Vocab: õitsema

to blossom

to blossom, to bloom, to flourish, to flower, to prosper

Building blocks

We can break down õitsema into different parts:

• õis - blossom,

• -tse- continuative (“to continue blossoming”),

• -ma - infinitive ending

How to use it

This verb is intransitive, meaning it does not take an object.

In other words, something can blossom, but you cannot “blossom” a thing.

Examples

Mõned taimesordid õitsevad juba varakevadel

Literally: “Some plant types blossom already on early spring”

Idiomatically: “Some plant types already blossom in early spring”

Mõned - Pronoun - Nom Pl, "Some"
taimesordid - Noun - Nom Pl, "plant types"
õitsevad - Verb - 3P Pl Present, "blossom"
juba - Adverb - "already"
varakevadel - Noun - Adessive Sg, "on early spring"

Eesti tselluloositööstus õitses kahe maailmasõja vahel.

Literally: “Estonian Cellulose factory flourished two World Wars between.”

Idiomatically: “Estonian Cellulose factory flourished between the two World Wars.”

Eesti - Noun - Genitive Sg, "Estonian"
tselluloositööstus - Noun - Nom Sg , "cellulose factory"
õitses - Verb - 3P Sg Past "flourished"
kahe - Numeral - Genitive Sg, "two"
maailmasõja - Noun - Genitive Sg, "World Wars"
vahel - Adverb - "between"