Vocab: vältima - to avoid

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to avoid; to refrain from doing something; to prevent something; to keep something from happening; to avoid meeting or communicating with someone

Building blocks

• välti → likely related to väli (“outside, open space, field”). The idea is: to keep outside / to stay away from something

• -ma → infinitive ending

So literally vältima = “to keep out / to keep away” → which developed the meaning to avoid, to prevent.

How to use it

What to remember

• Whom or what you avoid is in the Partitive Case (third base form)

See the example below ⬇️

Examples

Jalgrattur keeras kõrvale, et vältida kokkupõrget

Literally: “Cyclist swerved aside in-order-to avoid collision”

Idiomatically: “The cyclist swerved aside to avoid a collision”

Jalgrattur - Noun - Nominative Singular: "Cyclist"
keeras - Verb - 3rd Person Singular, Past Tense: "swerved"
kõrvale - Adverb - Indeclinable: "aside"
et - Conjunction - Indeclinable: "in order to"'
vältida - Verb - da-Infinitive: "to avoid"
kokkupõrget - Noun - Partitive Singular: "collison"