Examples given below come from book one of A. H. Tammsaare's five-part epic, "Tõde ja õigus".
ei pole mitte ega ära, ärge eba- teps alles | Ei means "no". Unlike some of the other Finnic languages, Estonian does not conjugate this word; it's always ei. Examples: Sinu raha ma ei taha. = I don't want your money. Töö on töö, leib on leib, ei põlga ühte ega teist. = Work is work and bread is bread; I don't sneer at either one. Seda mulda ei kaeva keegi ei päiva- ega aastapalgaga. = This earth was not simply shoveled for a day's pay or a year's pay. Pole means the same as ei ole; in other words, "it isn't", "it's not", or "they aren't". Etymologically, it comes from the phrase ep ole, where ep is an older conjugated form of ei (third person singular). Examples: See pole naiste töö lehma soost välja vedada. = Pulling a cow out of the marsh isn't women's work. Kivi, mille põllult korjad või mööda lauda vankrile veeretead, polegi nagu kivi. = The stones he scooped from the field and rolled onto planks in the wagon were no ordinary stones. Mitte means "not", "non", or "not one". Etymologically, it is related to the word mis ("what"). Examples: Kehalt kõhnavõitu, mitte pikk. = He was on the skinny side, not tall. Aga nagu mees mehega, mitte nagu saunamees peremehega. = Just man to man, not cottager against master. Ega means "nor", "not either" or "not also"; in other words, it is the negative form of the word "and" or "also" (samuti mitte; ja ei). Ega loom rumal ole, küll ta teab, kuhu ta läheb. = Animals aren't stupid - they know where to go. (This is a great example, because ega is used here on its own; it's the only indication that the sentence is negative.) A more literally translation might have said "And animals aren't stupid..." Need ei anna ju piima ega võid. = They don't give milk or butter. In this example, and in the following examples, ega is used along with ei. Töö on töö, leib on leib, ei põlga ühte ega teist. = Work is work and bread is bread; I don't sneer at either one. Seda mulda ei kaeva keegi ei päiva- ega aastapalgaga. = This earth was not simply shoveled for a day's pay or a year's pay. Ära is used to give a negative command in the sina-form. If you are using the teie-form, it changes to Ärge. Both words mean "don't." Examples: Võia võid peale, ära paljalt söö, pühade aeg. = Put some butter on it, don't eat it plain - this is a holiday. "Ärge talle haiget tehke," palus perenaine tagant järele. = "Don't hurt her," the mistress pleaded as they left. "Ää ole nii ebausklik," manitses Andres. = "Don't be so superstitious," Andres warned. (Ää is an older, very colloquial form. In regular speech or writing this would normally be "Ära ole nii ebausklik," manitses Andres.) Eba is a prefix which is used in much the same way as the prefixes "un-", "dis-", or "ab-" in English. It makes the root word negative, or forms an opposite. Examples: "Mitte ammu, mõne päeva eest," vastas Mari ebamääraselt. = Not long ago. A few days," anwered Mari evasively. "Ää ole nii ebausklik," manitses Andres. = "Don't be so superstitious," Andres warned. In both of these examples, the prefix eba- reverses the meaning of the previous word (määraselt, usklik). Other examples for eba, which show the negative form more clearly, include ebareaalne (unreal) and ebanormaalne (abnormal). Note that ebausk means "superstition" (the opposite of usk "faith, religion"), while umbusk means "disbelief" (the opposite of usk "belief". Teps means "not at all"; it is usually used along with other negative words. It comes from an older phrase, mitte eps, although (as with pole from ep ole) the original phrase has disappeared completely; in modern language a common phrase is teps mitte. Examples: Ja meie ei või teile teps midagi teha, et oleks teile õieti tehtud. = And there's nothing we can do to you, which is only right. Sina ei pea mitte hunti paluma, vaid valvake ja paluge, et teps ei tuleks kiusatus. = Do not pray to the wolf, but guard your son to keep him from temptation. (Here the word teps isn't even translated, but it adds emphasis: "no temptation at all". Alles has various meanings, including "yet," "only", and "still". It is therefore not technically a negative word, but it is included in this list because, even when it has a positive meaning in Estonian (as it does in the examples from Tammsaare below), it can sometimes require a negative statement in the English translation. Examples: Alles nüüd katsuti lehma jalule ajada. = Only then did they try to shove the cow up onto her feet. Literally, it means "not until now did they try to drive the cow to her feet". [Implied: they didn't try before that.] Soo on ju alles külm. = The marsh is still cold. [Implied: it won't be cold in the future.] Oled alles noorukene. = You're still young. [Implied: you won't be young in the future.] The examples from Tammsaare above do not fully show how alles can be used with a negative meaning; a better example might be Suvesoe tuleb alles mai lõpust, "warm summer weather won't come until the end of May" or "warm summer weather comes only at the end of May and not before." Alles mai doens't mean "until May"; it means "not until May" or "not before May". Avatud alles kell 14.00 doesn't mean "open until two o'clock", it means "not open until two o'clock", in other words "closed until two o'clock"; this is where it's helpful to recognize the "negative" translation of alles. (When discussing times, it can help to think of it as a synonym for alates: "starting from"). |
Eesti etümoloogiasõnaraamat; Tõde ja õigus I by A. H. Tammsaare (1974 edition); and Truth and Justice: Andres and Pearu, translated by Inna Feldback and Alan Peter Trei (2015 edition).