Vocab: tabama

to hit a target

to hit something with a shot, throw, or strike

Building blocks

Another original Estonian/Finnish word! That means we cannot break it down further, but at least there is an analogy to another language.

In Finnish, tabada is tavata and means “to meet” or “to “touch”.

How to use it

This verb behaves regularly: what you hit is in the Partitive or Genitive/Nominative depending on whether the action is yielding a clear result or not.

The tool you are using for hitting is indicated by the Comitative (“with”, -ga).

Examples

Pall tabas korvi

Literally: “The ball hit the basket”

Pall - Noun - Nom Sg, "the ball"
tabas - Verb - 3P Sg Ind Past, "hit"
korvi - Noun - Part or Gen Sg, "the basket"

Since korvi can be both Partitive or Genitive and we don’t have more context, the sentence can actually mean two things

• “The ball was hitting the basket” (“partial object” ~ Partitive)

• “The ball hit the basket” (“full object” ~ Genitive)

Türgi ja Süüria piiriala tabas taas võimas maavärin

Literally: “Turkey’s and Syria’s border area hit again a powerful earthquake”

Idiomatically: “A powerful earthquake hit the border area between Turkey and Syria again”

Note how “to hit” can also be used to mean that an event happened, just like in English. Wiktionary lists the meaning in English generically as “to affect negatively” in that meaning.

Türgi - Noun - Gen Sg, "Turkey's"
ja - Conjunction - "and"
Süüria - Noun - Gen Sg, "Syria's"
piiriala - Noun - Gen Sg, "border area"
tabas - Verb - 3P Sg Ind Past - "hit"
taas - Adverb - again
võimas - Adjective - Nom Sg, "powerful"
maavärin - Noun - Nom Sg, "earthquake"