Pealinnas

Pealinnas is an Estonian grammatical form meaning “in the capital city.” It is the inessive case form of pealinn, which denotes the capital city of a country. In Estonian, the inessive case is used to indicate location inside or within a place, so pealinnas expresses that something is located in the capital.

The term is commonly used in geography, travel writing, journalism, and everyday language when referring to events, institutions, or people situated in the capital. For example, Tallinnas (in Tallinn) is used to describe activities occurring within Estonia’s capital. Conversely, pealinn (the capital) refers to the concept or the city itself, and pealinna expresses the capital’s possessive or genitive form, such as the capital’s institutions or resources.

In practical use, pealinnas appears in sentences like “Pealinnas on palju muuseume” (There are many museums in the capital) or “Pealinnas toimuvad rahvusvahelised konverentsid” (International conferences take place in the capital). As a grammatical form rather than a standalone noun, its meaning is tied to location within the capital rather than naming a specific city, though it is most often encountered when discussing the capital of a country, such as Estonia or another nation.

Overall, pealinnas functions as a standard locative form in Estonian grammar, providing a concise way to specify that an entity is situated inside the capital city.