to land, to descend to a surface, to touch down, to alight, to drop on
Building blocks
We can break down maanduma into different parts:
maa- ground, land,-nda-causative (“make something land”),-ndu- (replacing the previous-a)-reflexive “make yourself land”-ma- infinitive ending
There is also another verb: maandama. This translates to “to make something land or to ground something”.
In comparison the words maanduma and maandama are literally translated to:
maanduma - “to make yourself land”
maandama - “to make something land”
How to use it
With the word maanduma you can land onto something (e.g. the ground, ending: -le), land into something (e.g. the nest, ending: -sse) or land with something (e.g. plane, ending: -ga).
Examples
Langevarjurid maanduvad maapinnale
Literally: “Parachutists land onto ground”
Idiomatically: “Parachutists land onto the ground”
Langevarjurid - Noun - Nom Pl, "Parachutists"
maanduvad - Verb - 3P Present Pl, "land"
maapinnale - Noun - Allative Sg, "onto ground"
Toonekurg maandus tagasi pessa
Literally: “Stork landed back into nest”
Idiomatically: “The stork landed back into its nest”
Toonekurg - Noun - Nom Sg, "Stork"
maandus - Verb - 3P Past Sg, "landed"
tagasi - Adverb - "back"
pessa - Noun - Illative Sg, "into nest"Turistid maandusid lennukiga saarele
Literally: “Tourists landed with plane onto island”
Idiomatically: “Tourists landed onto an island with a plane”
Turistid - Noun - Nom Pl, "Tourists"
maandusid - Verb - 3P Past Pl, "landed"
lennukiga - Noun - Comitative Sg, "with plane"
saarele - Noun - Allative Sg, "onto island"