Plural in Estonian

[Lineman]

Hi,
I'm a beginner in estonian and I'd like to know how to use nouns in plural. I wanted to translate sentence "Five cars are white."
I translated it to this:

Viis autod on valgeid.

But according to a certain native speaker, this sentence was wrong so he corrected it:

Viis autot on valget värvi.

According to Eesti keele süntesaator, autot is partitive of auto, which is singular. Did I get right, that when I'm talking about a certain amount of something, I should use partitive of singular?

[Reinder]

Hi,
I'm a beginner in estonian and I'd like to know how to use nouns in plural. I wanted to translate sentence "Five cars are white."
I translated it to this:

Viis autod on valgeid.

But according to a certain native speaker, this sentence was wrong so he corrected it:

Viis autot on valget värvi.

According to Eesti keele süntesaator, autot is partitive of auto, which is singular. Did I get right, that when I'm talking about a certain amount of something, I should use partitive of singular?

I'm also new to Estonian, but maybe I can make some things clear to you.
Autot is the singular form for car, since you use the word viis you don't have to make it plural in Estonian, it's just five car.
When you want to say Cars are white you'll have to say Autod on valget värvi.
I'm not sure if I'm right, but I learned that when you use a number you'll just keep the noun singular and you won't make it plural.
You should let a native confirm this before you'll learn it like this, I'm also new to Estonian.

[Lineman]

If it's right, thanks!

[hashi]

I'm pretty sure the plural of valge is valged.

[Reinder]

I'm pretty sure the plural of valge is valged.

A native speaker corrected it into valget värvi.

[hashi]

I'm pretty sure the plural of valge is valged.

A native speaker corrected it into valget värvi.

Weird because I have a song called Valged ööd (White nights), Oh well.

[Reinder]

Weird because I have a song called Valged ööd (White nights), Oh well.

Yeah, but in that sentence white is the nominative case.

[hashi]

Weird because I have a song called Valged ööd (White nights), Oh well.

Yeah, but in that sentence white is the nominative case.

Oh durr. Sorry

[Loiks]

The correct way to say is viis autot. It's partitive. In FU languages the numbers don't get plural, in Finnish and Estonian they get partitive, I am not sure about non-Baltic-Finnic FU (Hungarian, peoples in Russia).

And you don't need to sai this värvi. Valge maja (White house). Valged majad. (White houses). Maja on valge (The house is white). Majad on valged. (The houses are white).

[eda]

Autod on valged -- The cars are white
Autod on valget värvi -- The cars are of white colour

[corcaighist]

Welcome Lineman! Hope you enjoy learning Estonian.

Wait until you meet the plural partitive and the direct object!

[Lineman]

Will I ever get to that? My form of learning is kind of weird, because there's not a single proper source on the internet. I use english Wikipedia, estonian Wikipedia, english-estonian dictionary, Eesti keele süntesaator, some blog and a very good overview of estonian cases.

[Reinder]

Will I ever get to that? My form of learning is kind of weird, because there's not a single proper source on the internet. I use english Wikipedia, estonian Wikipedia, english-estonian dictionary, Eesti keele süntesaator, some blog and a very good overview of estonian cases.

Yeah, it's hard to learn Estonian on the internet, I wish there were some better websites or movies on the internet to learn Estonian.
Maybe you could buy an Estonian learning book if you're really willing to learn it.

[Lineman]

And I forgot to mention Livemocha...but it's almost useless.
With books it's worse than with internet sources. If I chose Finnish, I might have a little chance.

[Reinder]

And I forgot to mention Livemocha...but it's almost useless.
With books it's worse than with internet sources. If I chose Finnish, I might have a little chance.

Yeah, you don't learn a lot from Livemocha, maybe so vocabulary, but no grammar at all.
Why are books even worse? In books you get a nice grammar explanation and some nice tricks, do you really think it's worse?
Yeah, it seems like there are more resources for Finnish out there, but Estonian is just so lovely!

[Lineman]

I haven't found a single czech book about Estonian. That's what I meant.

[Reinder]

I haven't found a single czech book about Estonian. That's what I meant.

I don't believe they are out there, you should buy an English book about Estonian. ^^

[Lineman]

Well...there is something on Amazon, but the shipping is so expensive...I must rely only on internet sources.