Estonian Learning Community and Resources

While you are in the midst of your language learning journey, you might be faced with a few puzzles that you have to really work hard to understand. For example, in one blog post we talked about Estonian online language that uses letters and numbers at the same time, and of course the article explains how to understand what something like “s6brap2ev” means.    

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In more formal texts like the news or official documents, you might read a text and be faced with letter combinations that you have never seen before but keep on being repeated in the text. To help you understand some of these combos like OÜ, EMO and EL, let’s learn some important acronyms in Estonian!

One acronym that you may have seen printed on receipts from the store or on company websites is OÜ which stands for osaühing. It is the equivalent of a limited liability company, and as a matter of fact, you can start one online in Estonia.

Just like in many other languages, there are acronyms that are pronounced letter by letter (initialisms), and others which become a word of their own. OÜ is pronounced letter by letter (o - ü), but if you are a freelancer, you are a FIE (fiye), which stands for füüsilisest isikust ettevõtja. These have also become verbs, so you might also hear “oü-tamine” or “fietamine” in conversation. 

Acronyms often also refer to important institutions, so it is worth knowing them in case you need to know who to turn to when you are in a pickle!

For example, you should know EMO, which stands for erakorralise meditsiini osakond or the emergency medicine department. It works 24/7 at each hospital and is most often referred to in statistics that are published after major holidays. EMO is also pronounced as one word. 

We can also go over two acronyms related to politics and used daily in many different sectors. They are both initialisms, so they are pronounced letter by letter. The first one is ÜRO, which stands for Ühinenud Rahvaste Organisatsioon (United Nations, UN) and the second one is EL, which stands for Euroopa Liit (European Union, EU).

As a bonus question, do you know when Estonia joined the UN, and when did Estonia become a member state of the EU? 

There are also two important acronyms for linguists and language learners. The first one is EKI - Eesti Keele Instituut or the Estonian Language Institute and the second is ÕS - Eesti õigekeelsussõnaraamat or the Estonian orthographic dictionary. ÕS is also available online and can help you out with any questions you have about how to spell words correctly, find the right plurals and declinations of words. 

The Estonian Language Institute guarantees the norms of the Estonian standard language, and you can also contact them directly with any questions or suggestions that may be weighing on you. They also organize competitions to find equivalents for anglicisms (English words that have been directly borrowed into Estonian, like laptop - läpakas). 

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When you are reading the news or watching TV, you may also run into some important events like MM (Maailmameistrivõistlused or World championship) and PÖFF (Pimedate ööde filmifestival or Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival).

Which of these acronyms or initialisms did you already know and how did you hear about them? Let us know in the dedicated forum thread here. Don’t forget to also comment your reply to the bonus question in this article!

Ingrid, OLS Community Manager – Estonian