This basic dictionary has been designed for foreign learners of Estonian at beginner level. It is assumed, however, that users are familiar enough with Estonian grammar to be able to suspect that the word they come across may be an inflected form. They should know at least the most typical Estonian inflectional endings. The main forms of inflecting words are provided in brackets: for nouns, these include the Genitive, Partitive and Illative Singular, and the Genitive and Partitive plural cases. For adjectives the comparative degree and the short superlative are also given. For verbs, the main forms include the da-infinitive, the 1st person singular in the Present and Simple Past tenses, and the Past Participles, active and passive (-nud and -tud).
The dictionary contains over 1000 most frequently used words, and/or their principal forms. The choice of words is based on two frequency dictionaries of Estonian words. This dictionary aims to provide the user with up-to-date examples showing how the language is used in everyday communication.