põrandatel

Põrandatel is Estonian and serves as the plural adessive form of the noun põrand, meaning on the floors or on surface areas identified as floors. It is used to describe location or position of objects, phenomena, or people that are situated on multiple floor surfaces rather than a single floor.

The form is created by taking põrand and adding the plural adessive suffix -atel. This contrasts with the singular adessive põrandal, which means on the floor. Like other Estonian locative cases, the adessive indicates location rather than movement, and the plural form is used when referring to more than one floor or surface considered as floors.

In practice, põrandatel appears in descriptive sentences about spaces, conditions, or occurrences on floor surfaces. For example, one might say that after cleaning, “Põrandatel olid märjad jäljed,” meaning there were wet footprints on the floors. The construction is common in everyday language, housekeeping contexts, interior descriptions, and photographic or narrative writing where surface-level detail is relevant.

Notes on usage: as a locative form, põrandatel typically accompanies stative predicates and does not express motion toward a floor. It is part of a broader system of Estonian cases that express spatial relationships with precise endings. Understanding põrandatel and its related forms helps in describing locations across multiple floors or surfaces labeled as floors.

See also: põrand, adessive case, Estonian grammar.