Käändekujudes

Käändekujudes, a term originating from Estonian linguistics, refers to the case endings or inflections that nouns, adjectives, and pronouns take to indicate their grammatical function within a sentence. These endings are crucial for conveying relationships between words, such as subject, object, possession, location, and direction. Estonian is a highly inflected language, and käändekujudes play a central role in its grammatical structure.

There are numerous cases in Estonian, each marked by a specific set of käändekujudes. The nominative case, for instance, typically marks the subject of a sentence and often has no distinct ending. Other common cases include the genitive, which indicates possession or origin, the partitive, used for indefinite objects or quantities, and the illative, denoting movement into a place. The locative cases, such as inessive (movement within) and elative (movement out of), are also essential for spatial relations.

The specific käändekujudes for a word depend on its declension class and number (singular or plural). Mastering these inflections is a significant part of learning Estonian, as they directly impact the meaning and grammatical correctness of a sentence. Understanding käändekujudes is therefore fundamental to comprehending and producing grammatically sound Estonian.