Tühjadest

Tühjadest is an Estonian linguistic term referring to a specific adjective form. It represents the elative plural form of the adjective tühi, meaning "empty." The form is used when describing a plural noun in the elative case, emphasizing that the objects are in a state of emptiness and identifying their source as “from empties.”

In usage, tühjadest typically appears before a plural noun in elative construction, as in phrases that mean “from the empty …” or “of the empties.” It is most common in descriptive prose, inventories, or poetic language where the emptiness of items or spaces is a focal detail. The form is part of standard Estonian grammar and follows the language’s rules for adjectival agreement across case and number.

Etymology and form development are based on combining the base adjective tühi with the plural elative ending, producing the form tühjadest. This allows speakers to link emptiness to the origin of a set of items within a sentence, without repeating the noun.

See also: Estonian grammar, Estonian adjectives, elative case, plural forms in Estonian.

Examples:

- Ta võttis esemed tühjadest kappidest. (He took the items from the empty cupboards.)

- Me uurisime tühjadest pudelitest jäänud märgi. (We examined the mark left by the empty bottles.)

Note: tühjadest is a specialized grammatical form and may be more common in formal or literary contexts. In everyday speech, speakers often use equivalent constructions with more explicit noun phrases.