Reported Impersonal (-tavat)

Level 6

Add -vat to the impersonal stem: ehitatakse becomes ehitatavat. The sentence now means people are doing it, or so you have heard.

How It Works

The reported mood passes on what you heard: Ta olevat haige (he is said to be ill). The impersonal says that people in general do something: Seal ehitatakse kooli (a school is being built there). Put the two together and you get -tavat or -davat.

Form. Take the impersonal stem, the same one you see in tehtagu or tehtaks, and add -vat:

  • tegema: tehta- → tehtavat
  • lugema: loeta- → loetavat
  • ehitama: ehitata- → ehitatavat
  • laulma: laulda- → lauldavat
  • sööma: sööda- → söödavat

Past. Use olevat with the -tud form: Seal olevat ehitatud uus kool. (A new school has reportedly been built there.)

Where you meet it. Mostly in literary, older and other bookish texts. Everyday Estonian prefers a plain impersonal with a word that marks hearsay: Kuuldavasti ehitatakse seal uut kooli. Väidetavalt tõstetakse hindu. Räägitakse, et...

Same shape, different job. A word ending in -tavat can also be the partitive of a -tav participle: Otsin midagi loetavat (I am looking for something to read). If it describes a thing, it is the participle. If it reports what people are said to be doing, it is this form.

Examples (6)

  1. Seal ehitatavat uut kooli.

    A new school is reportedly being built there.

  2. Selles külas räägitavat veel vana murret.

    People in that village reportedly still speak the old dialect.

  3. Linnas tõstetavat varsti bussipiletite hinda.

    Bus fares in the city are reportedly going up soon.

  4. Seda raamatut loetavat igas koolis.

    This book is said to be read in every school.

  5. Seal olevat ehitatud uus kool.

    A new school has reportedly been built there.

  6. Kuuldavasti ehitatakse seal uut kooli.

    Word is that a new school is being built there.

Common Mistakes

  • Doubling the reported mood with olevat.

    Seal olevat ehitatavat uut kooli.
    Seal ehitatavat uut kooli.

    -tavat already contains the reported -vat. In the impersonal, olevat goes only with the -tud form, for the past: olevat ehitatud.

  • Using the personal form when no one is named.

    Seal ehitavat uut kooli.
    Seal ehitatavat uut kooli.

    ehitavat is personal and needs someone who builds: Firma ehitavat seal uut kooli. To say that people in general are building, use the impersonal ehitatavat.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Reported Impersonal (-tavat)Level 6

Learn This First

-tavat combines the quotative and the -tav stem.

Words in This Pattern

kuuldavasti