Words Ending in -ne

Level 2

Words ending in -ne change it to -se- before endings, and the partitive ends in -st: inimene, inimese, inimest (person).

How It Works

A very large group of Estonian words ends in -ne: nouns such as inimene (person), naine (woman) and hobune (horse), adjectives such as punane (red) and oluline (important), words for people such as eestlane, and verbal nouns such as lugemine (reading).

They all change the same way:

  • nominative -ne: inimene, naine, punane
  • genitive -se: inimese, naise, punase
  • partitive -st: inimest, naist, punast
  • nominative plural -sed: inimesed, naised, punased
  • genitive plural -ste: inimeste, naiste, punaste

The other cases are built on the genitive as usual: inimesega (with a person), punases majas (in a red house). The partitive plural is the one form that varies: inimesi, naisi, but punaseid, hobuseid. Check it in the dictionary.

Not every word that happens to end in ne follows this pattern. In kõne (speech, call) the ne is part of the root, so nothing changes: kõne, kõne, kõnet.

Examples (6)

  1. Ta on väga tore inimene.

    She is a very nice person.

  2. Ma tunnen seda naist.

    I know this woman.

    Partitive naist, from naine.

  3. Mul on punane auto.

    I have a red car.

  4. Ma rääkisin selle inimesega.

    I talked to this person.

    Comitative inimesega is built on the genitive inimese.

  5. Punases majas elab minu vanaema.

    My grandmother lives in the red house.

    The adjective also switches to -se-: punases.

  6. Paljud inimesed räägivad inglise keelt.

    Many people speak English.

Common Mistakes

  • Keeping -ne before a case ending.

    Ma rääkisin inimenega.
    Ma rääkisin inimesega.

    Before endings, -ne becomes -se-, so the comitative is inimesega.

  • Adding -t to the nominative to make the partitive.

    Ma näen inimenet.
    Ma näen inimest.

    The partitive of -ne words ends in -st: inimest.

  • Forgetting the change on an adjective.

    Ma istun punanes autos.
    Ma istun punases autos.

    Adjectives in -ne follow the same pattern, so punane becomes punases.

How It Connects

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

Words Ending in -neLevel 2

Learn This First

-ne words have predictable key forms.

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Patterns that build on this one.

Words in This Pattern

inimenenaine