lennukit

Lennukit is the partitive singular form of the Estonian noun lennuk, meaning aircraft or airplane. The base word lennuk denotes a fixed-wing aircraft used for civil or military transport. In Estonian grammar, the partitive case is used for indefinite direct objects, for expressing a non-specified quantity, or after certain verbs of perception and experience. Consequently, lennukit typically appears when referring to “some aircraft” rather than a specific, identified machine.

In everyday Estonian, lennukit is commonly encountered in sentences where the direct object is indefinite or unfixed. For example, with verbs of perception such as nägema (to see) or kuulda (to hear), one can encounter forms like Ma näen lennukit or Ma kuulsin lennukit, where lennukit marks the object in the partitive case. The form illustrates how Estonian uses case endings to convey grammatical relationships without explicit articles.

The word is primarily used in aviation-related discourse, travel writing, reporting, and general description of aircraft. It reflects Estonian’s inflectional system, where noun endings change to indicate case, number, and definiteness. In contrast, the nominative singular lennuk is used for the subject of a sentence, while lennukid serves as the common nominative plural.

See also: lennuk, lennundus (aviation), Estonian grammar.