Käänatavad

Käänatavad is an Estonian grammar term used to describe words that can take inflectional endings. The word itself is the plural form of käänatav, which means capable of being inflected or declined. In linguistic descriptions, käänatav is used to classify lexemes according to their ability to change form to express grammatical features such as case, number, and possession.

In everyday Estonian grammar, most content words are käänatavad. This includes nouns, pronouns, adjectives, numerals, and many verb forms when considered in their inflected variants. The käänatav category helps describe how a word behaves in different grammatical contexts and how it combines with endings on nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and other parts of speech. The concept is also central to morphological analysis and language teaching, where learners practice declining or conjugating forms according to case, number, and possessive forms.

There is a contrasting category for words that are non-declinable, or non-käänatavad. These are items that typically do not receive standard inflectional endings in ordinary usage, such as certain fixed phrases, abbreviations, or foreign words adopted into Estonian with invariant forms. Recognizing whether a word is käänatav or non-käänatav assists in proper syntax, agreement, and morphological tagging in dictionaries, language corpora, and educational materials.

Overall, käänatavad serves as a practical label in Estonian linguistics for words that participate in inflection, helping describe and predict how words change form across different grammatical environments.