Beware! Do not even try to tell an Estonian that you love them. This is not something that’s commonly done in Estonian culture. It is a very intimate thing to say, unlike in America where you have to assure your friends and family members several times a day that you love them. Plus, this expression is not grammatically that interesting.
If you want to tell someone you really like them, the thing to say in Estonian is: “Sa meeldid mulle!” (literally: “You are pleasant for me”). Note that the sentence starts with the object of the utterance, that is “you.” Syntax (the way one builds up sentences) is far more flexible in Estonian than it is in English. In English one must start with someone who does the thing, then say what it is that she or he is doing, then add the object of action, and save the references to time and place for the last part of the sentence. In Estonian, you simply start a sentence with the most important thing you want to emphasise—in our example, “you.”
According to this sentence logic, the English “I love you” makes it sound like the person saying it is the most important one and “you” is merely an object towards whom the first person’s radiant feeling is directed.
Up next is “meeldid.” As you may remember from our first exploration story, the -d ending stands for the second person singular pronoun, “you.”
As a rule, we use verbs to indicate the actions of the speaker towards the world. Or at least, we assume there is someone actively doing something. Not the case with “meeldima,” though!
Wait, what? Does it mean that it is actually the “you” who does the liking? No, because “meeldima” is a verb that operates in a reverse direction, so to speak. As a rule, we use verbs to indicate the actions of the speaker towards the world. Or at least, we assume there is someone actively doing something. Not the case with “meeldima,” though!
“Sa meeldid mulle,” fortunately, is pretty clear in the sense that there are two identifiable participants, you (sa) and I (mulle). The form “mulle” is a grammatical variation of “mina,” the former of which can be translated as “for me” or “to me.” The verb between those two counterparts works from the direction of “you” to the direction of “I.” To clarify, you are doing something pleasant to me. Isn’t that an adorable thing to say? You are welcome to try it out at home on your own!
Kadri Tüür is currently the instructor of Estonian language and culture at the University of Toronto and continues her series of language columns explaining some common Estonian phrases used in everyday communication. Together, in Eesti Elu / Estonian Life newspaper, we dig down to the roots of some weird Estonian language logic!
