Asutajate

Asutajate is the genitive plural form of the Estonian noun asutaja, meaning founder or establisher (a person who establishes an organization, company, or project). In Estonian, nouns ending in -aja typically form their genitive plural with -jate, so asutaja becomes asutajate when indicating “of the founders” or “the founders’.”

The nominative plural of asutaja is asutajad, while the genitive singular is asutaja and the genitive plural is asutajate. This pattern is common among -ja nouns in Estonian and helps express possession or association with multiple founders.

Usage in context tends to be formal or legal, referring to people who founded an organization or enterprise. Examples include:

- asutajate arv — the number of founders

- asutajate kokkulepe — founders’ agreement

- asutajate õigused — founders’ rights

- kõigi asutajate nimed — the names of all the founders

Etymologically, asutaja derives from the verb asutama, meaning to establish or found, with the agentive noun suffix -ja, forming a term that specifically identifies a person who establishes something.

See also:

- kasutaja, the noun for user, whose genitive plural is kasutajate, illustrating the parallel -ja to -jate pattern in Estonian.

- other -ja nouns that form genitive plural as -jate, a common feature in Estonian morphology.

In summary, asutajate is a grammatical form used to refer to “of the founders” or “the founders’” in Estonian, appearing mainly in formal or legal contexts describing people who established an organization or project.