to look, to watch, to view, to face
Building blocks
We can break down vaatama into these parts:
vaa- look-ta-causative (“make somebody look”)-ma- infinitive ending
Vaatama is an original Estonian word which is derived from the word valvama (to guard).
It actually used to be a longer word: valvatama > valatama > vaatama
How to use it
Whom or what you are looking at is indicated by the Partitive case.
Examples
Õhtuti ma vaatan uudiseid
Literally: “In the evenings I watch news”
Idiomatically: “In the evenings I watch the news”
Õhtuti - Adverb - "In the evenings"
ma - Pronoun - Nom Sg, "I"
vaatan - Verb - 1P Sg Present, "watch"
uudiseid - Noun - Part Pl, "news"“Vaatama” is commonly used together with the word “ringi”. The phrase “ringi vaatama” means: to look around.
Lapsed vaatasid aias ringi
Literally: “Children looked in garden around”
Idiomatically: “Children looked around in the garden”
Lapsed - Noun - Nom Pl, "Children"
vaatasid - Verb - 3P Pl Past, "looked"
aias - Noun - Inessive Sg, "in garden"
ringi - Adverb - "around"