Vocab: keelduma

to refuse

to refuse; to refuse to do something; to reject someone's suggestion or request

Building blocks

• keeld- - "prohibition" or "ban"

• -u- - reflexive (action is performed by the subject upon themselves)

• -ma - infinitive ending

Thus, "keelduma" carries the sense of actively refusing or declining to do something.

How to use it

1. Refusing to Perform an Action or Task:

   • Klient keeldus dokumendi allkirjastamisest.

     • Translation: The client refused to sign the document.

2. Refusing a Request or an Offer:

   • Juhtkond keeldus rahalist toetust vastu võtmast.

     • Translation: The management refused to accept financial support.

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What to remember when using the verb “keelduma”:

1. What you refuse from can be in the elative case (ending in -st).

2. If keelduma is followed by another verb, that verb can take the -mast form (the ma-infinitive -mast form), indicating refusal to perform a specific action, and the object of what you refuse to do is in the partitive case (third base form).

See this in use ⬇️

Examples

Vanemad keeldusid oma kahe tütre vaktsineerimisest

Literally: “Parents refused their two daughters vaccination-from”

Idiomatically: “The parents refused to vaccinate their two daughters”

Vanemad - Noun - Nominative Pl, "Parents"
keeldusid - Verb - 3P Past Pl, "refused"
oma - Pronoun - Genitive Sg, "their"
kahe - Numeral - Genitive Sg, "two"
tütre - Noun - Genitive Sg, "daughters"
vaktsineerimisest - Noun - Elative Sg, "from vaccination"

Laps keeldus putru söömast

Literally: “Child refused porridge to eat-from”

Idiomatically: “The child refused to eat porridge”

Laps - Noun - Nominative Sg, "Child"
keeldus - Verb - 3P Past Sg, "refused"
putru - Noun - Partitive Sg, "porridge"
söömast - Verb - ma-Inifinitive with -mast ending, "to eat"