Sõnakujud

Sõnakujud refers to the various forms a word can take in Estonian, reflecting its grammatical function within a sentence. This phenomenon is a core aspect of Estonian's highly inflected nature. Essentially, a single base word, or lemma, can be modified through a system of suffixes to indicate case, number, tense, mood, and person. For example, the noun "maja" (house) can appear as "maja" (nominative singular), "maja" (partitive singular), "majas" (inessive singular), "majast" (elative singular), "majadesse" (illative plural), and many other forms depending on its role in the sentence. Similarly, verbs undergo extensive conjugation. The verb "lugema" (to read) can be inflected for different tenses (e.g., "loen" - I read, "lugesin" - I read [past tense]), persons (e.g., "loen" - I read, "loed" - you read), and moods. Understanding sõnakujud is crucial for both comprehending and producing grammatically correct Estonian. This system allows for a flexible word order and conveys a wealth of grammatical information within the word itself, contrasting with languages that rely more heavily on prepositions and auxiliary verbs.