Järelliited

Järelliited is a term used in Estonian grammar to refer to postpositions. Unlike prepositions, which precede the noun or pronoun they modify, postpositions follow them. This is a key characteristic that distinguishes Estonian from many Indo-European languages.

For example, in Estonian, instead of saying "on the table" as one might in English, the equivalent would be "laual" where "laua" means table and the "-l" suffix indicates the adessive case, functioning similarly to a postposition. Another common example is "koos" (together with), which follows the noun, such as "minuga koos" meaning "together with me."

The use of postpositions is a feature shared by several Finnic languages, including Finnish and Hungarian, although the specific postpositions and their usage may vary. Postpositions in Estonian often correspond to spatial or temporal relationships and can express concepts like direction, location, accompaniment, or purpose. Their presence is a significant aspect of Estonian syntax and morphology, contributing to the language's agglutinative nature. Understanding the role of järelliited is crucial for comprehending Estonian sentence structure and meaning.