Passive and impersonal voice in Estonian
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In most languages, there are usually two voices: active and passive. However, in Estonian the voices are called personal and impersonal voice.
What makes impersonal voice different from passive is that the main purpose is to make the subject impersonal (instead of emphasizing the object).
The present impersonal verb form is one of the four basic forms of an Estonian verb, which means that it can't be constructed from any other stems but has to be memorized.
It uses the suffixes -akse, -dakse, -takse.
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The negative present impersonal is made with the negation word ei + present passive without the -kse ending.
English | Affirmative | English | Negative |
---|---|---|---|
one speaks | räägitakse | one does not speak | ei räägita |
it is allowed | lubatakse | it is not allowed | ei lubata |
it is said | öeldakse | it is not said | ei öelda |
The simple past is formed by replacing the ending of the -tud/-dud participle with -ti/-di.
English | -tud/-dud Participle | Past Passive |
---|---|---|
speak | räägitud | räägiti |
sing | lauldud | lauldi |
sell | müüdud | müüdi |
The negative of the simple past consists of the negation word ei + -tud/-dud participle.
English | Negative Past Passive |
---|---|
one did not read | ei loetud |
one did not wait | ei oodatud |
one did not beg | ei palutud |
The past perfect and the pluperfect are formed with the auxiliary verb on/oli (the 3rd person singular of olema 'to be') + -tud/-dud participle.
The negative form is constructed with ei ole/ei olnud + -tud/-dud participle.
Affirmative | Negative | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
English | Estonian | English | Estonian | |
Past Perfect | one has begged | on palutud | one has not begged | ei ole palutud |
one has laughed | on naerdud | one has not laughed | ei ole naerdud | |
Pluperfect | one had begged | oli palutud | one had not begged | ei olnud palutud |
one had laughed | oli naerdud | one had not laughed | ei olnud naerdud |
In addition to the impersonal, the passive voice also exists in Estonian. While the impersonal sentences express the action with leaving the subject in the background, the passive is used to rather express the state that the object has reached as a result of the action. It can also be used as adjective that describes what has happened to a noun.
The passive form is always the -tud/-dud principle of the verb.
In the following table you can see the comparison of impersonal and passive sentences in Estonian:
Impersonal | Passive | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
English | Estonian | English | Estonian | |
Present | One is closing the doors | Uksed suletakse | The doors are closed | Uksed on suletud |
Past Simple | One closed the doors | Uksed suleti | The doors were closed | Uksed olid suletud |
Past Perfect | One has closed the doors | Uksed on suletud | The doors have been closed | Uksed on olnud suletud |
Pluperfect | One had closed the doors | Uksed olid suletud | The doors had been closed | Uksed olid olnud suletud |
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My name is Diana. I am a TESOL-certified English and Estonian online teacher with more than 5 years of professional and over 20 years of international voluntary teaching experience. During these years I taught professionally more than 3000 different students by helping them to achieve their goals and dreams. My students were from different age groups, levels and backgrounds.
In my classes, you will feel at ease, have a friendly atmosphere and look forward to your next lessons. My aim is to make classes effective and my goal is to help you to :
* Advance your communication skills
* Boost your communication efficiency by improving your accent and speaking clarity
* Achieve your desired language proficiency fast by using my effective and easy methods.
I tailor my teaching material according to your level and needs. As I strongly believe that no two students are alike and one teaching method that fits all is unfair and ineffective.
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My name is Diana. I am a TESOL-certified English and Estonian online teacher with more than 5 years of professional and over 20 years of international voluntary teaching experience. During these years I taught professionally more than 3000 different students by helping them to achieve their goals and dreams. My students were from different age groups, levels and backgrounds.
In my classes, you will feel at ease, have a friendly atmosphere and look forward to your next lessons. My aim is to make classes effective and my goal is to help you to :
* Advance your communication skills
* Boost your communication efficiency by improving your accent and speaking clarity
* Achieve your desired language proficiency fast by using my effective and easy methods.
I tailor my teaching material according to your level and needs. As I strongly believe that no two students are alike and one teaching method that fits all is unfair and ineffective.
Looking forward to meeting you soon and emerging on a learning journey with you.
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In my classes, you will feel at ease, have a friendly atmosphere and look forward to your next lessons. My aim is to make classes effective and my goal is to help you to :
* Advance your communication skills
* Boost your communication efficiency by improving your accent and speaking clarity
* Achieve your desired language proficiency fast by using my effective and easy methods.
I tailor my teaching material according to your level and needs. As I strongly believe that no two students are alike and one teaching method that fits all is unfair and ineffective.
Looking forward to meeting you soon and emerging on a learning journey with you.
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It is important for me to introduce a language as a simple logical system that is easy to understand and use. As a teacher, I structure my classes and deliver knowledge in a clear and engaging way, combining theory with practice. Besides my endeavours to make my classes useful, I aspire to make them entertaining and fun, so that my students have a great time in the lesson. By teaching students from a wide range of learning techniques, I always try to provide a personal approach to each student and adapt to their needs, so that they are able to continuously improve their grammar and vocabulary.
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In my classes, you will feel at ease, have a friendly atmosphere and look forward to your next lessons. My aim is to make classes effective and my goal is to help you to :
* Advance your communication skills
* Boost your communication efficiency by improving your accent and speaking clarity
* Achieve your desired language proficiency fast by using my effective and easy methods.
I tailor my teaching material according to your level and needs. As I strongly believe that no two students are alike and one teaching method that fits all is unfair and ineffective.
Looking forward to meeting you soon and emerging on a learning journey with you.
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In my classes, you will feel at ease, have a friendly atmosphere and look forward to your next lessons. My aim is to make classes effective and my goal is to help you to :
* Advance your communication skills
* Boost your communication efficiency by improving your accent and speaking clarity
* Achieve your desired language proficiency fast by using my effective and easy methods.
I tailor my teaching material according to your level and needs. As I strongly believe that no two students are alike and one teaching method that fits all is unfair and ineffective.
Looking forward to meeting you soon and emerging on a learning journey with you.
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It is important for me to introduce a language as a simple logical system that is easy to understand and use. As a teacher, I structure my classes and deliver knowledge in a clear and engaging way, combining theory with practice. Besides my endeavours to make my classes useful, I aspire to make them entertaining and fun, so that my students have a great time in the lesson. By teaching students from a wide range of learning techniques, I always try to provide a personal approach to each student and adapt to their needs, so that they are able to continuously improve their grammar and vocabulary.
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This review was written by a coLanguage team member during a manual screening of this teacher profile.
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