sündima

Sündima is an Estonian verb whose core meaning is to come into existence, with two main uses: to be born and to occur or arise. In everyday language it most commonly appears in contexts of birth, as in Ta sündis 1990. aastal, “She was born in 1990.” It can also describe the emergence of events, phenomena, or situations, where a change or development is said to have formed or happened.

The word is derived from the noun sünd, meaning birth or origin. The infinitive form is sündima, and it forms regular -ma verbs of Estonian. The past participle sündinud (born) is used as an adjective, for example a sündinud laps (a child who was born) or in constructions describing origins. The participles and finite forms of sündima align with standard Estonian verb conjugation patterns; the verb takes the usual endings for person and number in present, past, and future tenses. In formal or literary style, sündima can appear with a passive nuance meaning that something has come into being.

There is potential ambiguity between the sense of birth and the sense of occurrence, so context is crucial. Sündima is most frequent in biographical statements, historical writing, and descriptions of processes.

See also: sünd, sündinud, birth in Estonian context; see also related verbs for coming into being like tekkima.