raamatute

Raamatute is the genitive plural form of the Estonian noun raamat, meaning “books” or “of books.” It is a grammatical form used to express possession or a relationship between books and another noun, rather than a standalone plural noun. In contrast, raamatud is the nominative plural and would be used when “books” is the subject of a sentence.

Common uses of raamatute appear in phrases that describe attributes, collections, lists, or relations involving multiple books. Examples include raamatute kogumik (a collection of books), raamatute nimekiri (the list of books), raamatute hinnad (the prices of books), and raamatute autorid (the authors of the books). The form also occurs in phrases meaning “about the books,” such as raamatute kohta (about the books).

Morphologically, raamatute is formed by adding the genitive plural ending -ute to the noun raamat. This -te ending is a typical marker of genitive plural in Estonian for many nouns. The use of raamatute is thus tied to grammatical function rather than to a simple plural count; raamatute is not used when the speaker intends to refer to the books as a subject, which would require raamatud. In bibliographic, academic, and descriptive contexts, raamatute is a standard way to link “books” to another noun or to specify relations involving multiple books.