Declension means various things in various languages. In nutshell it's nothing more or less than adding some endings to a word (mostly nouns, but also adjectives, pronouns, numerals) to express such things as number, gender, relationship of a word to other words in a phrase or sentence.

Some examples of declension in English include:

1. expressing number - car-cars;

2. expressing possession - Laura's book;3. expressing comparison - fast-faster-fastest.

To the dismay of many foreigners, there are 14 different cases of declension in Estonian. Yet be assured, all of them make sense at the end - it is just matter of time grasping the idea, being able to recognize its function and starting to apply it little by little.

The first 3 of Estonian grammatical cases involve mainly changes in the root (no distinct ending) and these cases are called: nominative, genitive  and partitive. Nominative marks the main form you would find in the dictionary (mental note - that's the form English language mostly uses). Genitive marks possession and always ends with the vowel. Partitive is often called object case since word in partitive case usually functions as object like "you" in the sentence I love you. In Estonian partitive may have distinct ending -d/-t but not always. Upon root variance, or gradation of base forms, Estonian dictionaries provide you with the first 3 cases.

The next 11 cases have distinct endings and are therefore easier to pinpoint. Note that these endings are added to the genitive case of the word. It’s especially important to know when the nominative of a word ends with a consonant. Note that we have total of 6 cases to express spatial relationships (from sisseütlev to alaltütlev).

Case designation

Nimetav/nominative

Subject (Auto on ilus - The car is beautiful)

Omastav/genitive

Possession (Auto aknad on udused - Car windows are foggy).

Osastav/partitive

Object (Ma nägin tema autot - I saw his/her car)

Sisseütlev/illative

Into the car (Pane see autosse - Put it in the car)

Seesütlev/inessive

Inside the car (Autos oli soe - It was warm in the car)

Seestütlev/elative

Out of the car (Tule autost välja - Get out of the car). It also equals to 'of' as in 'thinking of you' - mõeldes sinust.

Alaleütlev/allative

Onto the car (Vihmapiisad kukkusid autole - Raindrops fell onto the car). It also equals to English 'to' used with nouns, i.e. 'to you'. For example, 'Ma annan sulle auto' (I give the car to you)

Alalütlev/adessive

On the car (Lind istus autol - A bird was sitting on the car)

Alaltütlev/ablative

Off of the car (Lind lendas autolt minema - The bird flew off of the car)

Saav/translative

Becoming a car (well it sounds funny here!), chaning into a car (even funnier!) Perhaps "õpetajaks saama" (become a teacher) makes more sense.

Rajav/terminative

To the car or until X (Teed autoni oli raske leida - It was hard to find a way to the car) Another example: Me ootasime lõpuni  - We waited until the end

Olev/essive

As a car (Registreeriti minu autona - It was registered as my car)

Ilmaütlev/abessive

Without a car (Olin kaks kuud autota - I was two months without a car)

Kaasaütlev/comitative

With a car (Autoga on mõnus sõita - It is nice to ride with a car)

Click, to isten to the case designations