One thing... Acts on... Another thing birdo kaptas... insekton. a bird catches... an insect. subject noun verb object noun Esperanto is "grammar-coded" - you can tell what part each word plays in a sentence from the word endings: -o -on single subject noun single object noun -oj -ojn plural subject noun plural object noun To show when the action takes place, the verb tense (time) is changed by putting these endings on the verb roots: present tense --as describes it as it happens past tense --is shows an action completed future tense --os action still to begin Birdoj kaptis insektojn. Birds caught insects. Birdoj kaptos insektojn. Birds will-catch insects. Every noun and every verb follows the above rules without exception. In Esperanto, things have no gender (they are not male or female, as in many other languages.) There is only one word for 'the', no matter if the noun is singular or plural, subject or object. Therefore: La birdoj kaptas la insektojn. La birdo kaptis la insekton. In Esperanto the word order matters less than in English. All the following sentences describe the same action (only the emphasis is changed): Viro legas libron. Viro libron legas. Libron legas viro. Libron viro legas. Legas viro libron. Legas libron viro. A man reads a book. Nouns Verbs (roots) More nouns amiko (friend) far' (do, make) kafo (coffee) filo (son) forges' (forget) kuko (cake) frato (brother) hav' (have) lakto (milk) instruisto (teacher) trink' (drink) pano (bread) knabo (boy) vend' (sell) sukero (sugar) patro (father) vid' (see) teo (tea) ----- Something that describes, such as "good," is called an adjective. In Esperanto, adjectives are grammar coded with an "-a" ending. As in some other languages (but not in English) the adjective ending ("-a") has to "agree" with the noun it describes. That is, if the noun is plural, the adjective must also be plural. If the noun is an object ("-n"), the adjective must also be an object. subject thing(s) action object thing(s) bona patro havos bonan filon a good father will have a good son bonaj patroj havos bonajn filojn good fathers will have good sons (Note: "aj" is pronounced like the English word "eye".) Vocabulary Adjectives Nouns Verb Roots bela (beautiful) akvo (water) am' (love) granda (big) butiko (shop) lav' (wash) nova (new) limonado (lemonade) pet' (ask, request) sana (healthy) papero (paper) port' (carry, wear) seka (dry) plumo (pen) renkont' (meet) varma (warm) taso (cup) skrib' (write) ---- Vocabulary Nouns Verbs (infinitives) Adjectives horo (hour) atendi (to wait for) blanka (white) jaro (year) fumi (to smoke) blua (blue) mateno (morning) kuri (to run) bruna (brown) minuto (minute) sati (to be satisfied) flava (yellow) nokto (night) promeni (to stroll) griza (gray) semajno (week) respondi (to answer) nigra (black) tago (day) soifi (to be thirsty) rugxa (red) vespero (evening) vivi (to live) verda (green) demandi (to inquire, ask a question) Note the difference between demandi (related to questions) and peti (related to requests or "petitions"). Both can be translated as "ask" in English. Remember, j is pronounced like y, so jaro = YAH-row. Adverbs: Adverbs are like adjectives, but instead of describing nouns, adverbs describe verbs and adjectives, usually telling how, when, or where. (Adverbs in English usually end in -ly). In Esperanto, adverbs derived from other words always end in -e. We can use the basic idea of a word in different ways by simply changing the grammar-coded ending: sano = health sxi havas bonan sanon sana = healthy sxi estas sana sani = to be healthy sxi sanas sane = healthily sxi sane vivas Adverbs usually precede the word they describe. Note: The pronunciation of adverbs, ending in "-e", needs some attention. In general, every vowel makes up one syllable (sound unit) of an Esperanto word. Therefore, we must read the two-part sound of "sane" as "SAH-neh" and not as the one-part sound of the English word "sane". Numbers (cardinal numbers are not grammar-coded: no endings) nulo 0 dek 10 tridek 30 unu 1 dek unu 11 tridek unu 31 du 2 dek du 12 tridek du 32 tri 3 dek tri 13 ... kvar 4 dek kvar 14 kvardek 40 kvin 5 ... kvindek 50 ses 6 and so on to sesdek 60 sep 7 dudek 20 cent 100 ok 8 dudek unu 21 mil 1 000 naux 9 ... miliono 1 000 000 Numbers (ordinal numbers have the ending "-a", like adjectives, and take the plural "-j" and object "-n", like adjectives) unua first dudeka twentieth dua second sepdek unua seventy-first tria third centa hundredth unue firstly trie thirdly due secondly kvare fourthly Note: the "aux" is pronounced as "ow" in cow. Note: the adverb form of the numbers is sometimes translated as: unue = in the first place; trie = in the third place, etc. ---- Now let's look at statements, questions, and answers: A statement: La pano estas bruna. The bread is brown. A question: Cxu la pano estas bruna? Is the bread brown? The answer: (a) Jes, la pano estas bruna. (b) Ne, la pano ne estas bruna, gxi estas blanka. Note: Every question is based on a statement; we identify that statement, placing the 'doubting' word cxu (literally, 'whether') in front, and then we are asking "Is this true?" Also note that the word order in Esperanto is not changed; only the word 'cxu' is placed in front of the statement. English question: Will the boys sell the cake? Underlying statement: (The boys will sell the cake.) (La knaboj vendos la kukon.) Esperanto question: Cxu la knaboj vendos la kukon? All 'yes-or-no' questions are handled in the same way. Vocabulary Anglujo England lernejo school antaux before majo May acxeti to buy mangxi to eat biciklo bicycle mejlo mile cxambro room monujo purse cxokolado chocolate neuxtrala neutral danco dance ovo egg domo house plej most... ehxo echo plena full Euxropo Europe posxo pocket Euxklido Euclid sageto dart geografio geography sandvicxo sandwich gustumi to taste segxo seat, chair gxojo joy suno sun hxoro choir sxati to like jahxto yacht sxuo shoe juna young teatrajxo (theatrical) play jxaluzo jealousy tuj immediately jxauxdo Thursday vojagxi to travel jxurnalo newspaper kio what (thing) leciono lesson best advice: practice! practice! libro book practice! logxi to reside ---- Saluton! (Hello! Greetings!) Bonan tagon! Good day! Bonan matenon! Good morning! Bonan vesperon! Good evening! Bonan nokton! Good night! Kiel vi fartas? How are you? (farti = to fare, be) Bone, dankon. Kaj vi? Fine, thanks. And you? Suficxe bone. So-so. (literally, sufficiently well) Ne tre bone. Not so good. Bonan apetiton! Enjoy your food! (Bon appetit!) Je via sano! To your health! Same al vi, dankon. Same to you, thanks. Gxis la revido. See you later. (literally, until the re-seeing) Adiaux. Goodbye. (Adieu). Conversation: If two people can talk about themselves for 5 minutes each, then they can easily have at least a 10 minute conversation. By the end of this course, you should have written down all your vital statistics and personal details (true or false!) and you should know them by heart. After that, you should be able to give a brief talk about yourself in Esperanto, even if you have to prompt yourself with a 'cheat-sheet' in English. Let's take a look at an example about John Brown: Mia nomo estas Johano Bruno. Mi logxas en Usono. Mi komencis lerni Esperanton antaux kvar semajnoj. Gxi estas tre facila lingvo. Mi logxas en domo kun mia edzino kaj niaj infanoj. Ni havas unu filinon kaj du filojn. Mi havas korespondantojn en tri landoj. There are 45 very useful words which are a part of a regular system of correlated words (known technically, therefore, as "correlatives"). The meaning of any correlative is the combined meaning of the root (beginning) and the ending: (simple, isn't it?) ki- [what] -o thing -a kind of, sort of ti- [that] -e place -u one, or person i- [some] -om quantity (amount) -am time cxi- [every] -al reason, for...reason -el manner, in...way neni- [no] -es one's; person's examples: tio = that thing iam = sometime nenie = no where Typical correlatives and their equally typical English equivalents: English Esperanto how? (in) what manner kiel when? (at) what time kiam where? (at, in) what place kie why? (for) what reason kial how much? (in) what amount kiom always (at) every time cxiam thus (in) that way, manner tiel nobody no one, no person neniu somewhere (at) some place ie Pay attention to the accent: ne-NI-e, KI-u, TI-al, etc. Note that in English prepositions may be included in the meaning of the Esperanto correlative. The endings "a" and "u" take the grammar coding "-n" and/or "-j" where appropriate. The ending "o" takes the grammar coding "-n" where appropriate. If a question contains a question word such as "kio" or "kie", one does not use the yes/no question word "cxu": What is that? = Kio estas tio? Where is that? = Kie estas tio? Compare with: Are you drinking? = Cxu vi trinkas?