Tegeluste

Tegeluste is the genitive plural form of the Estonian noun tegelus. Tegelus primarily means a character or role in a narrative, such as a person appearing in a story or play, and it can also refer to conduct or behavior in some contexts. Tegeluste therefore means “of the characters” or “belonging to the characters,” and it is used when describing attributes, actions, or relations associated with multiple characters.

In usage, tegeluste appears in literary and media analysis, theatre criticism, and academic writing about fiction and film. It enables statements about the characters collectively, for example in phrases like “romaani tegeluste areng” (the development of the characters) or “tegeluste motiivid” (the characters’ motives). The form is a standard part of Estonian grammar, reflecting the relationship between the noun tegelus and other elements in a sentence.

Phonology and morphology follow Estonian patterns for genitive plural forms. The suffix -te marks the genitive plural for many nouns ending in -us, and the stem tegelus remains recognizable in compounds and phrases. As with other genitive forms, tegeluste is most common in contexts where possession, association, or description is linked to more than one character.

Overall, tegeluste is a specialized grammatical form used to discuss multiple characters within Estonian texts. It highlights how a text portrays or interrelates its cast, and it is routinely found in analysis, criticism, and scholarly discourse about literature, film, and theatre. Related terms include tegelus (character or behavior) and peategelane (main character).