What words in Estonian should I be especially careful about pronunciation?

15 comments

1. I think videos like that are cherry picking. In real life, discussions have a context and people will be understanding

2. We don’t really have anything that offensive that you should worry about accidentally saying. It’s quite difficult to accidentally say something like “Communism works, the Red Army were liberators, Estonia is just part of the butthurt belt”.

3. aitäh – thank you

   aita – help me

   i think the most common words that are often confused but with context people probably get it most of the time

4. Kaksteist kuud – twelve months, but sounds like “cock tastes good”

5. There’s a beer called Must Nunn – Don’t call it Must Munn

6. Porgand sounds like poor cunt

7. There are none. Context is everything

8. don’t say lehm-madu-uss very quickly

9. 12 months
   and
   nr: 1002

   Put it in Google translate

10. Don’t try to pronounce names that you aren’t sure about.

11. Küsima – to ask

    Kusima – slightly grammatically incorrect (but clearly understandable) way of saying to have a wee

12. Foreigner here. My friends have taught me about habe and häbe. One means beard and the other one vulva or something. I never remember which is which.

13. Glitter 😀 Estonians pronounce “g” basically like “k”, so I was shocked when I heard it somewhere, in a completely safe-for-work situation…

14. Kuidas kirjapildis seletada palk (veetakse metsast) ja palk (töötasu)?

15. In Finland, when there is a flag day, we say “liputuspäivä”. And as Finnish and Estonian is almost same language (50% of basic words are almost same if I remember correctly), I thought that “liputus” (finnish word) is “lipputtamine” in Estonian. When I told to my Estonian colleagues about “lipputus day”, they had a laugh and I had no idea why.

    So I would guess, do not use this word.