Vocab: lootus

hope (noun)

hope (noun)

Building blocks

This word is actually derived from a verb, lootma - to hope.

Thus we can break it down into the following parts:

• loot- - the stem of “to hope”

• -us - a noun-forming ending

The -us ending is a so-called productive one, because one can use it to actively produce new words.

Nouns formed with -us can express one of four things, in this case, it expresses “the action as a phenomenon” according to the Manual of the Estonian Language.

Compare this to armastama (to love) - armastus (love), following the same pattern

How to use it

When talking about hope, there are a couple of things you likely want to express:

• whether you have it or not,

• what you are hoping for.

Mul on lootust - I have hope (some measure of it)

That’s “mul on” - “on me is” + “lootus” in the Partitive case (3rd base form)

Why the partitive? Because you have some amount of hope, not all the hope that exists.

Mul ei ole enam lootust - I don’t have hope anymore

Same as above, except that the Partitive is necessary because any negated sentence (when something is not) requires the Partitive

Kas inimkonnal on lootust paremale tulevikule? - Does humanity have hope for a better future?

This is a complicated sentence, so let’s break it down:

Kas 
  - yes/no question particle
inimkonnal
  - Noun, "humanity", Adessiv Sg ("on" case)
on
  - Verb, 3P Sg Indicative, "is"
lootust
  - Noun, Partitive Sg, "hope"
paremale
  - Adjective, Allative Sg, "[on]to better"
tulevikule
  - Noun, Allative Sg, "[on]to future"

From this example, we can see that the thing you are hoping for is indicated by the use of the Allative case, i.e. the “onto something” case which ends on -le.