Vocab: asendama
to replace, to substitute
Building blocks
ase- station, location of a thing
-nda- factitive (“to make a thing have a location”)
-ma - infinitive ending
This word comes from a Fenno-Ugric root, as it is based on aśema - location.
Even today in Finnish, the word “asema” is still in use and means “station”, like in “rautatieasema” - “iron way station” = “train station”.
How to use it
The thing you are replacing is usually in the Genitive (in Singular) or Nominative (in Plural).
Why not the Partitive? Estonian makes a distinction between actions that lead to a distinct result and actions that don’t.
Actions that lead to a clear result get their “target” in the Genitive case (in Singular) and in the Nominative case (in Plural).
Since you cannot “partially” substitute something, “asendama” usually does not take the Partitive case for its “target”.
The thing you are replacing something with is indicated by the Comitative (the “with” case, ending “-ga”).
Examples
Asendasin oma telefoni uuega
Literally: “I replaced own phone new-with”
Idiomatically: “I replaced my phone with a new one”
Asendasin - Verb - 1P Sg Past, "I replaced"
oma - Adverb - "own"
telefoni - Noun - Genitive Sg, "phone"
uuega - Noun - Comitative Sg, "with new"Töökoda asendas tema auto kaubikuga
Literally: “Workshop replaced his car van-with”
Idiomatically: “The workshop replaced his car with a van”
Töökoda - Noun - Nom Sg, "The workshop"
asendas - Verb - 3P Past Sg, "replaced"
tema - Noun - Genitive Sg, "his"
auto - Noun - Genitive Sg, "car"
kaubikuga - Noun - Comitative Sg, "with a van"