Teenistuses

Teenistuses is an Estonian grammatical form and lexical unit related to the noun teenistus, meaning "service" or "employment." As a word, teenistuses most commonly appears as the inessive case of teenistus, conveying the notion "in (the) service," "in employment," or "during (a) service." It is used in descriptions of being engaged in an official post, military duty, civil service, or within a religious service.

In usage, teenistuses often combines with verbs of state and action (for example, "olema teenistuses" — to be in service) and appears in phrases indicating location or participation ("teenistuses osalemine" — participation in a service). Context determines whether the reference is occupational (employment), institutional (civil or military service), or ritual (church service).

Grammatically, the form exemplifies Estonian case morphology: teenistus (nominative) becomes teenistuses (inessive) to express being inside or during the state or place designated by the noun. Related forms include the nominative teenistus, genitive teenistuse, and allative teenistusse.

In translation, teenistuses is typically rendered as "in service," "in the service," or "during the service," depending on context. Its usage reflects Estonian linguistic conventions for expressing location and state, and it appears in administrative, military, ecclesiastical, and everyday registers.