Lõpud

Lõpud (plural of lõpp) refer to the suffixes or inflectional endings attached to word stems in Estonian to encode grammatical information. In linguistic terms, they are inflectional morphemes that express features such as case, number, definiteness, and mood, and they participate in agreement between words and in indicating the role of a word in a sentence.

Lõpud are central to Estonian morphology, which relies heavily on endings rather than fixed word order to convey syntactic relations. Most commonly, lõpud appear on nouns to mark case and number. Noun endings determine how a noun functions in a sentence (subject, object, indirect object, etc.) and its relationship to other words. Adjectives may take endings to agree with the noun they modify in number and case. Pronouns also inflect with suitable endings. Verbs carry endings that indicate person and number in finite forms, as well as tense, mood, voice, and aspect in other forms.

The system is shaped by phonology through vowel harmony and consonant alternations, which influence which endings attach to a given stem. Some endings cause stem changes or vowel adjustments when combined. The variety and regularity of lõpud enable relatively free word order in Estonian: the grammatical functions are signaled by endings rather than by position.

Lõpud are a feature shared with related Finnic languages, though each language has its own inventory and patterns. Understanding them is essential for reading, writing, and learning Estonian grammar.