Vocab: valima

to choose

to decide in favor of one of several possibilities, to elect, to select

Building blocks

We can break down valima into two parts:

• vali- “choose”

• -ma - infinitive ending

Borrowed from Proto-Germanic: waljaną

The same word exists in Finnish: valita

How to use it

What you choose is a regular object, so it’s in the Partitive case if the action is ongoing (i.e. “you are choosing it”) or in the Genitive case (singular) / Nominative (plural) if the action is done until completion (“you choose it [and then it is chosen]”).

For which purpose you choose is indicated through the Translative case (-ks).

Examples

Rekordarv kodanikke valis Riigikogu valimistel

Literally: “A record number of citizens chose Parliament’s elections-on”

Idiomatically: “A record number of citizens voted in the parliamentary elections”

Rekordarv - Noun - Nom Sg, "(a) record number"
kodanikke - Noun - Part Pl, "citizens"
valis - Verb - 3P Sg Ind Past, "elected"
riigikogu - Noun - Gen Sg , "Parliament's"
valimistel - Noun - Adessive Pl, "on the elections"

As you can see from this example, in Estonian you don’t vote in elections, you choose.

Toomas valis oma näitusele mitmeid fotosid

Literally: “Toomas chose his own to the exhibition many photos”

Idiomatically: “Toomas chose many photos for his exhibition”

Toomas - Noun - Nom Sg, "Toomas"
valis - Verb - 3P Sg Ind Past, "chose"
oma - Pronoun - Gen Sg, "his own" 
näitusele - Noun - Allative Sg, "on the exhibition"
mitmeid - Pronoun - Part Pl, "many"
fotosid - Noun - Part Pl, "photos"

One thing to note here is that “oma” always refers to the person performing the action, in this case “Toomas”.