ESTONIAN | EESTI KEEL
SYNTAX | SÜNTAKS
Word Order
"Estonian is known as a free word order language" according to Martin Ehala, of Tallinn University,'s paper The Word Order of Estonian: Implications to Universal Language (2006). This means that one could free form sentences essentially, but there is a general default word order; SVO and SOV (for regular clause and using negation). However, XVS is also just as much used as SVO in Estonian.
Examples of the following are in English for purposes of explanation:
SVO: I like dogs.
SOV: I thee wed (old English). No negation in English.
XVS: Have you the time?/Got milk? Less commonly used in English.
KEY/LEGEND:
SVO = Subject + Verb +Object
SOV = Subject+ Object + Verb
XVS = Inversion (Verb + Subject)
Now let's look at word order with estonian examples.
SVO: Ma olen trüdruk. // I am a girl
XVS: Oled trüdruk? // Are you a girl?
"Oled" is "Are you" in one word.
*SOV is not icluded as we rarely use it in English, and I cannot think of a sentence that would translate well into Estonian.