunctions and the Negative
Some sentences sound unnatural when using certain combinations of Conjunctions and the Negative without some adjustments similar to those in English:


 * Ma ei tea, et sa jood vett - incorrect "I don't know that you drink water" "jood" is an ongoing or passive action. This is also unnatural in English, but acceptable in some informal cases.
 * Ma ei teadnud, et sa jood vett - "I didn't know you drink water". This uses the simple past, which we haven't learned yet.

Kas
"Kas" is a question determiner, which roughly translates to "whether" and "is it that...". In questions it can be replaced by a simple reversal which is common for asking questions in languages of European descent: "Kas sa tahad ?" -> "Tahad sa?"