Vaatasime

Vaatasime is the Estonian verb form of vaatama (to look, to watch) in the past tense, first-person plural. It translates to “we looked” or “we watched.” The form is used when the speaker and at least one other person performed a past action together. Vaata-ma is transitive, so vaatasime commonly occurs with an object in the sentence, such as a film or a program.

Grammatical notes: Vaatasime is a finite verb form that agrees with the subject me (we). It is part of the simple past tense in Estonian. Other persons and numbers have their own past-tense forms, for example: vaatasin (I looked), vaatasid (you looked), vaatasite (you looked, plural), vaatsid (they looked). The construction does not require an auxiliary verb to indicate past tense in standard Estonian.

Usage and examples:

- Me vaatasime filmi. (We watched a movie.)

- Me vaatasime järele, kuidas olukord arenes. (We watched to see how the situation developed.)

- Me vaatasime telekast saadet. (We watched a program on TV.)

Etymology and related forms: Vaatasime comes from vaatama with the past tense ending -sime. It shares a common stem with other past forms of vaatama, such as vaatasin and vaatasid, reflecting standard Estonian verb conjugation. In narrative and informal speech, vaatasime is widely used to recount joint actions in the past.