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Vocab: kadestama

to envy

Jul 13, 2023

to be jealous, to begrudge

Building blocks

kade- envious
-sta- causative (“make something be X”)
-ma - infinitive ending

It’s derived from Proto-Finnic: kadeh

How to use it

Whom/what you are holding is in the partitive case (third base form).

Examples

Naine kadestas oma õe ilu

Literally: “Woman envied own sister's beauty”

Idiomatically: “(The) woman envied her sister's beauty”

Naine - Noun - Nom Sg, "Woman"
kadestas - Verb - 3P Past Sg, "envied"
oma - Pronoun - Gen Sg, "her"
õe - Noun - Gen Sg, "sister's"
ilu - Noun - Part Sg, "beauty"

Ma kadestan su vabadust

Literally: “I envy your freedom”

Ma - Pronoun - Nom Sg, "I"
kadestan - Verb - 1P Present Sg, "envy"
su - Pronoun - Gen Sg, "your"
vabadust - Noun - Part Sg, "freedom"