mõistustes

Mõistustes is an Estonian grammatical form meaning “in the minds” or “in the intellects.” It is the inessive plural form of the noun mõistus, which can denote the mind, intellect, or brain. The phrase is used to refer to cognitive activity or mental states located within people, rather than to physical brains.

Morphology and usage notes: The base noun mõistus declines through standard Estonian cases. The inessive plural form is mõistustes. The corresponding singular inessive is mõistuses ("in the mind"). Other related forms include mõistuste (genitive plural) and mõistuseid (partitive plural). In practice, mõistustes signals location inside mental life and is common in discussions of cognition, psychology, philosophy, and everyday talk about thinking and perception.

Examples:

- Mõistustes toimuvad keerulised kognitiivsed protsessid. (Complex cognitive processes take place in the minds.)

- Ideed tekivad mõistustes. (Ideas arise in the minds.)

- Mälestused elavad mõistustes. (Memories live in the minds.)

Semantics: The term emphasizes internal, subjective aspects of experience. It often appears in contexts contrasting internal mental activity with external actions or physical states. Because mõistus can be used broadly to mean intellect or sense-making capacity, mõistustes also carries a sense of internal interpretation, reasoning, or mental deliberation.

See also: mõistus, mõistusega, mõistusest.