‘Old ladies’ summer’ is a literal translation of a term known to English speakers as ‘Indian summer’. There are many explanations why we attribute a warm spell of weather in early fall to old ladies – some explanations given by men, some by women, some by cynics, some by romantics. Doesn’t matter how you explain it, it feels oh so nice. This year, “old ladies’ […]
This is a question a well-meaning English speaker could have after running the label ‘Meigiseen’ (as in the above picture) through Google Translate. Luckily it is not so bad as it sounds. This mix-up can be easily explained. Someone in charge of translation has either used Google Translate or not used their imagination when translating ‘Makeup sponge’ from English into […]
As already mentioned, written Estonian follows the principle to have a unique letter for every distinctly articulated sound (phoneme). This makes reading and pronouncing Estonian simpler – with a little practice and skill one could be able to produce proper pronunciation of many simpler words. Perhaps that’s why we often think that people learning Estonian as a second language just […]
It should be a relief that we use the Latin alphabet – not Cyrillic letters or hieroglyphs. 🙂 We write our words as they sound, i.e. phonetically – using the principle to have a letter for each distinct sound. So with a little practice of listening and reading, one should soon be able to pronounce Estonian words rather confidently.  We take […]
First some commonalities Estonian and English have. Both use the Latin alphabet. Both have the same word categories such as nouns, verbs, pronouns, numerals, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, interjections and conjunctions. Besides some loan words such as hamburger, video, test, sport, etc (to the delight of English speakers, there are plenty of them), other things are quite different and may require […]
Tere, mina olen Airi, meeldiv tutvuda! “Hello, I am Airi, pleased to meet you!” I said in the first sentence, using my native language – Estonian or eesti keel, as we Estonians say. Being able to speak Estonian makes me feel like a special person as I am one in a million, well one in 1.1 million people worldwide speaking […]
EstLingua is presenting the first known (to us) Estonian translation of the following: Shot in the Back by a Fallen Leaf By Allen Ginsberg The leaves are bright as a million electric lights on the yellow hill The sun moves up on the little trees vast Autumn helium after last night— Three men sprawl drunk in the birch thicket on […]
WE ARE CHILDREN OF THE NORTH By Anna Haava (1864–1957) Amidst the sounds of silence And nights bright with stars, Snowbound forests glowing in moon light And quiet roads to far away, We are children of the North, Two – both of us. The deepest joys of our hearts Held inside, fresh as snow. And the deepest sorrows of […]
Just outside many houses and apartment blocks throughout Estonia you might see triangular metal frames, fixed to the ground next to the trash bins or under a tree. Rusty but sturdy, they resemble children’s swings but without the seat, and seem to be a bit of throwback to an earlier time when people had perhaps more time for diligent household […]
When I moved to Tartu in June, it was simply not an issue but I had been warned about Estonia’s generally colder climate in comparison with the UK, and I was optimistic when I saw the sturdy radiators and metre thick walls of the apartment.   I may have yet to learn otherwise but I have a fondness for winter light […]