First step: the pronunciation. There are 28 letters. Piece of cake
C: pronunced as in TSar
Ĉ: pronunced as in TCHekoslovakia
E: pronunced about the same way as in Edible
G: pronunced as in Glove
Ĝ: pronunced as in Giberrish
H: pronunced as in Have
Ĥ: pronunced about the same way as the spanish Jota (gutural r)
J: as the y in You or the same way as the german J
Ĵ: Pronunced as in leiSure (or the same way as the French J)
O: pronunced as in tOne
R: rolled, as in the spanish R
S: pronunced as in Sun
Ŝ: pronunced as in SHip
U: pronunced as in shOOt
Ŭ: pronunced as in Wet
The rest of the letters (a,b,d, f, i, k, l, m, n, p, t, v, z ) are pronunced the same way as in French. q , w, x, y letters don't exist in Esperanto.Esperanto is also a phonetic language, meaning that every letter has only one unique sound and is always pronunced the same way. Vowels( a ,e, i, o, u) are pronunced distinctly in a word and don't mesh with each other to create new sounds, they only do mesh with consonnants to create syllables.
J and Ŭ are considered to be half-vowels as they always mesh with other "true" vowels. Also, the stress is always on the penultimate syllable of a word: GRANda(tall/big), BOna(good), VERda(green), POmo(apple),FIlo(son).
Word endings:
In Esperanto, every noun ends in -O, every adjective ends in -A and every adverb ends in -E. The infinitive form of verbs always ends in -I. To form the plural, one only has to add -J to the ending of any word.
There is no exception to this rule. Exemples:
La verda(j) pomo(j)----- the green apple(s)
La pura(j) akvo(j)------ the clean water(s)
La granda(j) viro(j)------the tall man (men)
Mi manĝas rapide----- I eat quickly
You'll notice that the adjective is inflected in Esperanto, whereas it's not in english. Most of the time, there is no definite word order in the sentences, especially when the accusative case (which we will see later) is
involved in the sentences
Like in english,there is only one definite article in Esperanto (la) and no indefinite article and partitive article at all:
La knabo venis-------the boy came-----------definite
Knabo venis--------a boy came-------------indefinite
Mi volas sukeron----I want (some) sugar (je veux DU sucre)-------partitive
The Pronuns:
Mi: I
Vi: you
Li / Ŝi: he/she
Ĝi: it
Ni: we
Vi: you (plural)
Ili: they
Oni : one ("On" in French)
Si: one self (reflective pronoun)
To make possessive adjectives, you only have to add the -A ending to the Pronouns:
Mia kato estas blanka---- My cat is white.
Via sana frato----- your healthy brother.
Lia forta patro(sed mia estas pli forta !)-----his strong father (but mine is stronger !).
Iliaj arboj--------their trees.
Verbs and declension: so easy you wouldn't believe it:
here are some verbs in the infinitive:
Veni: to come.
Manĝi: to eat.
Soifi: to be thirsty
Vidi: to see.
Rigardi: to look.
Ami: to love.
Fari: to do.
Forgesi: to forget.
Havi: to have
Esti: to be
skribi: to write.
To express the present, all you need to do is replace the -I ending with -AS:
Mi venas: I come.
Ŝi havas: she has.
Ni amas: we love.
....and so on.
The ending for the past is -IS, the future is -OS, the conditionnal is -US and the imperative -U.
Again, there is no exception to this rule, the verbs are always conjugated the same way, no matter the
pronoun. To express the negation, one only have to add NE next to the verb:
Mi ne soifas: I'm not thirsty
li ne estas: he is not
ŝi ne vidos: she won't see.
The accusative:
The Accusative case indicates the direct object in a sentence. Languages such as French and English are almost entirely devoid of the concept of cases to express the roles of the numerous chunks of a sentence, though some remnants of the accusative case can still be found ( Je LE vois/ I see HIM). In Esperanto, we use the -N ending to express the direct object of the sentence, the nouns as well their adjectives undergo the inflection when they act as the direct object. If the direct object is a plural, the -N ending is always added after the -J ending (which expresses the plural):
Li vidis sian filon: he saw his(own) son.
Ni volis rigardi la birdojn : we wanted to look at the birds.
Knaboj amos knabinojn: boys will love girls.
Like I mentionned, the accusative is also useful as it allows you to play with the word order. Exemples using one of the preceding sentences:
Sian filon li vidis / li sian filon vidis/ vidis li sian filon / sian filon vidis li. etc.
They all mean "he saw his ( own) son" though you can build the sentence the way you like without having to worry about what fits where. Warning: Never use the accusative after the verb "to be" (esti) what follows this verb isn't a direct object
To ask a question, use the word ĈU at the beginning of a sentence, the word order isn't affected:
Ĉu vi venos renkonti min ? : will you come see(meet) me ?
Ĉu la kafo estas varma ? : is the coffe hot ?
Ĉu mi povas peti bieron ? : can I ask for some beer ?
Jes: yes
Ne: no
Sed: but
Some useful words and prepositions:
Al: To (indicating a movement or the object *to* which an action *is directed*)
De: Of/from ( indicating the possession or the provenance)
El: out of (movement) Ex: he came out of the house/ from (the origin) Ex: pano el francujo (bread from France)
Kaj: and
Jam: already
Kun: with
Antaŭ (aŭ is pronunced as OW) :Before or ----ago as in "antaŭ tri tagoj" (three days ago)
En: in
The numerals :
| 1 | unu | 11 | dek unu | 31 | tridek unu | 100 | cent |
| 2 | du | 12 | dek du | 32 | tridek du | 200 | ducent |
| 3 | tri | 13 | dek tri | .. | ....... | 1000 | mil |
| 4 | kvar | 14 | dek kvar | .. | ....... | .. | ....... |
| 5 | kvin | .. | ....... | 40 | kvardek | ||
| 6 | ses | .. | ....... | 50 | kvindek | ||
| 7 | sep | 20 | dudek | 60 | sesdek | ||
| 8 | ok | 21 | dudek unu | 70 | sepdek | ||
| 9 | naŭ | .. | ....... | 80 | okdek | ||
| 10 | dek | 30 | tridek | 90 | nauxdek |
| 1998 | mil naŭcent naŭdek ok |
| 749 | sepcent kvardek naŭ |
| 1515 | mil kvincent dek kvin |
| 2051 | du mil kvindek unu |
As you can see, you only have to mate the basic numerals together to create a whole array of numbers.the numerals and numbers never undergo any inflection ,though the ordinal numbers do. To make any ordinal number you want, add the -A ending to the number:
La unua: the first.
La dua: the second
La tria: the third
La kvara: the fourth
La kvina: the fifth
La deka: the tenth
La dudeka: the twentieth
Same with adverbs:
Unue: firstly
Due: secondly
Trie: thirdly
..............and so on
The Correlatives:
The correlatives in Esperanto is an ingenious linguistic system that lets you use a set of 5 preffixes with a predetermined meaning which can be mated with 9 other suffixes of the same kind. This allows you to learn 45 different words using only 14 distinct affixes that were learned beforehand :
The prefixes:
KI- : what/which
TI-: that
I-: some
Neni-: no
Ĉi-: each/every
The suffixes:
-O: thing
-U:one
-A: kind
-E: place
-El: way
-Al: reason
-Am: time
-Om: quantity
-Es: one's
You get the trick ? mate any of these (one preffix and one suffix) together and you can create all sorts of words:
Kio: what (what thing)
Kiu: who( which one)
Kiam: when (what time)
Neniam: never (no time)
Ĉiu(j): every (all)
Iel: in some way /somehow
Kies: whose
.........and so on. It's brilliant way of learning new words, isn't it ? one only has to know 14 affixes by heart in order to understand 45 different and highly useful meanings.
Note:Only the a,e,o,u endings can undergo inflection, some of wich can only undergo the accusative( o and e) where as the other endings ( a and u) can get both the plural and the accusative. Also, keep in mind that the -O suffixes only expresses an abstract concept, thus it never accompanies a noun (its -U suffix counterpart does).This is also the reason why it never gets the plural:
Kion vi faras ?: what are you doing ?
vi volas manĝi ion: you want to eat something.
..........etc
Also, since the accusative ending can be applied whenever there is a movement to some place, the -E suffix might undergo the inflection:
Kie vi estas ? : where are you ? (no movement)
Kien vi iras? : where do you go/are you going ? (movement---N ending)
Other prepositions :
Ĉe: at, nearby, next to (note the similarity with French's "chez")
Dum: during, while
Ĝis: untill
Por: for, to/in order to
Pro: Because,( for)
Sub: under/below
Sur: on
Super: above
Anstataŭ: instead of
Apud: beside
Da: of (quantity)
Ekster: outside of (no movement)
Inter: between, among
Per: By (by means of) with
Post: after
Pri: about, concerning, regarding
Sen: without
Tra: through
Trans: across, over,on the other side of
Kontraŭ: against
Krom : except for, apart from
Laŭ: along, according to
Malgraŭ: despite
Po: at the rate of
Preter: beyond, past
Je: at (time). Also used whenever any of the other preposition doesn't befit the overall meaning. Ex: I don't believe in God---- mi ne kredas je Dio
Please note that Esperanto is a very precise language, you must not translate your own language's prepositions into Esperanto as its prepositions are used very distinctly.
The Word building:
Another particularity of Esperanto is its word building nature.Being an Agglutinative language, Esperanto lets you mate any stem of its whole vocabulary to create any word you like, you really can go all out if you want.
In addition to this LEGO-like aspect, there are also the 42 basics Affixes which are used very often to extend the vocabulary:
10 prefixes:
Bo- relationship by marriage,-in-law
Dis- dis-, dispersal, separation
Ek- momentary, sudden,commencement,beginning of action
Eks- ex-, former
Fi- shameful, nasty,morally bad,moral degradation,
Ge- of both sexes together
Mal- opposite
Mis- mis-, amiss, wrongly
Pra- remote (time), primordiality,remoteness of relationship,of great antiquity
Re- re-, return, repetition
32 suffixes:
-Aĉ- scorn, disparagement,contemptible, disgusting
-Ad- frequent, repetitiveor habitual action,prolonged action
-Aĵ- thing (concrete idea),a concrete manifestation of an abstraction,
-An- member (of a group),inhabitant (of a place or country)
-Ar- collective, group, set
-Ĉj- pet-name (masculine)
-Ebl- -able, -ible, possibility
-Ec- quality, abstract idea,-ness, -ship
-Eg- augmentative, great size
-Ej- place alloted to or characterized by
-Em- disposition,tendency
-End- to be -ed, which-must-be-done,necessity of action
-Er- item, unit, fragment,small particle of a whole
-Estr- leader, ruler, head, chief
-Et- diminutive
-Ed- offspring, the descendant of
-Ig- to make, to render,to cause
-Iĝ- to become, get
-Il- instrument, means,tool
-In- female, feminine
-Ind- worthiness,worthy to be -ed
-Ing- holder, socket, sheath (for one object)
-Ist- occupation
-Nj- pet-name (feminine)
-Obl- multiple
-On- fraction
-Op- collective
-Uj- container, receptacle
-Ul- person (possesing a certain quality), characterised by
-Um- suffix with an indefinite meaning
The preffixes are always mated to the beginning of a word and the suffixes at the end.It is preferable to remove the ending of a noun and only keep the stem when adding the suffix. Further informations about the affixes here.
Verbs and Participles:
In several languages such as French and English, we often use the past tense to express a conditionnal possibilty/clause: "If I were rich, I'd buy thousands of expensive cars/ Si j'étais riche, je m'achèterais des milliers de voitures onéreuses". However, in Esperanto, we always use the conditional tense in both parts of the clause: Se mi estus riĉa, mi aĉetus milojn da multekostaj aŭtoj.
We also never,ever use the conditional to express a future possibility in the past, unlike in French and English :
Mi kredis, ke ni tien iros : I thought we would go there.
It is very logic when you think about it.
You can also use the imperative with every pronoun you want:
Venu !: come !
Mi venu !: I must come !
Ni trinku !: let's drink !
Ni drinku !: let's drink ! (alcohol)
Ili forgesu !: they must forget !
As you can see, English has only a limited imperative declension whereas Esperanto can conjugate the imperative with every pronoun. At best we can translate the meaning using "must".
Esperanto's participles work using only one auxiliary to express both the active and the passive voice: Esti (to be). there are 3 participles in Esperanto: past participle, present participle and future participle.every participle can act as a noun, an adjective or an adverb depending on the ending.
Active voice:
Present participle: replace -I ending with -ANT-
Past participle: replace -I with -INT-
Future participle: replace-I with -ONT-
Exemples:
Mi estas legANTa libron: I am reading a book
Mi estas kronstruINTa domon: I have built a house
Ŝi estas lavONTa la teleraron: she is about to wash the dishes
Passive voice:
same process, only this time, Remove the N of the endings:
La domo estas konstruATa: the house is (being) built
La pordo estas fermITa : the door is (already) closed
La Bovaĵo estas manĝOTa: the beef meat is about to be eaten
as you noticed, the participles act as adjectives in this case (-A ending), meaning they will also undergo any inflection.you can also alter the ending of any participle at will:
La LegontOJ---- the persons that are about to read
La KreintO----- the creator (he has alreadt created something)
La kuirantO----- the person who is cooking something
Legante la libron, mi ekdormis----- I fell asleep reading the book
you can even add the suffixes we have seen for even more precision:
La legonto--- La legontINo----- the GIRL who is about to read (-IN_ suffixes---expresses feminine counterpart)
La manĝatAĴo----the thing(object, animal) that is being eaten
Using every tenses of the auxiliary "esti" along with the participles,you can describe any given situation with great details, though we tend to use simpler form to express ourselves orally. Partciples are not uncommon in the written language.
More useful prepositions and basic words:
Ĉirkaŭ: around (around 5 minutes / around the world)
Jen: here (as in "here is my blog post)
Tuj: at once/immediately
Ĵus: just ( as in "I've just finished)
Do: then/therefore ( just like French's "donc")
Ankoraŭ: still/yet ( same as French's "encore")
Apenaŭ: hardly/barely ( à peine...)
Baldaŭ: soon (bientôt)
Hieraŭ : yesterday (hier)
Hodiaŭ: today
Morgaŭ : tommorow
Preskaŭ: almost (presque)
Ambaŭ: both
Ankaŭ: also/too (next to the word it stresses)
Ĉi: indicates a proximity ( tie--- there/ (ĉi) tie (ĉi)------here// Tiu knabo---- that boy/ (ĉi) tiu (ĉi) knabo----this boy(here)
Ajn: Any ( kie---where/kie ajn----- wherever)
Ekde: (actually Ek- prefix + de = since)
Nur: only
Ol: than
Tre: very
Tro: too/too much
Pli: more
Plej: most/the most
plu: further/more
Nu: well (expression as in "well , I have to go")
There is/are: estas ( estas kvin aŭtoj----- there are 5 cars)
Don't forget that Esperanto lets you play with it, you can tranform any word you like into a noun, a verb, an adjective or an adverb:
la knabo estas sana: the boy is healthy
La knabo sanas: the boys is healthy/ well
La knabo havas bonan sanon: the boy has a good health
Mi ofte promenas nokte: I often take a stroll at night
mi vekiĝis (veki--to wake up(someone)/ veki +IĜ suffix----to wake up (become awake)) posttagmeze(post+ tago +mezo) ---I woke up in the afternoon.
Your imagination is the only limit----- Nur via imago estas la limo.
Some useful sentences:
| Hello! | Saluton! | |
| Welcome! | Bonvenon! | |
| Good morning. | Bonan matenon. | |
| Good day. | Bonan tagon. | |
| Good night. | Bonan nokton. | |
| Thank you. | Dankon. |
| ||||||||
Jen estas iuj ajn ligiloj por helpi vin plulerni pri la lingvo(here are some links to help your further learn about the language):
http://esperantofre.com/eeo/EoDktA/KorKurA1.htm
http://fr.lernu.net/
Vortaroj(dictionnaries):
http://www.majstro.com/Web/Majstro/dict.php
http://www.esperanto-panorama.net/vortaro/eoen.htm
My (crappy) email and messenger adress if ever any of you wants to chat with me in Esperanto: snakeeater400@hotmail.com
Feliĉan kristnaskon al ĉiuj kaj adiaŭ ! ( merry christmas to everybody and goodbye !)
