Estonian noun casesEstonian words

One of the most basic grammatical cases featured in Estonian is the 'nominative case'. The 'nominative case' is the case used when naming or mentioning objects, serving as the subject of the sentence, and also serving as the answer to questions like "kes" (who) or "mis" (what).

The nominative case marks the subject of a sentence.

Another important Estonian noun case is the genitive case, the genitive case tell us to whom something belongs.

"Õuna" is the genitive case of "õun" (apple), and that means the sentence is speaking about something the apple owns. "Õuna värv", in this case, the sentence talks about the 'apple's color' or 'the color of an apple', since the color belongs to the apple, the genitive case is used for the apple.

"Ramaatu" is the genitive case of "raamat". "Raamatu sõnad", this sentence talks about the 'words of a book' or 'the book's words', since the words belong to the book, the genitive case is used when mentioning the book.

Estonian features the 'partitive case'. The partitive case is used to refer to a part of something, rather than the object or the concept in its entirety. The word "kohv" means 'coffee', but to refer to only 'some coffee' instead, the partitive case will come into play: "kohvi" (some coffee).

Estonian features a group of cases called 'locative cases', one of the locative cases is the 'illative case'. The illative case refers to the act of entering the inside of something, "kuhu" is an interrogative words tied to the illative case, because it means 'into where'. But it's important to remember, "kuhu" is also tied to the 'allative case', since both are cases that imply entering a place, yet the 'allative case' differs because it represents entering the outside of a place, as in 'onto where'.

"Vette" is the illative case of "vesi" (water), this implies 'entering the inside of the water', hence the meaning of 'into water' or 'into the water'.