paljudes

Paljudes is an Estonian word form used to express broad multiplicity, literally meaning “in many.” It is the inflected inessive plural form of the adjective paljud, which functions as a determiner meaning “many.” When paljud refers to a plural noun, the form paljudes is used to indicate that the described characteristic or state is found across a large number of locations, groups, or items.

Morphology and grammar

In Estonian, adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in number and case. The plural inessive ending for adjectives is commonly -des, so paljud becomes paljudes when paired with a plural noun in the inessive case. For example, paljudes riikides means “in many countries,” and paljudes kohtades means “in many places.” This construction emphasizes distribution across multiple domains rather than depth within a single domain.

Usage

Paljudes appears mainly in descriptive or analytical writing, such as journalism, reports, and academic texts, to convey that a phenomenon is widespread. It is not used with singular nouns. Alternatives to convey similar meaning include using other quantifiers like palju or paljud, depending on the desired nuance and syntactic fit.

Etymology and related forms

Paljudes derives from paljud (“many”) and the standard inessive plural suffix -des. Related forms include paljud (nominative plural, “many”) and paljusid (partitive plural), which are used in different grammatical contexts. The root palju reflects the core meaning “much/many,” shared with related Estonian words describing quantity.

See also: paljud, palju, paljude.