Estonian: would

[jonquiliser]

Tere once more


I'd like to know how to form the conditional, and how to translate various uses it has in English.

Would be, would have, would like etc.

Examples:

I would come if they let me stay overnight.
You wouldn't understand it.
He would have said it, had you asked him (/if you had asked him).
We would like to have a house.

Aitäh, everyone!

 

[halfminded]

Tere once more


I'd like to know how to form the conditional, and how to translate various uses it has in English.

Would be, would have, would like etc.

Examples:

I would come if they let me stay overnight.
You wouldn't understand it.
He would have said it, had you asked him (/if you had asked him).
We would like to have a house.

Aitäh, everyone!

Tere jälle!!!

I`ll try my best in explaining this, but as I am not linguist, then...yay!
To form conditional you take root of word and add -ks or -ksin/-ksid/-ks/-ksime/-ksite/-ksid.
For example:
I would buy ...- ma ostaksin=ma ostaks
you would buy...- sa ostaksid =sa ostaks
he/she would buy..- ta ostaks
we would buy- me ostaksime= me ostaks
you would buy - te ostaksite= te ostaks
they would buy- nad ostaksid= nas ostaks

I would buy myself a house in Sevilla if I only had enough money- ma ostaksin endale maja Sevillas, kui mul vaid oleks piisavalt raha.

would have...= oleks & ..nud
He would have said it, had you asked him (your example)- ta oleks seda öelnud, kui sa oleksid talt küsinud.
It seems that there is a conditional in both parts of the sentence (not like in English).

 

[jonquiliser]

Hope today is a better day for you - headache gone?

Thanks for taking the time to explain this, and good thing you're not a linguist, because then I might not have understood you (I know nothing about linguistics...!)

So... rääkiksin eesti keelt kui vaid oskaksi (is that right?)

 

[halfminded]

Examples:

I would come if they let me stay overnight.
You wouldn't understand it.
He would have said it, had you asked him (/if you had asked him).
We would like to have a house.

About the other examples...
You wouldn't understand it- sa ei saaks sellest aru (to understand= "aru saama"...or "mõistma", but there seems to be a slight difference between them... like in Spanish between "entender" and "comprender")
We would like to have a house- literally: me sooviksime maja omada ( would like= sooviks (or "meeldiks"..depends of context... I would like him, if...= ta meeldiks mulle, kui...)]

Huh... In Estonian there is a saying "oleks on paha poiss" ( literally - "would is a bad boy") and it is used when someone is talking what he would have all done or do.. to refer that he should keep his both feet on the ground...

 

[halfminded]

So... rääkiksin eesti keelt kui vaid oskaksi (is that right?)

Almost... räägiksin eesti keelt (or "eesti keeles"), kui vaid oskaksin... Aga sa ju oskad! I quess the root of word changes sometimes...umm..maybe even more than sometimes... like "tegema" ("to do")- "ma teeksin" (like "nägema"(to see)- ma näeksin]... "lugema" (to read)- "ma loeksin"... "sõudma" (to row)- "ma sõuaksin"..etc etc... They form some kind of groups though...

EDIT: and my headache won`t go before my exams are over...

 

[jonquiliser]

Great, this was very informative! And funny that expression as well! Thanks a lot

So exam headache - yeah, that's a tricky sort! Good luck with your exams anyway