kaotas

Kaotas is the past tense form of the Estonian verb kaotama, meaning to lose or to misplace. It is used to describe a completed act of loss, whether of a physical object, time, opportunity, or a more abstract notion such as trust or status. The verb kaotama is a standard Estonian verb, and kaotas is the common form used when the subject is in the third person singular (he, she, it).

Usage examples illustrate the range of meanings. Ta kaotas oma võtmed. (He lost his keys.) Ta kaotas aega. (He wasted time / lost time.) Ettevõte kaotas olulise lepingu. (The company lost an important contract.) Ta kaotas usalduse. (He/she lost trust.) Meeskond kaotas mängu. (The team lost the game.) These examples show both concrete and abstract losses expressed with kaotas.

In standard Estonian, kaotas can be combined with different objects to convey various kinds of loss, and it accepts typical sentence structures for past events. The word is commonly found in news reporting, personal narratives, literature, and everyday speech.

See also: kaotama, kaotus.