Decode Estonian

Decode Estonian

Grammar: Activity nouns

How to derive a noun from a verb

Dario Hamidi's avatar
Dario Hamidi
May 06, 2023
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You are well familiar with the distinction between adjectives, verbs, nouns, and adverbs by now.

In most languages, you can a word from any of these groups and derive new words, possibly from a different group.

Even in English, you can do this!

  • to eat [Verb] → +er → the eater [Noun]

  • product [Noun] → +ize → to productive (= to turn into a product) [Verb]

Estonian is no different in this regard, so today we’ll explain the most common and useful derivation.

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