väikese

Väikese is the genitive singular form of the Estonian adjective väike, meaning small or little. In Estonian, adjectives decline to agree with the noun they modify, changing form for number and case. Väikese appears when the noun it describes is in the genitive case.

Morphology and usage: Väikese is used specifically for genitive singular agreement. The corresponding nominative singular is väike, while the genitive plural and other cases use different endings (for example, väikeste in genitive plural and väikest in partitive singular). For example, in a phrase like “väikese maja uks” the adjective väikese agrees with the genitive form of maja, meaning “the small house’s door” or “the door of the small house,” depending on context.

Etymology and related forms: Väikese derives from the Estonian adjective väike. It is related to cognates in Finnic languages; in Finnish, the closest common meaning is expressed by words like pieni, though exact forms differ due to language-specific inflection.

See also: väike (the base form of the adjective), Estonian grammar, Estonian adjectives, genitive case in Estonian.

Notes: Väikese is not a standalone lexical item beyond its grammatical role; its meaning remains tied to “small” as the adjective’s base sense. Its usage is routine in attributive phrases where the noun the adjective modifies is in genitive, or in fixed expressions requiring genitive agreement.