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The Language Detective: Eneseabi

This is going to be a bit of a different column. I’ll explain the Estonian word “enese,” and then give some practical advice for eneseabi. I think we all need it from time to time.

Dr. Kadri Tüür, Estonian language and culture lecturer at the University of Toronto (photo by Enlil Sonn)
Dr. Kadri Tüür, Estonian language and culture lecturer at the University of Toronto (photo by Enlil Sonn)

Enese refers to oneself. In most cases, sentences are understandable even without “enese” inserted to appropriate places in correct forms, but it sounds better if you know what to do with this word in Estonian.

Enese is a weird word because it does not have a nominative form. Not at all, believe it or not. In a way, the nominative form is not that essential to the Estonian case system anyway, because all the cases (except nominative and partitive) are formed on the basis of genitive—the case that indicates relation or belonging. Words in the genitive case always end with a vowel. For example, all Estonian place names are actually in genitive form, indicating that the name belongs to a certain location—town, village, hill, bay, bend in a river, etc. There’s only one exception, and I’ll leave it to you to figure out what place that is.

Enese” is a personal pronoun that refers to the person themselves. It takes various forms when it becomes a subject of declension: end, eneste, endid, endisse... It has two functions according to the explanatory dictionary of the Estonian language (EKSS). First, it can be associated with a verb in order to emphasize that the action is related to the same person engaged in the activity: Aja ennast püsti! (“Straighten up!”); Jättis endast hea mulje (“Left a good impression of themselves”).

Täismahus artikkel on loetav Eesti Elu tellijatele

Igal nädalal toome me sinuni kõige olulisemad kogukonna uudised ja eksklusiivsed lood uutelt kolumnistidelt. Räägime eestlastele südamelähedastest teemadest, kogukonna tegijatest ja sündmustest. Loodame sinu toele, et meie kogukonna leht jätkuks pikkadeks aastateks.

Hind alates $2.30 nädalas.

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