Vocab: saabuma

to arrive

Building blocks

This word is a loan from Finnish:

saapua - to arrive

The Finnish word is derived from “saada” which means to get (in Estonian it’s “saama”)

Thus we can break down saabuma into parts:

• saa-

• -bu- reflexive (“get yourself”)

• -ma - infinitive ending

So to arrive literally means “to get yourself [somewhere]”.

How to use it

Saabuma takes the illative case for location (e.g. Estonia, ending: -sse), meaning it answers the question "where ... to?" instead of "where?"

With some words it takes the allative case (e.g. the Earth, ending: -le).

Usually, these are words referring to large surfaces like islands, the sea, and so on.

Examples

Homme saabuvad kolm hävitajat Eestisse

Literally: “Tomorrow arrive three fighter planes into Estonia”

Idiomatically: “Three fighter planes arrive to Estonia tomorrow”

Homme - Adverb, "Tomorrow"
saabuvad - Verb - 3P Pl Present "arrive"
kolm - Numeral, "three"
hävitajat - Noun - Part Sg, "fighter planes"
Eestisse - Noun - Illative Sg, "into Estonia"

Esimesed külalised saabusid juba peole

Literally: “First guests arrived already onto party”

Idiomatically: “First guests already arrived to the party”

Esimesed - Adjective - Nom Pl, "First"
külalised - Noun - Nom Pl , "guests"
saabusid - Verb - 3P Pl Past "arrived"
juba - Adverb, "already"
peole - Noun - Allative Sg , "onto party"