kõiki

Kõiki is the partitive plural form of the Estonian determiner kõik, meaning all or everyone. It is used when the noun it accompanies is in the partitive case, typically in contexts referring to an indefinite quantity, a portion of a whole, or actions affecting all elements without treating them as a definite collective.

In Estonian, the word kõik has several inflected forms: nominative kõik (all), genitive kõigi (of all), and partitive kõiki (all of). Examples include: "Ma nägin kõiki inimesi" (I saw all the people) and "Kõigi inimeste seas oli palju naeru" (Among all the people there was a lot of laughter). Another example is "Kõiki õunu osteti ära" (All the apples were bought). These forms reflect how Estonian marks grammatical case rather than number for pronouns and adjectives.

Usage and nuance: kõiki emphasizes totality or inclusiveness within the scope of the partitive. It commonly appears with verbs that take a partitive object or with constructions expressing quantity, negation, or indefinite reference. The form is fairly frequent in both written and spoken Estonian and is a standard part of everyday language.

Etymology and morphology: kõik derives from the Estonian root for “all,” with inflectional endings changing to match grammatical case. The three principal forms—kõik, kõigi, and kõiki—allow speakers to specify whether they refer to all as a subject, a possession, or a partial object within a sentence.