Estonian Verb Conjugation.

Pronouns And Verbs

1. Pronouns.

Personal pronouns have 2 forms. A long form when you want to emphasize the pronoun and a short form when you want to empasize the rest of the action.

mina -- ma 'I'

sina -- sa 'you'[sing.]

tema -- ta 'he/she/it'

meie -- me 'we'

teie -- te 'you' [plural/formal]

nemad -- nad 'they'

2. Present Tense Verbs.

The infinitive ending of Estonian verbs is -ma. ex. istuma 'to sit'

(The -da infinitive will be covered later)
The present tense of Estonian is formed by removing the -ma ending and adding the endings as follows.

mina istun 'I sit'

sina istud 'you sit'

tema istub 'he/she/it sit'

meie istume 'we sit'

teie istute 'you (all) sit'

nemad istuvad 'they sit'

There are several verbs which change in the present tense (but for the most part are regular in the other tenses). As many of these verbs are common they are worth noting:

to speak: rääkima - räägi-

to read: lugema - loe-

to see: nägema - näe-

to go: minema - lähe-

to want: tahtma - taha-

to do: tegema - tee-

to know: teadma - tea-

Examples: ma tean 'I know', me läheme koju 'we go home', nad tahavad naha 'they want to see', ma räägin eesti keelt'I speak Estonian'

2b. OLEMA 'TO BE'

The present tense of the verb 'to be' is iregular in the third person singular and plural:

mina olen 'I am'

sina oled 'you are'

tema on 'he/she/it is'

meie oleme 'we are'

teie olete 'you (all) are'

nemad on 'they are'

3. Past Tense

The past tense is formed by introducing the infix -si- between the root of the verb and the regular endings.

mina rääkisin 'I spoke'

sina rääkisid 'you spoke'

tema rääkis 'he/she/it spoke'

meie rääkisime 'we spoke'

teie rääkisite 'you (all) spoke'

nemad rääkisid 'they spoke'

If the stem ends in a consonant, -i- must be inserted in the 3rd person. Example: teadma 'to know' - ta teadis (ma teadsin, etc..)

The exception to his rule is envoked when the verb has two syllables, whose root ends in -e, such as olema 'to be' and tulema 'to come'. In such cases the e is changed to i to which you add the regular verb endings, except for the 3rd person singular which is endingless:

mina tulin 'I came'

sina tulid 'you came'

tema tuli 'he/she/it came'

meie tulime 'we came'

teie tulite 'you (all) came'

nevad tulid 'they came'

3b. To go
The verb minema 'to go'. Is one of those verbs that never seems to follow the rules. Just as it changes to lähe- in the present, in the past it changes to läk-

läksin - 'I went'

läksid - 'you went'

läks - 'he/she/it went' (Note: no -i-)

läksime - 'we went'

läksite - 'you all went'

läksid - 'they went'

4. Future Tense

Estonian lacks a distinct future tense. The present tense can be used with a future intent in mind. You will have to look at the context of the sentence to determine the tense.

5. Questions

Questions in Estonian are made in two forms:

A. Inversion of subject and verb:

Olete te seal? 'Are you there?'

B. By placing the interrogative particle Kas in front of the sentence. "Kas" is the english equialent of 'Is it true that...?' (This form is more common in everyday usuage)

Kas te olete seal? 'Is it true that you are there?'

6. Negative Verbs.

The negative sentence in Estonian is constructed by placing the word ei 'no' infront of the verb stem. This form is used for all persons singular and plural.

Ma ei tea. 'I don't know.'

Sa ei tea. 'You don't know.'

etc...

The colloquial negative form of olema, ole/n is pole.

Te pole seal. 'You aren't there.'

7. Commands.

Commands are formed by using the stem of the verb.

Tule siia! 'Come here!'

8. Negative Commands.

In Estonian, the negative command is made by placing the negative particle Ära infront of the stem of the verb.

Ära kuula! 'Don't listen!'

9. The -DA infinitive.

Estonian is unlike other Indo-European languages in that it has two infinitives. The form found in the dictionary is the -ma infinitive. The -ma infinitive is more important to learn first, as it is from this form that one can construct many of the other tenses (like the present and past).
The -da infinitive is used in a few more advanced tenses, but for the most part it is used as the second verb after many modular verbs expressing desire, or hate, or a few regular verbs.
The -da infinitive is constructed in one of 3 ways:

In most words: replace -ma with -da: to joke - naljatama -> Tahan naljatada. "I want to joke"

In some words: replace -ma with -ta: to help - aitama -> Tahad aidata? "Do you want to help?"

In many words: irregular, usually ending in the vowel a: minema -> Tahavad minna. "They want to go."

As the majority of commonly used words have an irregular -da infinitive, it is in the students best interest to learn the -da infinitive when learning the -ma. Unfortunately, most dictionaries do not list the -da infinitive. Because of this, I hope to add more on this subject soon.