# Estonian/Everything and Nothing

In this lesson we'll go over some important determiners in Estonian.

## What are Determiners?

Determiners are a class of words that span over several types of words, such as pronouns and adjectives, which are used to specify nouns. These primarily act like adjectives in general, and include words like my, this, every, no, each, as well as question determiners that can be used to begin interrogative sentences and specify nouns in declarative sentences, such as what, which and who.

## Common determiners in Estonian

| Estonian | English | Corresponding Question | Question in English | Declension? |
| iga | each/every | ~ mitmes? | which one? (ordinal num.) | iga - iga - iga(t) |
| mõni | some | missugune? | which one? (ordinal num.) | mõni - mõne - mõnda |
| paar | a couple (of) | mitu? | how many? (cardinal num.) | paar - paari - .paari |
| see | this | missugune? | which one? (adjective) | see - selle - seda |
| selline | like this | missugune? | what kind? (adjective) like what? | selline - sellise - sellist |
| kumb | which | missugune? | which one? | kumb - kumma - .kumba |
| mingi mingisugune | some, some kind of (mingi can refer to both nouns or adjectives) | missugune? | which one? what kind? | mingi - mingi - mingi(t) mingisugune - mingisuguse - mingisugust |
* milline - informal short form of missugune

## Non-Determiner Vocabulary

The following words are included in this lesson, but are not Determiners because they are standalone words. However, some may be composed of determiners.
| Estonian | English |
| midagi miski | something (nothing) |
| keegi | someone |
| mitte | not |
| mitte midagi eimiski | nothing |
| mitte keegi eikeegi | nobody |
| (mitte) kumbki | neither (subject) |
| (mitte) kumbagi | neither (object) |
* kõik - kõige - .kõike - all, everything, everyone
* inimene - inimese - inimest - person, human
* elu - elu - elu - life
* kiri - kirja - .kirja - letter

### Verbs (shorthand)

* nägema - näe - ei näe - to see

## Enumeration of nouns

Nominative Nouns preceded by an ordinal determiner (1st, 2nd, 3rd, first, last, every etc.) are written in the Nominative. The determiner (e.g. number) will decline along with the noun in all other cases.
The Accusative case (III) marks the partitive in Estonian, and the partitive is used when talking about several (plural) of something (preceded by a cardinal determiner). In this case, the Nominative becomes the Accusative, but all other cases remain the same:
* paar + kass = kolm .kassi (kass becomes Accusative)
* paari + kassi = kolme kassi
* .paari + .kassi = .kolme .kassi

## Phrases

* Iga inimene teab midagi
* Translation
* Every person knows something
* Siin on paar õuna
* Translation
* Here are a couple of apples
* Mõni kass oskab seda
* Translation
* Some cats know how to do this
* Selline on elu
* Translation
* That's life That's what life is like
* Mitte keegi ei tea seda
* Translation
* Nobody knows this
* Ma ei taha kumbagi
* Translation
* I don't want either one
* Ma kuulen mõnda inimest
* Translation
* I hear some people
* Kumba sa tahad?
* Translation
* Which one do you want?
* Kas see peab selline olema?
* Translation
* Does it have to be like that?
* Ma ei näe kumbagi kirja
* Translation
* I see neither letter
* Kõik on siin
* Translation
* Everything is here Everyone is here