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The Short Summary of Esperanto

By Andy West
Written 13 February 2009
Updated 7 February 2010.

Alphabet

There are twenty-eight letters in the Esperanto alphabet. It is based on the Latin alphabet we use, with six letters wearing little hats to show their sounds are somehow different.

Aa
as in father
Bb
as in bat
Cc
as in cats
Ĉĉ
as in chat
Dd
as in door
Ee
as in date
Ff
as in food
Gg
hard, as in go
Ĝĝ
soft, as in gem
Hh
as in hat, never silent
Ĥĥ
as in German Bach or Spanish baja
Ii
as in machine
Jj
as in yet
Ĵĵ
as in azure, French jour
Kk
as in king
Ll
as in lot, never in little
Mm
as in mat
Nn
as in nut
Oo
as in open
Pp
as in pan
Rr
as in rat, but trilled
Ss
hard, as in sack
Ŝŝ
as in shack
Tt
as in top
Uu
as in lunar
Ŭŭ
as in wet
Vv
as in vase
Zz
as in zip

Notes

Grammar

Article

There is only one article, la (the).

Kato (cat), la kato (the cat).

Those whose native tongues have no article (e.g., Russian, Japanese) may drop the article.

Noun

Nouns end in o, to which plurals add j. There are two cases, subject and object; the latter adds n. Prepositions form the other cases.

Kato (cat), katoj (cats), kato ĉasas muson (a cat chases a mouse), kato manĝas musojn (a cat eats mice).

Adjective

Adjectives end on a, and take the plural and object endings of the nouns that they modify. Comparative: pli (more) … ol (than). Superlative: plej (most) ….

Kato blanka, white cat. Katoj blankaj, white cats. La infano estas pli juna ol mi, the child is younger than I. La junulino estas la plej bela en ni, The young woman is the prettiest among us.

Pli and plej have opposites: malpli (less) and malplej (least). La vetero estas malpli milda ol mi esperis, the weather is less pleasant than I hoped.

Balanced comparatives use the word pair ju … des: ju pli multa, des pli ĝoja, the more, the merrier.

Numeral

The numerals are unu (1), du (2), tri (3), kvar (4), kvin (5), ses (6), sep (7), ok (8), naŭ (9), dek (10), cent (100) and mil (1000).

Ordinals

Ordinals form with the adjective ending: unua, first; oka, eighth.

Fractions

Fractions form with on: duono, half; okono, eighth.

Multiples

Multiples form with obl: duobla, double, okoble, eightfold.

Groupings

Groupings form with op: duopo, duet, two together; okopo, octet.

Rates

Rates form with the preposition po: po du hore, at the rate of two per hour.

Numerals also take noun and adverb endings.

Tens and hundreds are compound words: dudek (20), ducent (200). Thousands are not: du mil (2000), dudek mil (20,000).

Numbers are grouped the European way: Thousands are separated by a period, and decimals by a comma: 2.545,50 (du mil kvincent kvardek kvin kaj kvin centonoj).

Million is a noun: tri milionoj da homoj, three million people. Zero (0) may (nulo) or may not (nul) be a noun.

Pronoun

The personal pronouns are mi (I), vi (you), li (he), ŝi (she), ĝi (it), ni (we), ili (they), si (oneself), and oni (one, they). Pronouns take adjective (mia, my) and object (min, me) endings.

There are also pronoun sets that end with o for things and u for people:

kiu (who?)/kio (what?),
tiu (that one)/tio (that thing),
ĉiu (everyone)/ĉio (everything),
neniu (nobody)/nenio (nothing), and
iu (someone)/io (something).

These words take noun plural and object endings; and also take ĉi for nearness (tiu ĉi, this person), and ajn to make the word indefinite (iu ajn, anyone).

There is a separate pronoun for addressing one person: ci (thou/tu/du/ti). But the counterparts of ci in most European societies are used to address children, friends and familiars, and in English is used in poetry and in some religious services to address God. Zamenhof himself prefered that ci not be used, and so it isn't.

Verb

tense

Verb tense endings: as (present), is (past), os (future). These are the same regardless of noun ending or pronoun.

Mi vidas, I see. Mi vidis, I saw. Mi vidos, I will see.

mood

Verb mood endings: us (conditional), u (wish/command), i (infinitive).

Mi vidus, se …, I would see, if …. Vidu! See! Mi vidu, let me see. Necesas, por ke mi vidu, It is necessary, so that I may see. Vidi, to see.

active participle

Active participle affixes: ant (present), int (past/perfect), ont (future). These take noun, adjective and adverb endings.

Mi estas vidanta, I am seeing. Mi estas vidinta, I have seen. Mi estas vidonta, I am about to see.

passive participle

Passive particle affixes: at (present), it (past/perfect), ot (future). These also take noun, adjective and adverb endings. The particle's agent is marked by de (by).

Mi estas vidata de iu, I am being seen by someone. Mi estas vidita de iu, I have been seen by someone. Mi estas vidota de iu, I am about to be seen by someone.

Esperanto can also use the affix as a conversational passive: Mi vidiĝis, I was seen.

Adverb

Adverbs end in e, and use pli and plej like adjectives.

Feliĉe, happily. Pli feliĉe, more happily. Plej feliĉe, most happily.

There are also particle adverbs of one- to three-syllable words. The most common are ne (not), plu (further), nun (now), nur (merely), jam (already) tuj (immediately), tre (very) and tro (too much).

Prepositional Phrase

Nouns and pronouns after prepositions take the subject case.

De la libro, of the book. Al vi, to you.

Pronunciation

Every word is pronounced as it is spelled. There are no silent letters.

This applies to words like scio (s`tsi-o), knowledge; knabo (k`na-bo), boy; pneŭmo (p`neoo-mo), car tire; and horo (ho-ro), hour.

Accent

The accent falls on the second-to-last syllable.

Oranĝsuko, orange juice; pomkaĉo, apple sauce; rolulino, female character (in play, etc.).

Compound Word

New words can be formed by joining existing words, with the main word at the end. Grammar endings and affixes are words in their own right.

Pordotenilo, door handle; nomlisto, list of names; ejo, place

Negative

If there is another negative word in a sentence, ne (not) is dropped. There are no double or triple negatives, as in French and conversational English.

Mi ne estas, I am not. Mi ne estas plu, I am not anymore. Mi neniam estas, I am never (not mi ne estas neniam).

Motion

To connote motion towards somewhere, a noun, pronoun or adverb adds n.

Mi iras en la domon, I go into the house. La birdo flugis en la arbon, the bird flew into the tree.

Prepositional Meaning

Each preposition has a definite meaning. If no suitable preposition is available, then use the generic preposition je, which is meaningless in itself. Also, you can also use the object ending n without a preposition if the ending is not otherwise used.

Je kioma horo li venos?Kioman horon li venos?, At what time will he come?

Je or the object ending usually serves as the focus of time, measure or value. Li estas dudek jarojn aĝaLi estas aĝa je dudek jaroj.

Borrowed Words

Words can be borrowed from other languages but must conform to the spelling of Esperanto. Existing roots should be used if possible.

We do not use a word like teatrika when teatra already exists and means the same thing.

Sometimes new words exist side by side with existing words: bitoko/bajto (byte), teksaĵo/vebo (Web, as in World Wide). Sometimes words are adopted when Esperanto cannot express them with existing roots: There is no real word in Esperanto for bito (bit, or binary digit), and resentimento (French ressentiment) is not really the same as resento.

Euphony

The subject ending in nouns and the a in la can be dropped to make a phrase sound better.

l' okulo (lo KOO lo), the ear; de l' koro (del KO ro, of the heart; pasad' al Hindujo (pa SAD al hin DOOEE o), passage to India.