Vocab: hoidma

to hold, to take care of

to hold, to take care of

Building blocks

• hoid- - hold, care

• -ma - infinitive ending

This verb cannot be broken down much further, however it does have a cousin in Finnish: hoitaa.

It is one of the most flexible verbs, because it can be combined with many different adverbs to modify the meaning:

• tagasi (= “back”) hoidma → “to hold back” (like in English),

• ära (= “away”) hoidma → “to prevent” (compare with German “abhalten”, which follows the same structure),

• eemale (= “some distance away”) hoidma → “to keep a distance”

• and many more ;)

How to use it

What you are holding is in the partitive case (third base form).

The same applies to the “taking care of somebody” meaning: the person or thing you are taking care of is in the partitive.

Examples

Hoian klaasi käes

Literally: “I hold a glass hand-in”

Idiomatically: “I am holding a glass in my hand”

Hoian - Verb - 1P Sg Present Ind, "I am holding"
klaasi - Noun - Partitive Sg, "a glass"
käes - Noun - Inessive Sg, "in [my] hand"

Täna ma pean lapsi hoidma

Literally: “Today I have to children hold”

Idiomatically: “Today I have to babysit”

Täna - Adverb - today
ma - Noun - Nom Sg, "I"
pean - Verb - 1P Sg Present Ind, "I have to"
lapsi - Noun - Partitive Plural, "children"
hoidma - Verb - ma-Infinitive, "to hold"

Note that “pean” - “to have to” is always followed by the ma-Infinitive to express the obligation.

This sentence is also a good example of how English and Estonian differ in terms of transferring meaning: Estonian very often has expression consisting of multiple words (here: “to hold/take care of the kids”), whereas English has a tendency to use more specific words (here: “to babysit”).