KitsumiFree basic Estonian words
A seven-page printable PDF for your first weeks of Estonian: the sounds, how words work, 228 everyday words and sentences to read aloud.
PDF · 7 pages · 262 KB · no sign-up · free to print and share
Next, meet these words in real videos: Kitsumi is free for Chrome and Firefox.
What's inside
- How Estonian soundsRead as written. õ, the special Estonian vowel, plus ä, ö and ü, double letters that are long (koli, kooli), a soft b, d and g, and stress on the first syllable.
- How words workNo gender and no the, tema for he and she, endings in colour for in, from and into (majas, majast, majasse), olema for each person, ei for not, sina or teie, and no future tense.
- 228 words, then show wordsTere, aitäh and palun, family, numbers up to tuhat, leib, kama, verivorst and the saun, places and verbs. Then jaa, tõesti?, lahe! and pole viga, what to call people, and ten sentences to read before you check.
How to use it
- Read the sounds page aloud, one row at a time. Keep it next to you while you read the rest.
- Read the grammar page twice. You don't need to learn it, just to notice the endings in orange and how the verb ending changes.
- Learn five words a day. Cover the grey English on the last page, read each sentence aloud, then slide the paper down to check.
- Watch something in Estonian with Kitsumi and hover any word you don't know to see what it means.
Questions
Is it free?
Yes. It's a free PDF with no sign-up. Print it, keep it and share it.
Is Estonian hard to read?
No. Estonian is read as it's written, and stress almost always sits on the first syllable. Once you know õ, ä, ö, ü and the double letters, you can read any word aloud.
Do I need to learn all the endings?
Not at first. The sheet shows the few you meet most, in colour: -s in, -st from, -sse into. Spot them in subtitles and they soon feel normal.