kõrget

Kõrget is the partitive singular form of the Estonian adjective kõrge, meaning high or tall. In Estonian, adjectives inflect to agree with the nouns they modify in number and case, and the partitive singular form is used in contexts of indefiniteness, negation, or after certain quantifiers.

Morphology and usage: The basic form of the adjective is kõrge in the nominative singular. It has a plural nominative form kõrged. The partitive singular form is kõrget, which appears before a noun in contexts that require the partitive case, for example when describing an indefinite object or after negation.

Etymology and cognates: Kõrge is a native Estonian adjective. It has cognates in other Finnic languages, such as Finnish korkea, reflecting shared Finnic roots that encode the sense of height or elevation.

Examples: A typical sentence is Ta nägi kõrget mäge, meaning he saw a tall/high mountain, with the noun mägi in its partitive form. Adjectives in Estonian generally precede the noun and adapt their form to the noun’s number and case, as in kõrge tamm (a tall oak) or kõrged puud (tall trees, nominative plural).

See also: Estonian grammar, adjectives, partitive case, inflection patterns in Finnic languages.