Vocab: vananema

to grow old

to age, to become obsolete, to become out of date

Building blocks

• vana- old

• -ne- translative (indicates a change in state)

• -ma - infinitive ending

The word “vana” is likely derived from Proto-Finnic. In Finnish they have a similar word for “old”: vanha

How to use it

Who gets older is indicated by the Nominative case (first base form)

Examples

Eesti elanikkond vananeb

Literally: “Estonian population ages”

Idiomatically: “Estonian population is aging”

Eesti - Noun - Gen Sg, "Estonian"
elanikkond - Noun - Nom Sg, "population"
vananeb - Verb - 3P Present Sg, "ages"

Kooli õppekava on vananenud

Literally: “School’s curriculum has aged”

Idiomatically: “The school curriculum has become out of date”

Kooli - Noun - Gen Sg, "School's"
õppekava - Noun - Nom Sg, "curriculum"
on vananenud - Verb - 3P Present Perfect Sg, "has aged"