Short Illative

Level 2

Ma lähen kooli means I am going to school. Kooli is a short illative: it means "into" or "to" but has no -sse.

How It Works

The illative answers kuhu? (where to?). Besides the regular -sse ending, many common words have a short illative. Learn it together with the word, because there is no single ending.

  • Same as the partitive: kool → kooli, park → parki, pood → poodi, linn → linna, mets → metsa, saun → sauna.
  • Short two-syllable words double the consonant: maja → majja, küla → külla, kino → kinno, pesa → pessa.
  • Words with consonant gradation use the strong, overlong stem: tuba (toa) → tuppa, jõgi (jõe) → jõkke, mägi (mäe) → mäkke, vesi (vee) → vette.
  • A few special forms: keel → keelde, pea → pähe, suu → suhu, meri → merre.

For many words both forms exist, such as majja ~ majasse. When the word names a real place you move into, the short form is usually preferred: läks parki, kukkus vette, tõlkis eesti keelde. The long forms (pargisse, veesse, keelesse) are also correct, but they sound less usual here. The long form is the usual one after verbs of feeling such as kiinduma (grow attached): Ta oli sellesse jõesse kiindunud.

Many words have no short illative at all, so they always use -sse: Tartusse, Eestisse, Pärnusse. Some country names do: Soome (to Finland), Rootsi (to Sweden), Lätti (to Latvia).

Examples (6)

  1. Ma lähen kooli.

    I am going to school.

    Word by Word: I go school-into

    Kooli is the short illative of kool.

  2. Tule tuppa, väljas on külm!

    Come inside, it is cold outside!

    Tuba has the short illative tuppa, built on the strong stem.

  3. Nad kolisid uude majja.

    They moved into a new house.

    Maja → majja: the consonant is doubled. The adjective uus agrees in its own short illative, uude.

  4. Lähme õhtul kinno.

    Let's go to the cinema this evening.

    Kino → kinno.

  5. Tõlgi see lause eesti keelde.

    Translate this sentence into Estonian.

    Keel has the special short illative keelde.

  6. Pane piim külmkappi.

    Put the milk in the fridge.

    Külmkapp → külmkappi, which looks like the partitive.

Common Mistakes

  • Writing the short illative of tuba with a single consonant.

    Tule tupa!
    Tule tuppa!

    The short illative of tuba is built on the strong stem with a double pp: tuppa. Tupa is not a form of tuba.

  • Leaving the adjective in the genitive before a short illative.

    Nad kolisid uue majja.
    Nad kolisid uude majja.

    An adjective before a noun in the illative agrees with it. Uus has its own short illative, uude, so the phrase is uude majja.

  • Using the plain word instead of the short illative of kino.

    Lähme õhtul kino.
    Lähme õhtul kinno.

    Going to the cinema needs the illative. Kino doubles its consonant in the short illative: kinno.

How It Connects

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Short IllativeLevel 2

Learn This First

The short illative is a variant of -sse.