hommikusöögiaeg

breakfast time (from hommik, morning; söök, meal; and aeg, time)

I have discovered that by studying complex words, I kill several birds with one stone. I learn more than one word at once to start with. Also, I find interesting combinations of vowels and consonants.

However, the most important thing is that I start getting the idea about cases in Estonian words; for example, söök (meal) is the nominative case but söögi (of the meal) is the genitive, and hommik (morning) is the nominative but hommiku (of the morning) is the genitive. With this, I can say that the literal translation for hommikusöögiaeg is “time of the meal of the morning” which makes perfect sense.

It is more fun to say it early in the morning. When I manage that, I’ll know that I have learned Estonian.

tere õhtust

good night

pool

half

Time in Estonian is slightly different from the way you would say in other languages. For example, when it’s 5:30 (not 6:30), you say in Estonian “kell on pool kuus” which means literally “the time is half six“. It might seem counterintuitive for people speaking English or Spanish, but Germans might feel at home with this idea.

By the way, o is pronounced as in door in English.

see-eest

instead (from see, it and eest, for or behalf)

Four times e in a row. This is an interesting case for translating. If I ask Estonians, they unanimously would translate it as instead. However, I checked at least three dictionaries, and they don’t agree on the meaning (if they have this word at all). After trying doing a bit of research, I understood that this word means something like “it for that” or “it on behalf of that” which is basically the meaning of instead.

By the way, e in Estonian is pronounced as in café.

homme

tomorrow

There is nothing complex about this word. Nevertheless, I always relate it to the lack of future tense in Estonian. That’s right: there is no way to say I will in this language. Instead of saying “I will do this tomorrow“, one says “I do this tomorrow“. That simplifies a lot learning verbs, but makes it necessary to learn words like homme.

After all, mañana is a good word in my language.

taaraautomaat

Automatic bottle bank (from taara, empty container and automaat, automatic device)

This one is a strong contender for the ¨most repeated vowels in the same word¨ category, plus it repeats the same consonant three times. These are unattended machines where you can bring your empty bottles and you get money back for them.

Fortunately, I can pronounce this one very well as all vowels are similar to Spanish. English speakers, the a is pronounced as in father.

öötöö

night work or lucubration (from öö, night and töö, work)

Another palindrome, but this one is much better looking. I decided to start looking for words that have double vowels, and of all of them, I found this one the most appealing. Needless to say that I’m used to the concept though.

German speakers, this one you can pronounce very easily.

õ

The Estonian language has nine vowels, four more than my native Spanish. Of all of them, this is the more difficult to learn as it is not part of the repertoire of almost any language.

Want to try it? The book Colloquial Estonian says that it is produced with the tongue in the position for ‘u’ as in ‘put’ and the lips in the position for ‘i’ in ‘pit’. I can’t even pronounce put myself.

I just affectionately call it oñe to keep company to my native eñe.

sõnaraamat

Dictionary (from sõna, word and raamat, book)

The book of words. To me, it seems that Estonian says it as it is. No more. No less.

kuulilennuteetunneliluuk

hatch of the bullet pathway tunnel (from kuul, bullet; lennutee, pathway or lane; tunnel, tunnel; and luuk, hatch)

It turns out that this is one of the world’s longest single-world palindromes (try reading it by starting at the end). Although it’s not a word in regular use, it is grammatically correct. Deconstructing these words makes learning Estonian really fun.