france-eesti wrote:Oh and sure I had read about "ei" removing the ending of the following verb - it just skipped my mind. Can't get used to it
"ei" removes the ending of the following verb because "ei" used to conjugate itself (like "en", "et", "ei", "emme", "ette" and "eivät" in modern Finnish; or the remnant "ep" (3rd person singular) in dialectal Estonian; also the contraction "pole" (isn't) = "ep" + "ole").
I have also read that in Proto-Finnic, "ei" used to conjugate in both present and past tense (and the following verb used a special connegative form: "-k" added to the stem). So, even more earlier, "ei" could have been a full-blown verb.
and is genitive used as accusative when it is definite ? So if you say "I want a dog", will you just use genitive ?
ma tähan koerat
Accusative is more like a separate case (although it hasn't been brought out as a separate case in Estonian grammar and case tables) which just happens to sometimes look like genitive, and sometimes like nominative:
"ostsin koera"
(I bought a/the dog) <- genitive
"ostsin koerad"
(I bought dogs) <- plural object: nominative
"osta koer!"
(buy a dog!) <- imperative mood: nominative
(... and there are some more rules how to choose between genitive and nominative ...)Anyway, in "(ma) tahan koera", "koera" is partitive, as wanting something is a "process".
NB: in writing, genitive "koera" and partitive "koera" look the same, but they are actually pronounced differently. Genitive "koera" is pronounced "regularly", but in partitive "koera" the first syllable is overlong - this is something that is pretty hard to explain, you have to hear it yourself.
what about when it is "virtual", an idea...
"I love music" => ma armastan muusikat... partitive or genitive ?
Just generally loving something (and not having some kind of definitive end result) is always a "process", so in "(ma) armastan muusikat", "muusikat" is partitive.
(genitive of "muusika" is also "muusika")