Vocab: eelistama
to prefer
Building blocks
eelis- advantage
-ta- causative (“make something be X”)
-ma - infinitive ending
It’s derived from the Estonian word eelis - advantage. This derivation makes a lot of sense, because if you prefer something, that means you “give an advantage to". So you are essentially giving it an advantage over other options.
How to use it
Things to keep in mind when using “eelistama”:
Who or What you prefer is in the Partitive case (third base form)
To whom or To what you give an advantage is in the Allative case (ending -le)
Examples
Ta eelistab taimset toitu loomsele
Literally: “He prefers plant based food to animal-on”
Idiomatically: “He prefers plant based food over food of animal origin”
Ta - Pronoun - Nom Sg, "He/She"
eelistab - Verb - 3P Present Sg, "prefers"
taimset - Adjective - Partitive Sg, "plant based"
toitu - Noun - Partitive Sg, "food"
loomsele - Adjective - Allative Sg, "over food of animal origin"Eelistame kodus olemist
Literally: “Prefer-we home-in being”
Idiomatically: “We prefer being at home”
Eelistame - Verb - 1P Present Pl, "We prefer"
kodus - Noun - Inessive Sg, "at home"
olemist - Noun - Partitive Sg, "being"