ehitasid

ehitasid is the past tense, third‑person plural form of the Estonian verb ehitada, which means “to build” or “to construct.” The form is used when referring to multiple subjects who performed the action of building in a past context. For example, the sentence “Houses ehitasid 1990. aastal” means “Houses were built in 1990.”

In Estonian, verb conjugation in the past tense follows a regular pattern: the infinitive base “ehita” receives the ending –sid for third‑person plural. This ending contrasts with –sin for first‑person singular, –sid for second‑person singular and plural, and –si for third‑person singular. The form ehitasid thus fits into the broader pattern of Estonian past participle formation, where the suffix –sid marks past tense with plural.

The word is commonly found in historical records, architectural histories, and reports. It can appear in both narrative prose and statistical reports. For instance, a census report may state that “Küla ehitasid uued hooned” to describe that the village built new houses. In literary texts, authors might use it to set a scene: “Mõne sadamäeleehitajali koha ehitasid neid vanad tornid”.

In colloquial speech, ehitasid may occasionally appear in more informal contexts, but it remains standard in written Estonian. The term is explicitly limited to the past tense; modern constructions use the present participle “ehitades” or the future form “ehitab” depending on the context.

Overall, ehitasid is a routine grammatical form that plays a fundamental role in describing past construction activities in Estonian.