Nimevormid

Nimevormid is the term used in Estonian linguistics to describe the inflected forms of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and numerals. These forms do not stand alone as independent words; they signal grammatical relations such as case, number, and sometimes definiteness. Nimevormid are a central part of Estonian morphology and are essential for understanding sentence structure.

Estonian has two grammatical numbers (singular and plural) and a system of cases that expresses functions like subject, possession, quantity, location, motion, and role in predication. The same stem may appear in several different nimevormid depending on its grammatical role. Adjectives and numerals agree with the noun they modify in case and number. Personal and demonstrative pronouns also have dedicated nimevormid.

Forming nimevormid typically involves adding endings to a stem. Some nouns exhibit stem changes, such as consonant gradation, in certain forms. Estonian is not gendered and does not use definite or indefinite articles as separate words. Word order remains relatively flexible, but the nimevorms provide the grammatical information that allows the listener to parse sentences.

Irregular forms exist, and some nouns have distinctly different genitive or partitive forms. Learning nimevormid requires exposure to many stems and endings, as well as practice with case usage and concord. In linguistic analysis, nimevormid are studied as a core aspect of Estonian morphology and syntax, reflecting how meaning is encoded in word forms rather than solely in word order.