käändamise

Käändamise is an Estonian grammatical concept referring to the inflection of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives to indicate their grammatical function within a sentence. This process is often translated as "declension" in English grammar. Estonian has a complex system of cases, and käändamise involves changing the ending of a word to reflect its case.

There are typically 14 cases in Estonian, though the exact number can vary depending on grammatical analysis. These cases include nominative, genitive, partitive, illative, inessive, elative, allative, adessive, ablative, translative, terminative, essive, abessive, and comitative. Each case expresses a different relationship to the verb or other elements in the sentence. For example, the nominative case is used for the subject of a sentence, while the genitive case often indicates possession.

The process of käändamise is crucial for understanding Estonian sentence structure. Without proper declension, the meaning of a sentence can be lost or misinterpreted. Learners of Estonian often find the case system challenging due to the numerous endings and the specific contexts in which each case is used. The correct application of käändamise is essential for fluent and accurate communication in the language.