käändlus

Käändlus is a fundamental concept in Estonian grammar that refers to the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and numerals to indicate their grammatical case, number, and sometimes gender. This process of changing the ending of a word is crucial for conveying the meaning and function of that word within a sentence. Estonian has fourteen distinct grammatical cases, each with its own set of endings that are appended to the word stem. These cases express a wide range of relationships, including location, direction, possession, and the role of the subject or object in an action.

The fourteen cases in Estonian are nominative, genitive, partitive, illative, inessive, elative, allative, adessive, ablative, translative, terminative, essive, abessive, and comitative. For example, the nominative case is typically used for the subject of a sentence, while the genitive indicates possession. The partitive case often signifies an incomplete quantity or an object of certain verbs. The locative cases, such as the illative (movement into), inessive (location within), and elative (movement out of), describe spatial relationships.

Understanding käändlus is essential for both understanding and speaking Estonian correctly. The correct application of case endings ensures that sentences are grammatically sound and that the intended meaning is communicated clearly. While the system of käändlus might seem complex to learners, it provides a rich and precise way to express nuanced meanings.