Lõppvormid

Lõppvormid are the inflected end forms of words that encode grammatical information. In Estonian linguistics, the term refers to the set of endings that can attach to a word stem to signal its grammatical category or its role in a sentence. Endings arise as part of inflection, producing different word forms to express function, number, case, tense, person, mood, aspect, and other grammatical distinctions.

Endings serve several purposes in language structure. For nouns, adjectives, and pronouns, lõppvormid mark case and number, which help indicate relationships between words and determine syntactic roles such as subject or object. For verbs, endings convey person, number, tense, mood, and voice, shaping how actions or states are situated in time and perspective. Because endings carry much of the grammatical information, they are central to how meaning is conveyed, sometimes even compensating for word order.

In linguistic analysis and language teaching, lõppvormid are typically organized into declension tables for nouns and adjectives and into conjugation tables for verbs. These tables illustrate the available end forms for a given lexeme and often reveal patterns such as regular versus irregular endings and stem alternations. Understanding lõppvormid helps in parsing sentences, building grammatical competence, and creating dictionaries or language-processing tools that enumerate the forms a word can take.

See also: inflection, morphology, declension, conjugation, grammar.