Vocab: säilitama - to preserve
to preserve; to maintain; to keep;
(about buildings or objects:) to keep in a certain condition to prevent destruction or loss;
(about food products:) to keep in certain conditions to prevent spoilage or going bad;
to keep a state, mood, or things in their original form to avoid losing them
Building blocks
säili- → comes from the verb säilima, which means “to remain intact, to be preserved”
-ta- → causative (“make something be X”)
-ma → infinitive ending
Let’s compare the two words (säilima and säilitama):
säilima = to stay preserved (something remains)
Piim säilib külmkapis. – The milk keeps in the fridge.
säilitama = to preserve something (cause it to remain)
Külmik säilitab piima värskust. – The fridge preserves the freshness of milk.
How to use it
What to remember
What you preserve/maintain is in the Partitive case (third base form)
See the example below ⬇️
Examples
Muuseum säilitab vanu esemeid
Literally: “Museum preserves old objects”
Idiomatically: “The museum preserves old objects”
Muuseum - Noun - Nominative Singular: "Museum"
säilitab - Verb - 3rd Person Singular, Present Tense: "preserves"
vanu - Adjective - Partitive Plural: "old"
esemeid - Noun - Partitive Plural: "objects"