käändesüsteemi

Käändesüsteem, or case system, is a grammatical framework used to mark the role and relationship of words within a sentence. In languages with a rich case system, nouns, pronouns and, in some languages, adjectives change form according to their syntactic function. The system helps express relations such as location, direction, possession, and state without relying exclusively on word order or prepositions. Käändesüsteem is a central feature of Estonian grammar and of Finnic languages more broadly.

In Estonian, the case system is suffix-based and combines with number and possessive forms. Nimisõnad (nouns) and asesõnad (pronouns) inflect for case and plural, and omadussõnad (adjectives) agree with the nouns they modify. The language has no grammatical gender and uses relatively little word order to convey meaning, because case endings provide the primary grammatical information. Although prepositions exist, many relations that would require prepositions in other languages are expressed through cases in Estonian.

The function of the cases covers a range of semantic categories, including location (where), direction or motion (where to), possession, modality, and state. For example, a noun ending can indicate that something is inside a place or moving into it, or that it belongs to someone. The case system is learned gradually and is a defining feature of Estonian syntax.

Examples illustrate common contrasts: “ma lähen kooli” (illative, to the school) shows motion toward a destination, while “ma olen koolis” (inessive, in the school) indicates location inside a place. The Käändesüsteem thus underpins much of Estonian sentence structure and meaning.