Esperanto grammar

\n\nEsperanto is an agglutinative language which has no grammatical genders and limited, regular verb conjugation. Nouns and adjectives have two casess, nominative and accusative, and two numbers, singular and plural; and nouns and adjectives must agree in case and number. Verbs do not agree with their subjects. The accusative ending can also be used to show the destination of a motion, or to replace certain prepositions when preferred. The accusative allows flexible word order like Russian, Greek, and Latin. Most of its vocabulary is made up of Latin, Greek, English, French, German, and some other Indo-European roots with a few words from Slavic languages. Esperanto has a relatively regular grammar, phonetic alphabet (meaning that all words are pronounced as in written and vice versa), and very logical structure (the same words' ending for the same parts of speech, e.g. -o for nouns, -a for adjectives, etc.). All these features make Esperanto easier to learn than most of the world's languages, even for non-Europeans, though particular features may be more or less advantageous to native speakers of particular languages. The alphabet includes new letters that are not found on any national keyboard, which is overcome by use of the h-system, x-system, or Unicode. (See Esperanto orthography.) Other languages, like Chinese, have similar problems.

Table of contents

1 Word endings 2 Pronouns 3 Correlatives 3.1 Enumeration of combinations 4 Affixes 4.2 Suffixes 4.3 Prefixes 4.4 Participles 5 Numbers 5.5 Integers 5.6 Ordinals 5.7 Fractions 5.8 Multiples 5.9 File 6 Grammar examples 7 Comparisons 8 See also 9 External links

Word endings

In Esperanto, the endings -o, -a, and -e indicate noun, adjective, and adverb, respectively. When a -j follows those endings, it makes the word plural. Direct objects must have the -n ending, which goes after the plural ending, if any. Adjectives must have plural ending if the noun it describes also has the plural ending. The same goes for the accusative ending. Compare "bona tagojn" (incorrect) with "bonajn tagojn" (correct). Zamenhof later regretted making that requirement. Also to Zamenhof's regret, a limited number of adverbs do not end with -e (See special Esperanto adverbs).

Pronouns

{|\n|mi\n|I\n|-\n|vi\n|you\n|-\n|li\n|he\n|-\n|ŝi\n|she\n|-\n|ili\n|they\n|-\n|oni\n|one\n|-\n|ni\n|we\n|-\n|ĝi\n|it\n|} Pronouns may take the accusative -n ending. For example, min means me, lin means him, and ŝin means her. Possessive pronouns are formed with the adjectival -a ending. For example, mia means my, ĝia means its, and nia means our.

Correlatives

Esperantists use correlatives to ask and answer questions about what, how, why, etc. {|\n|\n!Question (What)\n!Pointer (That)\n!Indefinite (Some)\n!Universal (Every)\n!Negative (No)\n|-\n!Individual\n|kiu\n|tiu\n|iu\n|ĉiu\n|neniu\n|-\n!Thing\n|kio\n|tio\n|io\n|ĉio\n|nenio\n|-\n!Kind\n|kia\n|tia\n|ia\n|ĉia\n|nenia\n|-\n!Place\n|kie\n|tie\n|ie\n|ĉie\n|nenie\n|-\n!Motion\n|kien\n|tien\n|ien\n|ĉien\n|nenien\n|-\n!Time\n|kiam\n|tiam\n|iam\n|ĉiam\n|neniam\n|-\n!Amount\n|kiom\n|tiom\n|iom\n|ĉiom\n|neniom\n|-\n!Manner\n|kiel\n|tiel\n|iel\n|ĉiel\n|neniel\n|-\n!Reason\n|kial\n|tial\n|ial\n|ĉial\n|nenial\n|-\n!Possession\n|kies\n|ties\n|ies\n|ĉies\n|nenies\n|-\n|} Often used with the correlatives, the word ajn decreases specificity, and the word ĉi increases proximity.

Enumeration of combinations

• kio means what\n*io means something\n*io ajn means anything\n*tiu means that\n*tiu ĉi means this\n*...

Affixes

Esperanto uses affixes to decrease the number of words that must be learned. Prefixes go before a root, affixes go after. When a root receives more than one suffix, the order of the suffixes does matter, because suffixes closer to the root have more to do with the root. Sometimes affixes act as roots. For example, mala means opposite, and eta means small. Also, roots sometimes act as suffixes: vidi - "to see"; povi - "to be able to"; vidpova - "able to see", or "not blind".

Suffixes

Esperanto suffixes are not only used for grammatical inflections, but for expansion of vocabulary from a relatively few basic words:

  esperantino        Hoper, female\n   Esperantujo        "Esperantoland" (wherever Esperanto is being spoken)\n   esperiga           Hope-inspiring (giving hope)\n   senespera          Hopeless

{|\n| -adi\n|to do an action persistently or repeatedly\n|kuradi: to keep on running; vizitadi: to visit habitually\n|-\n| -ado\n|frequent or continuous action\n|kuirado: cooking; parolado: speech\n|-\n| -aĵo\n| thing, substance\n| novaĵo: news, novelty; manĝaĵo: food\n|-\n| -ano\n|member, inhabitant\n|Usonano: American; Kristano: Christian\n|-\n| -aro\n|collection, group\n|-arbaro: forest; vortaro: dictionary|\n|-\n| -ebla\n|possible\n|-videbla: visible; kredebla: credible|\n|-\n| -eco\n|abstract quality\n|-boneco: goodness; amikeco: friendship\n|-\n| -eg-\n|great size, intense degree, augmentative\n|domego: mansion; varmega: extremely hot|\n|-\n| -ejo\n|place\n|lernejo: school; vendejo: store|\n|-\n| -ema\n|propensity, tendency\n|parolema: talkative; ludema: playful\n|-\n| -estro\n|leader, chief\n|lernejestro: school principal; urbestro: mayor\n|-\n| -et-\n|smallness, small degree, diminutive\n|varmeta: lukewarm; libreto: booklet\n|-\n| -ido\n|child, descendent\n|katido: kitten; reĝo: king, reĝido: prince\n|-\n| -igi\n|to make, to cause to become\n|purigi: to clean; mortigi: to kill\n|-\n| -iĝi\n|to become\n|naskiĝi: to be born; edziĝi: to marry (become a husband)\n|-\n| -ilo\n|tool, instrument\n|tranĉilo: knife; ludilo: a toy\n|-\n| -inda\n|worthy of\n|memorinda: memorable; vidinda: worth seeing\n|-\n| -ino\n|feminine\n|patrino: mother; bovino: cow\n|-\n| -ismo\n|-doctrine, system (as in English)\n|-komunismo: communism; kristanismo: Christianity\n|-\n| -isto\n|person connected with something (as in English)\n|instruisto: teacher; komunisto: communist\n|-\n| -obla\n|multiple\n|-duobla: double; trioble: triply\n|-\n| -ona\n|fraction\n|duona: half (of); centono: one hundredth\n|-\n| -ujo\n|container, country\n|monujo: purse; Anglujo: England (now often "-io" in this sense)\n|-\n| -ulo\n|person possessing a quality or characteristic\n|riĉulo: rich man; junulo: young person\n|-\n| -um-\n|indefinite suffix indicating some relation with the root\n|kolumo: collar; malvarmumo: a cold; plenumi: to fulfill\n|}

Prefixes

Prefixes are similarly used for vocabulary expansion. For example, antonyms are very rarely based on separate roots but are formed by use of the negating prefix "mal-":

     dekstren        Towards the right\n   maldekstren        Towards the left\n      supren          Upwards\n   malsupren          Downwards

This reduces the number of root forms to be learned. However, the prefix mal- almost always occurs in an unstressed position (such as the words above), which can lead to many similar-sounding words with opposite meanings. Despite this problem, Esperanto is sometimes presented as a solution to the many airplane crashes which arise due to misunderstandings of English. {|\n|bo-\n|relation by marriage, "in-law"\n|bopatrino: mother-in-law; bofrato: brother-in-law\n|-\n|ĉef-\n|head, chief\n|ĉefurbo: capital; ĉefministro: prime minister\n|-\n|dis-\n|separation, scattering\n|disĵeti: to throw about; dissendi: to distribute\n|-\n|ek-\n|sudden or momentary action\n|ekbrili: to flash; ekkrii: to shout out\n|-\n|ge-\n|of unspecified gender\n|gepatro: parent; gesinjoroj: ladies and gentlemen\n|-\n|mal-\n|opposite\n|granda: big, malgranda: small; riĉa: rich, malriĉa: poor\n|-\n|re-\n|over again, back again\n|resendi: to send back; rekonstrui: to rebuild\n|\n|}

Participles

Participles, like tenses use the vowels i, a and o to indicate past, present and future time, respectively.\nExample: esperinto=former hoper.\nPassive participles are formed like active participle, except the n is omitted (infixes -it-, -at-, -ot-).

Numbers

Integers

• 1: unu\n*2: du\n*3: tri\n*4: kvar\n*5: kvin\n*6: ses\n*7: sep\n*8: ok\n*9: naŭ\n*10: dek\n*11: dekunu\n*20: dudek\n*100: cent\n*1,000: mil\n*1,000,000: miliono

As in English, there exist multiple systems for writing numbers above 1,000 in Esperanto. (A \nBritish "billion" and a US "billion" are different.) Using one system:\n*10⁶: iliono\n*10⁹: iliardo\n*10¹²: duiliono\n*10¹⁵: duiliardo\n*10¹⁸: triiliono\n*10²¹: triilardo

Ordinals

Ordinal numbers are formed by adding the adjective -a ending:\n*first: unua\n*second: dua\n*third: tria\n*fourth: kvara\n*fifth: kvina

Fractions

• one half (½): duono\n*one quarter (¼): kvarono\n*three quarters (¾): tri kvaronoj

Multiples

• double: duobla\n*triple: triobla\n*quadruple: kvarobla\n*quintuple: kvinobla

File

• one at a time: unuope\n*by twos: duope

Grammar examples

  esperi             To hope\n   esperas            Hopes, is hoping, does hope\n   esperis            Hoped, was hoping, did hope\n   esperos            Shall or will hope\n   esperu             Hope! (volitive)\n   esperus            Were to hope, would hope (conditional)
  esperanta(n)       Hoping - nominative (accusative) adjective\n   esperantaj(n)      Hoping - nominative (accusative) adjective, plural\n   esperanto(n)       Hoper  - nominative (accusative) noun\n   esperantoj(n)      Hopers - nominative (accusative) noun

The -ant- suffix in the above examples indicates present active participle.

Comparisons

pli means more, and plej means most. Derived using the mal- prefix, malpli means less, and malplej means least. Phrases like "The more people, the smaller the portions." and "All the better!" are translated using ju and des in place of the: "Ju pli da homoj, des malpli grandaj la porcioj.", and "Des pli bona!".

See also

• Esperanto orthography\n* Esperanto pronunciation

External links

A fairly good overview of Esperanto's grammar and word-building system can be gained by viewing "The Sixteen Rules of Esperanto", "The Esperanto Correlatives" and "Word Building With Esperanto Affixes" Also see Jiri Hana's Master thesis overview of Esperanto: \n* ["Esperanto Grammar"] Grammar