Eesti keele alased materjalid / Estonian language resources

[Linguaphile]

I'm sure that some of these are already mentioned in this thread (and sure there are others I'm missing), but I thought I'd put these all in one place. These are all dictionaries or databases - good reference materials, not learning materials per se.

Monolingual Estonian online dictionaries:
Sõnaveeb general dictionary, with case forms and examples
Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat EKSS 2009 general dictionary, with definitions
Eesti õigekeelsussõnaraamat ÕS 2018 general dictionary, mainly orthographical
Eesti keele põhisõnavara sõnastik basic dictionary (5000 words, illustrated)
Fraseoloogiasõnaraamat phrases
Eesti etümoloogiasõnaraamat etymologies
Sünonüümisõnastik thesaurus
Eesti keele tesaurus another thesaurus
Antonüümisõnastik antonyms
Sihitisesõnastik object case use

Estonian-English and English-Estonian online dictionaries:
Aare Eesti-Inglise Eesti sõnaraamat
Filosoft Inglise-eesti sõnastik
IBS English-Estonian Dictionary
Nastik English-Estonian, Estonian-English dictionary
Linguee English-Estonian
Linguee Estonian-English
Inglise-eesti masintõlkesõnastik machine translation dictionary
Esterm Eesti Keele Instituudi mitmekeelne terminibaas multilingual database of terms
Inglise-eesti meresõnaraamat sea/sailing terminology

Estonian-Finnish and Finnish-Estonian online dictionaries:
Soome-eesti suursõnaraamat
Eesti-soome sõnaraamat
Sanakirja.org
Ilmainen Sanakirja
Linguee Eesti-Soome
Linguee Suomi-Viro
Esterm Eesti Keele Instituudi mitmekeelne terminibaas

Some other useful language tools:
Keelveeb collection of dictionaries
EKI sõnaraamatud collect of dictionaries
e-keelenõu language usage (in Estonian)
Keeleabi EKI Keelenõuanne (style guide in Estonian)
Eesti keele käsiraamat language handbook in Estonian
Eesti keele süntesaator gives all declensions and conjugations for any word
Eesti keele morfanalüsaator morphoanalyzer (divides words into roots, affixes, cases)
Eesti keele lemmatiseerija provides lemmas for words
Eesti keele poolitaja divides words into syllables
Eesti keele speller online spellchecker

[Linguaphile]

I believe these are meant to be samples of school textbooks used in Estonia in elementary and secondary schools. Some are interesting for intermediate to advanced language learners to use, lower grade texts would work even for beginning levels (skip past the first few pages which are meant for the teacher)

Koos on tore text for 1st grade intended for non-native speakers
Mina ja maailm a first grade social studies text (first 10 pages only)
Ilus emakeel: Aabits a first grade alphabet book (40 pages) and part of the workbook
Matemaatika tööraamat first grade math, 10 pages)
Matemaatika tööraamat more first grade math, 10 pages)
Ilus emakeel 1 text for 1st grade intended for native Estonian speakers (first 23 pages only)
Ilus emakeel language workbook for 1st grade (20 pages)
Ilus emakeel 2 text for 2nd grade intended for native Estonian speakers (first 25 pages only)
Ilus emakeel 3 text for 3rd grade intended for native Estonian speakers (first 24 pages only) & flash version
Loodusõpetuse tööraamat natural sciences text for 2nd grade[/url] (first 26 pages)
Koos on vahva language text for 3rd grade, intended for native Russian speakers
Loodusõpetus science text for 3rd grade about motion and electricity (17 pages)
Teele language text for 4th grade, intended for native Russian speakers
Sinasõprus keelega Estonian text for 4th grade, for native speakers (first 26 pages)
Loodusõpetus science text for 4th grade (15 pages, about space)
Matemaatika fifth grade math, 26 pages
Koma Estonian text for 5th grade
Punkt an Estonian text for 6th grade(first 25 pages only)
Johannes 1 language/literature text for 10th grade (first 20 pages only)

Other links:

Kutsekeel Interactive language workbook for vocational topics

Pille ja Lauri lood A2-level online course

Digiharjutused “Tere!” learning games for practice (beginning levels)

[Linguaphile]

I believe these are meant to be samples of school textbooks used in Estonia in elementary and secondary schools. Some are interesting for intermediate to advanced language learners to use, lower grade texts would work even for beginning levels (skip past the first few pages which are meant for the teacher)

Well, having looked at the Koolibri materials a bit more closely with what I wrote above in mind, I think they actually wouldn't be so great for true beginners, because they do assume a certain level of vocabulary. They are meant for elementary-age children in Estonia (native Estonian speakers, or non-native speakers who have access to the guidance of a fluent Estonian-speaking teacher). My quick look through them gave me the impression that a lot of the vocabulary was illustrated with pictures and it turns out that's less the case than I initially thought. (In some cases they do have pictures for the words, but they aren't matched; it's more of a find-the-picture sort of thing, which doesn't really teach you the words if you don't already know what to look for.) But for someone with some basic vocabulary as a foundation (or for a learner with a good dictionary and enough interest to look up the unknown words), I think they're still probably fairly good even for lower levels of proficiency.

[księżycowy]

I have a question regarding a Estonian resource.

I just recently got the textbook E Nagu Eesti (which is fantastic in my opinion, even if I feel like at some point I will have to suplement it with other grammar materials), but I'm a bit puzzled by the vocabulary that is given in most of the lessons on the side of the page.

For example, on page 16, some words are given, such as:
prun
pruuni
pruuni

And:
Hall
Halli
Hallu

I'm guessing these are either declensions or conjugations of said words. My bigger question is: what's up with the underlining and bolding? My guess is that is has to do with the third length used in Estonian, but I can't be sure. It's not clearly explained in the text (if at all).

[Linguaphile]

I have a question regarding a Estonian resource.

I just recently got the textbook E Nagu Eesti (which is fantastic in my opinion, even if I feel like at some point I will have to suplement it with other grammar materials), but I'm a bit puzzled by the vocabulary that is given in most of the lessons on the side of the page.

For example, on page 16, some words are given, such as:
pruun
pruuni
pruuni

And:
hall
halli
halli

I'm guessing these are either declensions or conjugations of said words. My bigger question is: what's up with the underlining and bolding? My guess is that is has to do with the third length used in Estonian, but I can't be sure. It's not clearly explained in the text (if at all).

Yes. They are declensions; specifically, the nominative singular, genitive singular, and partitive singular of the words that are introduced on that page. In this case they are two adjectives for color: pruun means brown and hall means gray.
As for the underlining and bolding, pruuni (genitive form) has a long u [u:] and pruuni (partitive form) has an overlong u [u::]. It seems this text only marks this where two forms are otherwise spelled the same, hence no marking on pruun but the marking on pruuni and pruuni.
I have the book and will dig it out later this afternoon to see if they offer any further explanation specific to that text that might be helpful to you. If so, I can post a translation of the explanation for you.

[księżycowy]

Thank you!

[Linguaphile]

From the green box on page 16 (English translations in blue are mine):

AINSUS SINGULAR
Nimetav Nominative kes? who? mis? what?
Omastav Genitive kelle? whose? mille? of what? (genitive)
Osastav Partitive keda? whom? mida? of what? (partitive)

Those questions words (kes? kelle? keda? / mis? mille? mida?) will be important later because that is how they will indicate which case to use with certain verbs. For example, at the bottom of page 18 it says

vaatama vaadata vaatab keda? mida?

This gives you the two infinitives of the verb vaatama "to watch" (vaatama = first infinitive; vaadata = second infinitive), the third-person singular conjugation vaatab and the partitive-form question words keda? mida? which tell you that with the verb vaatama the object will need to be in the partitive case.
With those four pieces of information you can form almost all of the other conjugations of the verb (once you've learned how) and know how to use it in a sentence. So it is useful to learn those four pieces of information (the two infinitives, third-person singular conjugation and associated question words) when you learn a new verb.
Likewise with the nouns and adjectives you need to learn the nominative, genitive, and partitive singular forms in order to form the other cases (except the partitive plural which IIRC they don't get into in this particular series until book two), which is why those three forms are the ones listed in the wordlists that appear in the margins.

The green box at the bottom of page 17 has sentences using the words that you posted as examples above (hall halli halli and pruun pruuni pruuni):

AINSUS SINGULAR
Nim Nom. Mul on kodus hall kass. I have at home a gray cat.
Om Gen. Minu halli kassi nimi on Miisu. My gray cat's name is Miisu.
Os Part. Ma armastan oma halli kassi väga. I love my gray cat very much.

MITMUS Plural
Nim Nom. Hallid kassid on väga ilusad. Gray cats are very beautiful.

AINSUS SINGULAR
Nim Nom. Aga mul on kodus pruun koer. But I have at home a brown dog.
Om Gen. Minu pruuni koera nimi on Muri. My brown dog's name is Muri.
Os Part. Ma armastan oma pruuni koera väga. I love my brown dog very much.

MITMUS Plural
Nim Nom. Pruunid koerad on ka väga ilusad. Brown dogs are also very beautiful.

Notes:
For the plural forms, the d's are in bold only to point out that they are formed from the genitive singular form with the addition of the letter d.
The pet's names (Miisu for the cat and Muri for the dog) are like the most stereotypical Estonian pet names ever. It's basically like saying the cat is named Kitty and the dog is named Rover.

And lastly, if you are interested in hearing the difference between long and overlong sounds, here's a site where you can do that: Sõnaveeb entry for the word "pruun", where it says Sõnavormid in the top right-hand section of the white box. If you click on the first word in that list you will hear pruun in its nominative form with an overlong vowel, then click on the second word in the list and you will hear pruuni in its genitive form with a long vowel, then click on the third word in the list and you'll hear pruuni in its partitive form with an overlong vowel.
That site is a dictionary site (but monolingual) and so at that site you can look up almost any word and hear its various forms pronounced. There are also sentence examples that you can listen to.

[księżycowy]

Thank you once again, Linguaphile!

[Linguaphile]

Two more resources:
Lood Elust Enesest: Eesti keele õppematerjalid vaegnägijatele has audio files of dialogues (the link will take you directly to them) and some exercises associated with those dialogs (click on Töölehed for those). It doesn't have graphics or visuals and the formatting will look very simple, but there's a good reason for it: it was designed for visually-impaired students of Estonian. Despite the lack of visual cues, I think it would be good for anyone who has already studied some written Estonian and wants some basic dialogues for listening practice.

Eesti keele tasemeeksamid has practice Estonian-language proficiency tests. Click on any level (A2, B1, B2 and C1) and then scroll down to the lower part of the page where there are audio files (for the listening portion) and practice tasks (ülesanne) for writing, listening, reading and speaking.

[Linguaphile]

Also, for those who want to listen as you do housework, or who have a lot of time on their hands, or who can't sleep, here are 8 hours of basic phrases pronounced in Estonian:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyQqJl07-Pk

[Prantsis]

Estonian TV programs with Estonian subtitles:

https://etv.err.ee/saated-vaegkuulijatele

[Linguaphile]

Eesti keele verbirektsioone (1996) @ dspace.ut.ee

[ainurakne]

Not a language resource per se, but an automated tool for testing one's writing proficiency very broadly.

An article about this.

[Naava]

Not a language resource per se, but an automated tool for testing one's writing proficiency very broadly.

An article about this.

That was really cool! Thanks for sharing it.

I tested it with the texts I've written in my Estonian courses. The earlier ones were ranked as B2, but all of the texts from the last course were C1. I must've underestimated my own skills! Although, it's still not 100% true because I used dictionaries and Google searches to check vocabulary and grammar, but even if you take that into account, the results are higher than I expected.

[Linguaphile]

Not a language resource per se, but an automated tool for testing one's writing proficiency very broadly.

An article about this.

Thanks! That's a good tool. I could only find a couple samples of my own writing just now - a B2 and a C1. I'm looking forward to trying it again the next time I write something in Estonian.
I especially like that it gives detailed results - here's what it says for my higher sample:

C1
Tõenäosus: 100%

Teiste tasemete tõenäosus:
B2: 0%
B1: 0%
A2: 0%
Teksti üldine keerukus: C1 (tõenäosus 100%)
Arvesse on võetud teksti, sõnade ja lausete pikkus.

Morfoloogia ehk vormikasutus:
C1 (tõenäosus 100%)
Arvesse on võetud sõnaliikide ja muutevormide osakaalud ning sõnade vormirohkus.

Sõnavara:
C1 (tõenäosus 100%)
Arvesse on võetud sõnavaliku mitmekesisus ja ulatus (unikaalsete sõnade hulk, harvem esineva sõnavara osakaal), sõnavara tihedus (sisusõnade osakaal) ja nimisõnade abstraktsus.

Koondhinnang (C1) põhineb nii sõnavara-, morfoloogilistel kui ka üldise keerukuse tunnustel.