aastaid

Aastaid is the Estonian noun aasta in the partitive plural form, used to refer to years in an indefinite or durational sense. It denotes a span of time rather than a specific number of years. The form is common in statements about duration or experience, for example “olen elanud aastaid” (I have lived here for years) or “projekt on kestnud aastaid” (the project has lasted for years). It is also used with numerals to express approximate quantities, such as “kümneid aastaid” (dozens of years).

Form and usage. The base word aasta means year. Its plural forms include aastad (nominative), aastate (genitive), and aastaid (partitive plural). The partitive plural is typically used after verbs that indicate duration or when the exact number is not specified. The construction conveys a sense of extending over a long period rather than counting precise years.

Context and nuance. Aastaid commonly appears in narratives comparing past and present times or describing long-term processes. It often emphasizes duration rather than exact counts, and it can be part of fixed collocations such as expressions of time spanning many years. In Estonian, the choice of case and number for aasta varies with the syntactic role of the noun and the surrounding numerals or verbs.

Etymology and related terms. Aasta is a native Estonian word for year, with its long-standing inflected forms forming part of the standard Finnic vocabulary. Related terms include other inflected forms such as aastate (genitive) for phrases like “aastate jooksul” (during the years).