In Estonian, the present, past simple, present perfect and past perfect are distinguished. In the spoken language and in the press, the analytical saama-future also occurs. This is formed on the model of German werden-future: the inflected verb saama 'to get', 'to become' + the supine of any other verb, e.g. olema 'to be' > saab olema 'will be', tulema 'to come' > saab tulema 'will come', etc.

Verbs are conjugated in the active and passive voice, and indicative, imperative, conditional and indirect mood, in the affirmative and negative form.

Since the verb inflections clearly express the person, the personal pronouns do not generally need to be used, except in the third person of the verb olema 'to be'.

In Estonian-language dictionaries, the verbs are presented after a form of the infinitive, the supine. In the case of the verb '(to) love', for instance, the supine is armasta-ma, and infinitive armasta-da.

The supine was originally the verbal noun in the illative; its nominal character is preserved to date. It is possible to compound some other case forms from the supine, e.g., inessive armastama-s 'in the act of loving', elative armastama-st 'from the act of loving', and abessive armastama-ta 'without loving'. The supine which always ends in -ma is used, for instance, in connection with the verbs pidama 'must', hakkama 'begin', and minema 'go', e.g. ma pean minema 'I must go'.

The infinitive has a somewhat partitive character and is used in other instances, for example, with the verbs tahtma 'want' ja võima 'can', e.g. ma tahan teada 'I want to know'. The regular infinitive endings are -da and -ta.