possession

The basic rules for stating possession in Finnish are the same as in Estonian. One uses the ADE case and the verb BE and the item or person that is possessed in the NOM case.

F: Lapsella on kissa.
E: Lapsel on kass.
The child has a cat.

F: Pekkalla on kaksi siskoa.

E: Pekkal on kaks õde.

Pekka has two sisters.

F: Meillä on aikaa.

E: Meil on aega.

We have time.

The questions and negative constructions are also easy to form.

F: Onko sulla aikaa?

E: Kas sul on aega?

Do you have time?

F: Ei, mulla ei ole aikaa.

E: Ei, mul ei ole aega.

No, I don't have any time.

F: Onko hänellä koira?

E: Kas tal on koer?

Does s/he have a dog?

F: Ei, hänellä ei ole koiraa.

E: Ei, tal ei ole koera.

No, s/he doesn't have a dog.

F: Onko sulla rahaa?

E: Kas sul on raha?

Do you have money?

F: Ei, mulla ei ole rahaa.

E: Ei, mul pole raha.

No, I don't have any money.

Remember that when the statement is negative we use the partitive case regardless of whether a full object appeared in the question. Thus we say:

Mulla ei ole koiraa/ Mul pole koera NOT koira/ koer.

Notice that in Estonian you have the choice of using ei ole or pole which is a contraction of ep + ole. Ep was an archaic variant of ei that is no long in use.

Those are the similarities but there is also the following difference. In Finnish, when both possessor and possessee are concrete and inanimate we make use of the INE case in place of the ADE above. This distinction does not exist in Estonian and we stay with the use of the ADE case.

F: Tässä ruuassa ei ole makua.

E: Sel toidul ei ole maitset.

This food has no taste.

F: Tässä pöydässä on vain kolme jalkaa.

E: Sel laual on ainult kolm jalga.

This table has only three legs.

In Estonian the correct form is selle as in sellel nädalal 'this week' (tällä viikolla in Finnish) but it's common to say sel.

Compare:

Tässä pöydässä on vain kolme jalkaa. (INE case)

This table has only three legs.

Pojalla on kiva nimi. (ADE case)

The boy has a nice name.

In Estonian these are both handled by the ADE.

Sellel laual on ainult kolm jalga.

Poisil on kena nimi.

Mä pidän

A learner of Estonian who has just started out on Finnish could be forgiven for thinking that the Finnish phrase mä pidän is the Finnish of ma pean (I must) but it's not! * Mä pidän means I like, the equivalent of mulle meeldib. Because of the argument structure of this phrase is different in the two languages, the thing or person that is liked is treated as an object in Finnish but a subject in Estonian. Let's take a look at a few examples, some of which come from the excellent book Colloquial Finnish by Daniel Abondolo. In this blog I will make much reference of this book and as I do so translate the Finnish into Estonian so I get practice in both languages.

F: Minä pidän kahvista.
E: Mulle meeldib kohv.
I like coffee.

F: Minä pidän teestä.
E: Mulle meeldib tee.
I like tea.

The structure of the Finnish sentence is: SUB pitä- OBJ=stA (Liker in NOM, verb, thing liked in ELA)
The structure of the Estonian sentence is: OBJ=le meeldima SUB (Liker in ALL, verb, thing liked in NOM)

The Finnish closely resembles the English structure but in the Estonian, a more literal loose translation into English might be 'Coffee/ tea is agreeable for me', very similar with the Irish structure if I do say so myself (Is maith liom caife/ tae)

So not only is the verb different in the two languages different but the whole argument structure of the sentence is also different. Let's take a few more examples.

F: Mä pidän televisiosta, mutta mä kuuntelen mieluummin radiota.
E: Mulle meeldib televisioon, aga ma eelistan raadiot kuulata. (more formal)
E: Mulle meeldib televisioon, aga ma kuulan meelsamini raadiot. (less formal)
I like television but I prefer to listen to the radio.

F: He pitävät vedestä, mutta he juovat mieluummin viiniä
E: Neile meeldib vesi, aga nad eelistavad veini juua. (more formal)
E: Neile meeldib vesi, aga nad joovad meelsamini veini. (less formal)
They like water but they prefer to drink wine.

mieluummin 'more gladly' in Finnish and meelsamini 'more gladly' Estonian
eelistama 'prefer' in Estonian

You can see similarities in verb conjugation between the two languages here:

F: Mä juon, sä jout, me juomme, he juovat
E: Ma joon, sa jood, me joome, nad joovad
I drink, you drink, we drink, they drink

Of course, be aware in Finnish that it's more common in the spoken language to say ne juo than he juovat.

What about the negative, 'I don't like...' This is mä en pidä in Finnish and mulle ei meeldi in Estonian. This time some examples from my own head.

F: Mä en pidä maidosta, sitten mä juon mustaa teetä ilman maitoa tai vihreää teetä.
E: Mulle ei meeldi piim, sellepärast ma joon musta teed ilma piimata või rohelist teed.
I don't like milk so I drink black tea without milk or green tea.

F: Lapset ei pidä kouluun mennä.
E: Lastele ei meeldi koolis käia.
The children don't like going to school.

F: Tyttö ei pidä juustosta, mutta se pitää suklaasta.
E: Tüdrukule ei meeldi juust, aga talle meeldib šokolaad.
The girl doesn't like cheese, but she likes chocolate.

* That said, the verb pitä- means 'like, hold' and in Estonian the verb pidama, from whence comes the phrase ma pean, also means 'hold'. The equivalent of Estonian ma pean is mun pitää. (More about use of pitä- from here)

ALL = allative case; ELA = elate case

Thanks to ainurakne for comments
Comment by ainurakne on Unilang.com
Actually, when I started to learn Finnish and heard phrases minä pidän/en pidä, then for some reason I knew instantly what they meant. It seems to me that I have heard something similar in Estonian (maybe in some dialects), especially in negative sentences, for example: 'Ma ei pea sinust palju.' or 'Ma ei pea eriti piimast.' (maybe someone wiser than me can elaborate on this one), although, maybe I just confuse it with a phrase '(kellest/millest) lugu pidama', which nowadays means mostly 'to respect someone/something', but is also widely used like this: 'Ma ei pea piimast eriti lugu.' = I don't like milk very much / I am not very fond of milk / milk is not one of my favorites. meelsasti - meelsamini - kõige meelsamini or meelsaimini gladly, more gladly, most gladly