Learn Estonian, lesson 1: How to pronounce Estonian - The Alphabet

[MrsRyssa101]

Why does it sound like you are smoking a hooka/bong in the background noise?

[LunaRebane]

released 2009.

says will be making more videos.

only has one video.

sadness :(

[M0ng00se132]

12 Months? :D

[OiHiHola]

the first letters are pronounced in a very similar way to portuguese. It's just sounds like you have a different accent, and the one with one of this ¨ like ü sound like a sound I'd make if I was grossed out by something. haha I liked it.

[oi565]

Your anthem is probably the best in the world, because it's the same as ours :D

[boa000constrictor]

we use the word divan for sofa too :D

greetings from slovenia

[MrShinigami1996]

@boa000constrictor We use word dīvāns for sofa in Latvia too :D ( "ī" is same as ii ) :D

[h3llul33n3]

Dont blaim estonians for everything blaim the one that translated it to estonian because he wasn´t estonian duh. And the words are not the same go to google translator!!!

[TheGrouse42]

Il y a beaucoup plus de ressemblances au français qu'en anglais, trouves-tu?

[Singsusa]

very helpful, thanks!

[sherman630]

@olex919084 what words?

[TheGrouse42]

@AndMann: funny because I'm trying too...how many of us are doing it just because of really awesome Estonian girls?

[AndMand111]

Just another guy trying to learn Estonian because of a hot girl.

[fabienik]

Thanks I am Italian and I like Estonia, this is an easy way to learn Estonian. It sounds like Finnish language.

[AgentUMasyanya]

This is definitely a helpful video! I wish there were more videos, but at least this helped with my pronunciation already. Hopefully, I'll be able to learn Estonian eventually.

[TJRHINO29]

same sound for o with 2 dots and the o with the tilde? thanks

[bullerproff]

:O

there's so many letters that don't appear in estonia, will be hard u.u

I use C everytime in my language

[master25160]

im from estonia :3

[XMeAndMyLezzyCurlsX]

That was so helpful! You should post more videos!!!

[grammutti]

WTF!!!! why estonia has the same anthem whit Finland?????

[cat0the0cat]

@grammutti WTF!!! Why finns are so f.cking unsophisticated??? fcking Dopey..

[grammutti]

@cat0the0cat Welll i just wanted to ask -.-' huoh

[jprobstein]

@cat0the0cat oh please, screw finns, now danes are the awesome ones :)

[bappbie123]

I really want to learn Estonian since my friend lives in Estonia, this has really helped! Thank you :>

[artvoski]

i can find the other leson somewhere???

[KruppeTheMagnificent]

@TheAron961: I know Estonian and Hungarian have similarites, being part of the same language family as they are.

I just wanted to point out that I don't think your example is a precise one.

"divaan" and "divany" are alike, sure, but I do not think this is so because of the similarity of the languages.

I'd say both languages just imported the word from Turkish "divan", along with the Greeks, English, French, and most of Europe!

Estonian's a great-sounding language. : ]

[NinjaHotel]

võõras - strangeR :)

[serioussam909]

Cool, I can pronounce it already, but it sounds like gibberish to me :D

[TheAron961]

yeah! estonian has some similar words with hungarian....for example: sofa in estonian is divaan,,,and in hungarian its divany......banaan - banan.......

[JimmysEurofan]

@TheAron961 yes and in greek language is divani :P

[Probieboss]

@magyarwho Same here :)

[magyarwho]

I want to learn Estonian because I love Getter Jaani (the Estonian girl on Eurovision).

[magicalkitten1]

What is "d**chebag" in Estonian? I wanna call those idiotic commenters below me that cuz they're nothing but a bunch of time-wasters D:

[moleboythedrummer100]

kaks teist kuud

[zackeemzy]

Estonian and Finnish are likely the same . This is really cool .

[xenover]

žilett on t hääldus tugev mitte nõrk :)

[svenno0007]

@Username62752 OMFG its the estonian anthem "mu isamaa, mu õnn ja rõõm"

[LadyYuzuki]

Thank you for the video it's helping me greatly

[zakyzeek]

is there genders like in most languages? or do all of the words not change? i'm becoming interested in this language.

[MyClip456]

@zakyzeek in estonian dont have any genders

[raxcax]

Don't play the anthem, when you don't know why you're playing it for.

[sevorine]

This was very helpful thank you

[SanderRadionov5299]

You're Estonian, aren't you? I would know, cause i am too. :D You only have like 1 word pronounced wrong probably. Nice job. :P

[cryptoj19]

Estonian ^_^

[Avedisk4792]

it's really amazing, thank you for your help Estonian Girl. it's kinda near to Finnish language. for example number 8 in Estonian was kaheksa and in finnish it's kahdeksan. if you use facebook, send me your e-mail so i'll add you. thanks again. see ya bye

[McMIxTER]

greetings from Lithuania

[Trinivalts]

hmm... surprisingly (cuz estonian isn't baltic as a language as far as I know) noticed similarities with latvian: dīvāns, ēzelis, grāmata, māja. shouldn't be too hard to decode. :)

excluding these (I consider them imports), banāns, profesors, normāls, šokolāde, ābece.

[mbtemlett]

there are similarities with finish especially the numbers

[olex919084]

some words are the same as in Latvian :)

[sunnydht]

why would anyone want to learn estonian? may as well learn russian and move there its much more useful.

[overture13]

@sunnydht Perhaps people would want to learn Estonian because they're simply intrested in Estonia, they have relitives from Estonia and want to learn more about their heritage, they've got friends from Estonia, they plan on visiting or moving to Estonia...the same as why anyone would want to learn any language, really. Perhaps it not the most widley spoken or useful language in the world, but it is a beautiful sounding language. It never hurts to have an extra tongue!

[sunnydht]

@overture13 Youre right but I personally think it's better to learn Russian because many more people speak it. The only place Estonian is spoken is in Estonia and it's not a very big country so I doubt. If they have interest in the language itself & want to keep their language alive that's a different matter that's their decision and I will not object to it. I am merely only trying to give my point of view for anyone who decides to listen.

[overture13]

@sunnydht you too are right, Russian is indeed a lot more widley spoken. However, in all the situations I described in my last comment, learning Russian would be useless. I think you've missed my point entierly. By your logic, why doesn't everyone just learn Mandarin as it's the most widley spoken language in the world?

[AnnuKuusmik]

@sunnydht please don't ever do that, estonians hate people who are in Estonia and only speak russian!!

[nimionraul]

@AnnuKuusmik I live in estonia, and speak both, estonian and russian, and i should say that there are no such a discrimnation as some people tink. yes, that's true that if anyone can speak only russian, then no one will take him or her to work, but even if you speak only estonian, and definetly don't know russian or english, then there also wont be a lot of people who will want to take you to work.

P.S. sorry for my bad english ^__^

[fallingpatrik15]

@sunnydht Only older people can speak russian. Younger generation can't speak russian at all so in about ~50 or more years russian will be gone from estonia. Younger generation can mostly speak estonian and english.

[ronstero]

@fallingpatrik15 I'm 14 and i'm currently doing very well in Russian.

Even though the younger generation is mostly morons, there are still a few intelligent ppl in there.

[fallingpatrik15]

@ronstero Well good luck with Russian in the future, the morons and vandals are mostly usually the russians, and that's a fact.

[ronstero]

@fallingpatrik15 You still need it if you wanna get some lame part time job in Estonia to communicate with the vandals and morons.

[fallingpatrik15]

@ronstero True, I'm with you on that one.

[sunnydht]

@fallingpatrik15 I don't mind that Estonians are keeping their language alive but contrary to what u said it seems like Estonia is full of Russian speakers. It's like what's happening in America with Mexicans. More and more need to speak Spanish if u even want a chance at getting a job.

[hestia165]

lol. spelling "y" in estonian is the same like in polish :D

[giiwn]

thats kinda cool. i understand finnish so i understand also estonian

[SMaY700]

I live in Hiiumaa :D

[juho97]

the Estonian anthem is the same one as the Finnish anthem!

Oon suomesta!!!

[luputtaja]

sounds pretty familiar :o

[Simpson654]

has changed. The pronunciation of written finnish has stayed mostly the same, only dropping the soft d, or dh (as in english word 'this') in favor of the spelling word, so "mother's" is "äidin" rather than "äidhin" though dialects retain "äitin" as genitive. Though dialects are numerous and it's not uncommon to hear elderly people from some part of the country say it as "äirin" or "äiren" or "äiteen" etc.

[Simpson654]

The sound õ is really hard, it does not occur in any other language I've tried to atleast learn to pronounce. Also the only sound that does not occur in Finnish, my mothertongue, and not in English, Swedish, German, Chinese or Japanese.

Finnish is more complicated in grammar than Estonian, and you have to learn a lot more local dialectical vernacular than in Estonian, since there's six times more of Finns. Estonian is just over the tick for a Finn to learn easily. A lot of "false friends."

[elvonen]

I always thought that estonian language is very different from latvian, but these words are similar:

Banaan - Banāns

Diivan - Dīvāns

Eesel - Ēzelis

Maja - Māja

Raamat - Grāmata

Šokolaad - Šokolāde.

Nice vid, greetings from LV!

[Simpson654]

@elvonen

Your list are all loan words, like "raamat" for book, it's the finnish for the Bible, "The Book", Raamattu, from a slavic root I think, and Šokolaad - Šokolāde should be self-explanatory, from the Meso-American words for chocolate and cacao.

Latvian is of different branch of languages (Indo-European), but we share words because we have the same influences culturally around the Baltic Sea. Finnish is "archaic" partly because it was set in writing over 400 years ago, and only spelling

[Getthehell934]

@Username62752 this is used as the national athem in estonia and in finland

[whither]

thank you for this, i think i can finally make the 'õ' soundnow! your description of how to shape the mouth was great!

[kali4good]

i'm sooo in love with this language.when i heard my favorite music artist speak it.i'm sooo gonna learn this language!

[DreamTrance4Ever]

@darnjack0roll like you :D

[darnjack0roll]

@DreamTrance4Ever your just a noob on internet

[svenno0007]

@darnjack0roll you think that, because you can't learn neither of those languages, and use google translate instead

[darnjack0roll]

@svenno0007 I AM FINNISH and i dont want to hear ur gay lanquage that apes finland,u suck

[nannaew]

@svenno0007 ....says a guy who's from estonia. :D:D:D idiot.

[darnjack0roll]

@svenno0007 ya right,EXPLAIN ME THEN WHY DOES 5 FUCKING MILLION PPL TALK IT?UR GAY LANQUAGE IS SO GAY THAT ONLY 1 MILLION SPEAKS IT,go fuck ur self as in estonian:geegi duidi duidi geegi totti

[svenno0007]

@darnjack0roll you are dumb. there are 1,3 million ppl in estonia. there are 5,3 million ppl in finland. estonian is spoken by 1,5 million ppl -that's more than our population. finland is spoken by 5 million- that's less. more ppl speak estonian than finnish, so SHUT THE FUCK UP. those absurd words that u put in the end of your comment, don'd even exist. at least they are not is estonian. don't come back to youtube until you've grown up, kid.

[darnjack0roll]

@svenno0007 ya right u just say that coz ur wrong in everything,im not speaking to u anymore liar gaystonian bitch,go suck russian ass like u all do

[Kasejuhan]

@darnjack0roll finnish sucks not estonia did you mean that

[darnjack0roll]

@Kasejuhan nope,ur english sucks,and so does ur lanquage

[BaronSamediVoodooLoa]

@darnjack0roll You failed to capitalize the first word of your sentence as well as the word English, you mispelled your as "ur" and language as "lanquage" and you forgot to put a period at the end of your sentence. Having said that you have the audacity to say that someone elses English sucks?

[darnjack0roll]

@BaronSamediVoodooLoa i dont fuck the dot,lets say that,u fuckface

[BaronSamediVoodooLoa]

@darnjack0roll You don't fuck the dot? Seriously? You are in no position to critizice anyone's English you ignoramus.

[Kraizu]

@darnjack0roll sinu suguste debiilikute pärast me soomlastele ei meeldigi. sellise suhtumisega pole sa parem kui venelane.

[darnjack0roll]

@Kraizu i cant understand your gay language,estonia is aping everyone and therefore sucks ass

[Kraizu]

@darnjack0roll sorry, replied to the wrong comment.

also fuck you you degenerate. finnish and estonian come from the the same source so your basically you're saying that finnish is gay and I totally agree with that. lameass kulli

[darnjack0roll]

@Kraizu no they aint basically the same,estonia sucks ass,its aping everyone,shame on you gay estonians.if someone is a dick,does it mean that hes brother is?

[Kraizu]

@darnjack0roll aping everyone? please explain. and what's your problem against estonia? you one of those stalin lovers?

[darnjack0roll]

@Kraizu yeah,ur aping everyone u idiot.you aped our national hymn,our language,our KALEVALA,oursummer games and lots of more stuff,estonia sucks,your gay,you have been blocked you gaystonian troll

[Kraizu]

@darnjack0roll you are like the 5th stupid finnish faggot i've come across in youtube who thinks that estonians stole finland's national anthem and language. how did we steal your language? we spoke are own language and then out of nowhere decided to steal another country's language, is that what your saying? fucking moron. our language (and your) developed when there weren't any countries, only some tribes. go to wikipedia or something and educate yourself.

[maitsepolitsei]

@Kraizu

yes we was steal them, also sometimes we steal cars, cellphones and other things from finland, so my dear finnish friends... better be polite with us :D u never know, whos next victim xD

[Kraizu]

@darnjack0roll same thing with kalevala and kalevipoeg. it's material comes from centuries ago when there was no finland nor estonia. they contained old oral stories witch were very similar in in both areas. and the anthem was sung by students in both lands but with different lyrics. after the WWI we both declared as our anthem. yes, it was written by a finn, but he didn't write it as your national anthem. sooner or later you have to face the fact that we come from and are the same people

[darnjack0roll]

@Kraizu well,atleast finland wasnt the 1 who got CONGUERED BY RUSKIES

[Kraizu]

@darnjack0roll that's your response? what does that have to do with us "aping" everybody? and sorry for being 100 times smaller and weaker than those fuckers

[ristuksenvittu]

@Kraizu

dont care about him, not every finn is a total dick, just 90% of us are, me myself belong in to that 10% since im just 90% dick, and i dont see "maamme" being the finnish national song since it was written by a finlands swedish person and the music was composed by a german peron, you can keep that song, i think finlandia is way way better since it really is made in finland by finn too bad its not our national song...

[Kraizu]

@ristuksenvittu to be honest we don't like it very much as well. it's the official national anthem, but the one closer to our hearts is "mu isamaa on minu arm" which was used in the soviet times because the official was banned. but I think if we make that on our official anthem it will lose it's significance and magic. btw I love the finns and I get that some of you are pissed at us and I can't blame you

[Feyzala]

hey, this is cool! I've been looking around for a place to learn estonian :)

I just wanna clarify, the letter õ - the way you say it here, it sounds exactly like the Turkish ı. But other places I've looked have said stuff like 'somewhere between o and ö', or a bit like ä...

Link to turkish pronounciation: onlineturkish. com/Tr1/Tr1i. mp3

[csm3owner]

@Feyzala It's similar, but still not quite the same. You should hold your mouth like pronouncing english "e" (as in "leaf") and then try to say "o" (as in "lock").

[Feyzala]

@csm3owner Hmm, thanks. Difficult... I tried what you said, and it just sounded like a was disgusted my something :P

I think I'll need to listen to more spoken Estonian...

[insanesnape]

Thank you! I am Russian, currently striving to learn Estonian. This is very helpful.

[Choson4eva]

@Username62752

The Finnish National Anthem has the same tune as the Estonian one. The original song was set to the lyrics of Vårt land (Swedish).

[Giverney13]

Thx for the upload-a very close relative spoke it fluently but has since passed-I appreciate it and it was presented well and the video helps alot.Hope you load some more

[hollabooiers]

@Username62752 Haha fair enough!

[hollabooiers]

@Username62752 Finnish and Estonian anthems have the same melody. :)

[Centaurian0190]

But whan is defference beetwen regular o to estonian õ?

[spl0uf]

@Centaurian0190

o and õ are pronounced with the tongue in the same position, but for "o" your lips are rounded while they are not for "õ"

[akslimarkus]

im estonian :)

[SuicidalBunny94]

Is it weird that even though estonian is my native language, i'm not able to speak it as well as i speak english ? O_O oh and Your english was a bit difficult to understand (hear) , You should add subtitles to your video (: anyway, thanks for this, now i won't forget the alphabet ^-^ by the way, i thought Chocolate in estonian was spelt as "sokolaad" <- thats how i've been writing it anyway. O_o I fail at my own native language -___- wtf.

[zengingok]

i liked it. Its quite familiar to my mother language. Thanks for sharing.

[moviemaker1004]

Õ and Ö are very similiar letters actually :P

[ofelirris]

Hello! nice vid, very useful!

I was wondering if you could help me with this... I want to get a tattoo that says:

am I dreaming?

But i want to try it in different languages... so if you could please translate it for me to estonian i would appreciate it a lot.

Thanks!

[TwiponTV]

(if daydreaming ) Am I dreaming?

Kas ma unistan?

( OR if like sleeping dream or something like that then) :

Kas ma näen und?

[ofelirris]

@TwiponTV

Thanks!

I think the second option is more

appropriate... the pronunciation...

is it "kas" like in "castle" ?

"ma" like in "mather" or like in "male" ?

"uni" like in "unic" or like in "punish" ?

: )

[HMinorCold]

@ofelirris yea thats right

[remi9020]

@ofelirris am I dreaming? Kas ma unistan?

[oppa498]

tubli vaga hea tund:) ikka meeldi

[Centaurian0190]

finnish is looks like estonian

[Nschm44]

Some similiar words. In Estonian: Banaan In Finnish: Banaani In Estonian: Keel In Finnish: Kieli In Estonian: Kaheksa In Finnish: Kahdeksan In Estonian: Maasikas In Finnish: Mansikka In Estonian: Punane In Finnish: Punainen In Estonian: Tamm In Finnish: Tammi In Estonian: Uus In Finnish: Uusi

[555666666662]

G- Gloobus. On küll sõna alguses:)

[Welaroye]

@555666666662 laensõna.

[hirajem]

Ok. Official science says that estonian is relative with hungarian. I have tried to listen som estonian and to see some words but for me estonian is very strange language. Ok I don't know the estonian grammar but the words are strange. I have found only one similar word: elu (estonian) is él/élet (hungarian).

[LJElliott96]

They are very distant;y related, and Estonian has been influenced a lot by German and Russian.

[erwinparker]

its SOMEhow related indeed but yeah... i know some hungarians who live in estonia... i cant understand a word... cant even guess the context!

[olosran]

Thank you Estonian Girl ! Estonian is great. Greetings from Brazil.

[sneighwena]

Is Estonian and Finnish interchangeable?

[sorenti]

no. it's biggest myth that they are, but in reality it doesn't work. but because the languages are extremely similar, it doesn't take long to pick up the other language. the "problem" is that we have some differences in grammar use (for example, we say "on a floor" whereas finnish would say "in a floor", the meaning and the word is same, but a small difference. devil is in the details ;)

another thing is big big differences in vocabulary. and it's easy to make stupid mistakes

[sneighwena]

I thought Russian was another official language in Estonia.

[haveaniceday45]

@sneighwena yeah in here Estonia,there are alot of people,who spoke russian

[roxy78978]

tra kus jõhvi on:D?

[sorenti]

ida-virumaal

[roxy78978]

ida-virumaal ta ju on aga tra:D KOHTLA JÄRVE  on seal:D JÕHVIT on vaja:D

[sorenti]

ei ma aimasin, et sa sellest kaardist räägid :D ma lihtsalt tahtsin lolli nalja teha

[dnlzmd]

lmao P is punane!!! more like PUNANI!

[holy942]

f on küll eesti täht ainult et võõrtäaht !!!

slluii f on kh eesti täht ja x ning y ka aga neid ei kasuta lihtsalt :D

[sorenti]

nopes. eesti tähestik on siiski abdeghijk jne lihtsalt, need muud mainitakse kah ära, et uusrikkad saaksid enda lastele panna nimesid nagu Cäthyleen-Xafandra jne

[holy942]

Kus on Jõhvi, Narva, Haapsalu ja muud linnad krt :D

[necturne]

peale Jõhvi on Haapsalu ja Narva olemas :)

[Atyde91]

i can't pronounce this: Õ omg all of those sounds with extra dots are weird

thou, pratice makes perfect :D

[TeamTwinsanity]

I'm from estonia and the Russians who don't like actually Estonia are annoying

[StereoMahcine]

im speaking est :D. u frogot one thing its full of motherfucking rus

[silluii]

"F" is not a Estonian letter!

The correct alphabet is: Aa, Bb, Dd, Ee, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Pp, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, Vv, Õõ, Ää, Öö, Üü.

Säh sulle! :D

[boracanasli3]

I have Passport to 35 languages for learning foreign languages, Including Estonian.

[Twilightererum]

thx for the video ♥

[finnishbarbie]

most of the alphabet are the same in finland so it's easy to learn them. but some words have totally different meaning in finnish so it sometimes feels funny

[IXOY3follower]

almost everything is the same, but ÕÕÕ is their favorite to pronounce!! ..

they find it actually a little bit hard, but its understandable :)

[DeadScarab]

@finnishbarbie

same goes for estonians :3

i love listening to finnish radio^^

[buzz0097]

Es hört sich genauso an wie das deutsche

[MaBu888]

Naljakas kui "normaalne" ütlesid.

[kakosuranosx]

Hahaha...You're here, too! Hey, Estonian is so awsome that I think Ima gonna try it. I don't know if I'm correct but it looks like Romanian. I liked it. :)

[MaBu888]

It has only accidental similarities to Romanian, though. But once you try it you'll know. :)

[xixit]

Thanks for the video. :)

This has been one of the better explanations of how to pronounce the Estonian alphabet.

And since I'm Danish, it's actually not that hard.

I don't know how to make those rolling r's though...

[Tatikrae]

Teeks natuke tähenärimist. Kõik F tähte sisaldavad sõnad on laensõnad, mitte ainult sellega algavad.

[dimelo1001]

Täpselt! olen lugenud et vanad eestlased isegi ei osanud seda hääldada.... need f tähega sõnad võiks ära kaotada (liiga saksapärane)..

[forsakentoyou]

Which is the difference between "Õ" and "Ö" ?

I hear the same thing! =p

[ElPincheBurrito]

Do you speak French? Ö is like e in "je". And the õ thing I explained in the video :)

[rwiho]

its not same thing ;)

[sohnofon]

You have to see how it is pronounced to understand the difference. It is a big difference though.