Tõlgetele

Tõlgetele is an Estonian word form that represents the allative plural of the noun tõlge, meaning translation. The allative case in Estonian expresses direction toward something, similar to “to” or “toward” in English. In the plural, the form tõlgetele signals “to translations” or “toward translations,” depending on the context.

Origin and morphology: The base noun is tõlge (translation). To form the allative plural, Estonian adds the suffix -tele, yielding tõlgetele. This follows the general pattern of Estonian allative constructions, where the suffix attaches to the noun stem to indicate destination or direction.

Usage: Tõlgetele is primarily encountered in grammatical descriptions, linguistic examples, or contexts discussing translation work or translation projects. It is not a common everyday expression, but it may appear in academic writing, dictionaries illustrating case forms, or specialized discourse about localization and translation workflows where translations are treated as a destination or entity of action.

Semantics: The primary meaning is directional or purposive, aligning with how the allative case functions in Estonian. Its interpretation as “to translations” depends on the surrounding sentence and whether translations are the object of movement, allocation, or reference.

Examples of context: It may appear in explanations of case morphology, or in descriptions of tasks within a translation project where the destination of effort or attention is translations themselves. In ordinary prose, speakers would typically rephrase to avoid relying on the rare allative plural form.

See also: Estonian grammar, allative case, tõlge.