This new edition of Colloquial Estonian is easy to use and completely up-to-date.
Specially written by an experienced teacher for self-study or class use, the course offers you a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Estonian. No prior knowledge of the language is required.
What makes Colloquial Estonian your best choice in personal language learning?
interactive â lots of dialogues and exercises for regular practice
clear â concise grammar notes
practical â useful vocabulary and pronunciation guide
complete â including answer key and special reference section.
By the end of this rewarding course you will be able to communicate confidently and effectively in Estonian in a broad range of everyday situations.
Audio material to accompany the course is available to download freely in MP3 format from www.routledge.com/cw/colloquials. Recorded by native speakers, the audio material features the dialogues and texts from the book and will help develop your listening and pronunciation skills.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription.
No, books cannot be downloaded as external files, such as PDFs, for use outside of Perlego. However, you can download books within the Perlego app for offline reading on mobile or tablet. Learn more here.
Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete
Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Both plans are available with monthly, semester, or annual billing cycles.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, weâve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS or Android devices to read anytime, anywhere â even offline. Perfect for commutes or when youâre on the go. Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Colloquial Estonian by Christopher Moseley in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Languages & Linguistics & Languages. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
be familiar with the present tense and infinitives of the verb
know a little about the importance of consonant grades
know something about the Estonian noun case system
be able to greet other people formally and informally
know about âdefinitenessâ and âindefinitenessâ
Dialogue 1
(Audio 1:5)
Kaks vana sÔpra
TÔnu is a 19-year-old Estonian boy and Piret is a girl of the same age. They have not seen each other since they left school, but one day they meet by chance on the street in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.
TĂNU: Tere, Piret!
PIRET: Tere, TÔnu!
TĂNU: Kuidas sa elad?
PIRET: TÀnan, hÀsti.
TĂNU: Kas sa oled ĂŒliĂ”pilane?
PIRET: Jah, ma olen ĂŒliĂ”pilane.
TĂNU: Kus sa Ă”pid?
PIRET: Ma Ă”pin Tartu Ălikoolis. Kas sa töötad?
TĂNU: Jah, ma töötan Tallinna Kaubamajas.
TĂNU: Hi, Piret!
PIRET: Hi, T nu!
TĂNU: How are you?
PIRET: Well, thanks.
TĂNU: Are you a student?
PIRET: Yes, Iâm a student.
TĂNU: Where are you studying?
PIRET: Iâm studying at the University of Tartu. Are you working?
TĂNU: Yes, I work in the Tallinn department store.
In the vocabulary lists that appear throughout the book, nouns and adjectives are given in the nominative and genitive cases; the partitive form is also given in the glossary at the end of the book. A dash (â) indicates that the form is identical to the nominative. Verbs are given in the infinitive -ma form.
Vocabulary
tere!
hi! good day! hello!
jah
yes
kuidas
how
minaorma
I
sinaorsa
you (sing., familiar)
olen
am
elama
live
kus
whe
kuidas sa elad?
how are you?
Ôppima
Stu
tÀnama
thank
Ôpid
(you, sing.) study
tÀnan
thanks
Tartu, -
university town in southern Estonia
hÀsti
well
kas
? (opens a yes/no question)
ĂŒlikool, -i
university
töötama
work
oled
(you, sing.) are
Tallinn, -a
capital of Estonia
Ôpilane, -lase
student
kaubamaja, -
department store
Language points
The present tense of the verb
The present tense of the Estonian verb has the following endings:
1st person singular âIâ
-n
2nd person singular âyouâ
-d
3rd person singular âhe/she/itâ
-b
1st person plural âweâ
-me
2nd person plural âyouâ
-te
3rd person plural âtheyâ
-vad
Thus the conjugation of the Estonian verb Ă”ppima âstudy, learnâ looks like this (note the short and long forms of the pronouns):
