Vocab: kõht

stomach

Building blocks

We cannot break down “kõht” further, but we can inspect its etymology further: it is of a Finnic root, coming from Proto-Finnic *koktu - “womb”

How to use it

The word stomach / belly turns up in many common expressions of daily life:

• I am hungry = “mul on kõht tühi”, literally “on me stomach empty”

• If you eat the wrong things, your stomach hurts: “kõht valutab”

• If you are really hungry you can say “kõht koriseb” - “the stomach growls”. Cognate with German “mein Magen knurrt”.

• If you have diarrhea, you say “Mul on kõht lahti” - “on me is stomach open”

Examples

Mul on kõht tühi!

Literally: “On me stomach empty!”

Idiomatically: “I am hungry!”

Mul - Noun - Adessive Sg, "on me"
on - Verb - 3P Indicative Present, "is"
kõht - Noun - Nominative Sg, "stomach"
tühi - Adjective - Nominative Sg, "empty"

Armastus käib läbi kõhu

Literally: “Love goes through stomach”

Idiomatically: “Love goes through the stomach”

Armastus - Noun - Nom Sg, "Love"
käib - Verb - 3P Present Indicative Sg, "goes"
läbi - Adverb - "through"
kõhu - Noun - Genitive Sg, "stomach"