Appendix:Estonian declension

This page is intended to give an overview of the declension types in Estonian, and to help editors find the right nominal declension table template.

The numbering system is based on the 2018 edition of Õigekeelsussõnaraamat.

• ` denotes that the marked syllable is pronounced with an overlong length /ː/ (vòodi /ˈvoːdʲi/), as opposed to long /ˑ/. For example, the declension of riik should look like this:

Note: Columns in gray denotes weak grades, forms affected by consonant gradation; the remaining forms are denoting the strong grades.

• The table in the next syllable only shows principal parts (nominative individual, genitive individual and collective, partitive individual and collective, and illative individual and collective). Other predictable endings can be seen below:

• Accusative cases are always the same as genitive individual and nominative collective, in the individual and collective forms, respectively.

Note: Still in development!

• All the cases by which inflection types are categorised refer to individual forms unless otherwise specified.
• A PRT stem refers to the form of partitive individual, excluding its ending "t" or "d".
• In terms of prosody, simple words typically take their GEN form with two (e.lu) or four (se.mi.na.ri) non-overlong syllables, or one overlong open syllable replacing the first two non-overlong ones (màa, mùu.seu.mi). Words in other patterns are considered complex.
• The subtypes in the ÕS system will not be included in the following table:
  • The e-type is not listed because the rule is clearly regular, where long words ending in "i" in their GEN individual form change to "eid" in their PRT collective form.
  • The e/i/u-type is not relevant, as it matters more whether a word has a short form for the PRT collective. The vowel in which this short form ends does not affect the inflection pattern.
• Symbols used for Ending columns:
  • * (asterisk) means no additional ending is applied to the form specified in the title of the column.
  • + (plus) means a vowel will be added, but it cannot be specified as it varies from case to case.
  • - (minus), appearing only in "-s", means the coda "s" will be removed in the GEN form.

• Appendix:Estonian conjugation