ühega

Ühega is an Estonian grammatical form that represents the instrumental or comitative usage of the numeral üks, meaning “with one.” It is used to express accompaniment or association with a single person or object. The form is derived from the stem ühe- and the comitative suffix -ga, a productive pattern in Estonian for indicating “with” or “together with” when attached to nouns and numerals.

Morphology and relation to other forms: The comitative suffix -ga attaches to the stem of numbers to yield forms such as ühega, kahega, kolmega, and so on, expressing accompaniment with the specified quantity. Ühega therefore parallels other quantitative comitative forms and fits within a broader Estonian system that marks accompaniment through post-nominal suffixes rather than separate case endings.

Usage and nuance: Ühega is used in contexts where it is important to specify that the action involves exactly one accompanying entity. In modern standard Estonian, such forms are more common in written or formal contexts and in fixed expressions, or when emphasis on the singular accompanying entity is intended. In everyday speech, speakers may rely on synonyms like koos ühe with more explicit phrasing, depending on the sentence and register.

See also: Estonian language, comitative case, numeral forms in Estonian, linguistic morphology.