Grammar: Essive - cases for states of being

The Essive expresses being in a certain state or role and is usually translated with "as"

There is another convenient group of three cases, following the “towards”/”at”/”away from” logic:

• the “Translative” (Estonian: “saav” - “becoming”): turning into something or indicating the purpose of something,

• the “Essive” (Estonian: “olev” - “being”): static position on top of or next to a surface,

• the “Exessive” (Estonian: “eksessiiv”): “leaving” a state of being. NB! This case is extinct and listed here only to show the logic of the case system.

Formal grammars don’t group these three cases, mainly because the Exessive case died out a couple of centuries ago and is now only preserved in two Estonian words: kodunt and tagant - as well as in a Finnish dialect.

In this article, we’re taking a detailed look at the Essive case 👇