Grammar: Translative - cases for states of being

The Translative expresses becoming something or being used for a specific purpose

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 Translative case 👇