tegelikke

Tegelikke is an inflected form of the Estonian adjective tegelik, which means real, actual, or factual. In ordinary use, tegelik describes something that exists in reality or is genuine, as opposed to imagined or fake. Tegelik is a base form that can be declined to agree with nouns across number and case, and tegelikke specifically appears in plural form when the adjective modifies a plural noun in the partitive case.

In Estonian, the partitive plural is used with many direct objects of verbs and in some noun phrases that express indefinite quantities or ongoing states. Tegelikke occurs most commonly before a plural noun in the partitive, for example: tegelikke inimesi (real people), tegelikke andmeid (real data), tegelikke tõendeid (real evidence). It can also appear in other cases where the adjective remains in a plural form, such as tegelike inimeste (of real people; genitive plural). The exact ending you see depends on the noun it modifies and the grammatical case in use.

Usage notes: tegelik tends to emphasize reality or factual status of the noun it describes, rather than moral authenticity. It can be contrasted with synonyms such as reaalne (real in a broader sense) or tõeline (genuine, true in a qualitative sense). In journalism, research, and academic writing, tegelikke is common when distinguishing between purported or hypothetical information and what is actually present or observed.

Overall, tegelikke is a standard, grammatically required form in Estonian morphology, used to express the plural, partitive, or other case-marked sense of “real” before a noun.