esperanto grammar

Esperanto is an agglutinative language which has no grammatical gender and limited, regular verb conjugation. Nouns and adjectives have two cases, 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 with nouns, adjectives, or adverbs to show the destination of a motion, or to replace certain prepositions. The accusative allows flexible word order like Russian, Greek, and Latin. Most of its basic vocabulary is borrowed from languages of the Italic and Germanic divisions of the Indo-European language family, with much smaller direct contributions from Slavic and Greek. The main contributing languages were originally French, Latin, English, German, Greek, Polish, and Russian. Modern international vocabulary is of course used as well, but frequently only one of a group of related words will be borrowed, and the rest derived from it. For example, the computer term bit was borrowed directly as bito, but bitoko (byte) was then derived from bito and the numeral ok (eight). Esperanto has a very logical structure. It has a quite regular grammar, a phonetic alphabet (meaning that words are pronounced as they are written and vice versa), a straightforward way of generating new vocabulary, and consistent word endings for the parts of speech (-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. These were created because the Roman alphabet didn't have enough letters for the phonemes of Esperanto, and were made unique in order to avoid favoring any particular national version of the Roman alphabet. The new letters have simple ASCII conversions. (See Esperanto orthography.)

The Article

Esperanto has a definite article, la, which is used as in many Romance languages. Esperanto does not use an indefinite article; for instance, homo can mean either person or a person, depending on the context.

Word endings

In Esperanto, the endings -o, -a, and -e indicate noun, adjective, and adverb, respectively. When a -j follows the noun or adjective endings (forming a diphthong), 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 bonajn tagojn (correct) with ^*bona tagojn (incorrect). Zamenhof later regretted making that requirement, but it allows the free word order of adjective-noun and noun-adjective even when two noun phrases are adjacent in subject-object-verb sentences as follows:

Noun Adjective-n Noun-n Verb (adjective-noun order, the adjective is in the object noun phrase): la knabino feliĉan knabon kisis (the girl kissed a happy boy)
Noun Adjective Noun-n Verb (noun-adjective order, the adjective is in the subject noun phrase): la knabino feliĉa knabon kisis (the happy girl kissed a boy)

Agreement clarifies other syntax as well. Adjectives take the plural ending when they modify more than one noun, even if those nouns are all singular: ruĝaj domo kaj aŭto (a red house and red car) versus ruĝa domo kaj aŭto (a red house and a car). A predicative adjective does not take the accusative case even when the noun it modifies does: mi farbis la pordon ruĝan (I painted the red door) versus mi farbis la pordon ruĝa (I painted the door red). Also to Zamenhof's regret, a limited number of adverbs do not end with -e. However, most of these words are used for other parts of speech as well as for adverbs, and most people would find it difficult to use the adverbial ending -e correctly in these cases. For this reason, an undefined part-of-speech ending -aŭ was sometimes used instead of -e. (See special Esperanto adverbs).

Pronouns

The Esperanto personal pronoun system is similar to that of English.

colspan=2 \| !! singular !! plural
colspan=2 \| first-person	mi (I)	ni (we)
colspan=2 \| second-person	colspan=2 \| vi (you)
rowspan=3 \| third-person !! masculine	li (he)	rowspan=3 \| ili (they)
feminine	ŝi (she)
neuter	ĝi (it)
colspan=2 \| indefinite	oni (one)	-
colspan=2 \| reflexive	colspan=2 \| si (self)

Pronouns may take the accusative -n ending exactly like ordinary nouns. For example, min means me, lin means him, and ŝin means her. Possessive pronouns are formed with the adjectival -a ending, also like ordinary nouns. For example, mia means my, ĝia means its, and nia means our. Zamenhof also proposed a second-person singular pronoun ci (thou), but it is rarely used.

Verbs

All verb inflections in Esperanto are regular. Tenses are formed using a for the present, i for the past, and o for the future. There is no need to change the verb form to agree with the subject. For example, "I am", "we are", and "he is" translate as mi estas, ni estas, and li estas respectively. Here is a table of verb forms: Esperanto verb forms>

!Indicative !Active participle !Passive participle !Infinitive !Imperative !Conditional
ast	align="center"\|-is	align="center"\|-inta	align="center"\|-ita	align="center" rowspan="3"\|-i	align="center" rowspan="3"\|-u	align="center" rowspan="3"\|-us
resent	align="center"\|-as	align="center"\|-anta	align="center"\|-ata
uture	align="center"\|-os	align="center"\|-onta	align="center"\|-ota

The imperative mood (called volitivo "volitive" in Esperanto) of the verb can also serve as subjunctive and hortative:

Iru. Go. (Imperative)

Mi petas, ke li venu. I ask that he come. (Subjunctive)

Ni iru. Let's go. (Hortative)

Compound forms are formed using the auxiliary verb esti (to be).

Imperfect: mi estas kaptanta (I am catching)
Perfect: mi estas kaptinta (I have caught)
Predicative: mi estas kaptonta (I am going to catch)

The verb esti (to be) is both copula and the existential verb. As a copula linking two nouns, it does not cause either to take the accusative case. Therefore, unlike the case with other verbs, word order with esti can be semantically important: hundoj estas personoj (dogs are people) versus personoj estas hundoj (people are dogs). It is becoming increasingly common for esti plus some adjective to be replaced by a verb: la ĉielo estas blua or la ĉielo bluas (the sky is blue), and this is true for participles as well: mi kaptintas (I have caught). This is a stylistic change; the more economical verbal forms were always found in poetry.

Correlatives

The correlatives are used to ask and answer questions about what, how, why, etc. The correlatives in "ki-" have a double function, as questioning and as relative pronouns or conjunctions (just as the words "who", "which", "why", etc. in English). Esperanto correlatives>

i-	ti-	i-	ĉi-	neni-
colspan="2" rowspan="2" \|	Interrogative (What)	Demonstrative (That)	Indefinite (Some)	Universal (Every)	Negative (No)
uality	-a	kia	tia	ia	ĉia	nenia
eason	-al	kial	tial	ial	ĉial	nenial
ime	-am	kiam	tiam	iam	ĉiam	neniam
lace	-e	kie	ti	ie	ĉie	nenie
anner	-el	kiel	tiel	iel	ĉiel	neniel
otion	-en	kien	tien	ien	ĉien	nenien
ossession	-es	kies	ties	ies	ĉies	nenies
hing	-o	kio	tio	io	ĉio	nenio
uantity	-om	kiom	tiom	iom	ĉiom	neniom
ndividual	-u	kiu	tiu	iu	ĉiu	neniu

Often used with the correlatives, the word ajn decreases specificity, the word ĉi increases proximity, and the word for increases distance.

Enumeration of combinations

kiu means who or which.
kio means what
io means something
io ajn means anything
tio means that (general)
tiu means that one
tiu ĉi means this one
tiu for means that one yonder
ĉiam means all the time
neniel means in no manner
iom means some (some amount) or a bit
tial means thus or for that reason
nenies means no one's
tie means there
tien ĉi means hither (to here)
...

It's not uncommon to see the correlative system extended to the root ali- (other), at least when the result is unambiguous: aliam (some other time). Examples of questioning versus relative pronoun use of "ki-" words:

Kiu ŝtelis mian ringon? = Who stole my ring?
La polico ne kaptis la ŝteliston, kiu ŝtelis mian ringon. = The police haven't caught the thief who stole my ring.

Questioning versus conjunction:

Kiel vi faris tion? = How did you do that?
Mi ne scias, kiel fari tion. = I don't know how to do that.

Note that standard Esperanto punctuation puts a comma before the relative word (a correlative in ki- or the conjunction ke, "that").

Negatives

A statement is made negative by using ne or one of the negative correlatives above. As in English, but unlike the Romance languages, double negatives are not allowed in Esperanto:

Mi ne faris ion ajn. I didn't do anything.

(*Mi ne faris nenion ajn would be wrong.)

The word ne comes before the word it negates:

Mi ne skribis tion I didn't write that
Ne mi skribis tion I didn't write that (It wasn't me who wrote that)
Mi skribis ne tion I didn't write that

Affixes

Esperanto uses affixes to decrease the number of words that must be learned. Prefixes go before a root, suffixes 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)    Esperantujo        "Esperantoland" (wherever Esperanto is being spoken)    esperiga           hopeful (of a situation: inspiring hope)    esperema           hopeful (of a person: tending to hope)    senespera          hopeless, despairing

ndicating dirtyness or contemptuousness	rigardaĉi: to gape at; veteraĉo: fowl weather
-ad-	frequent or repeated action	kuradi: to keep on running; parolado: speech
-aĵ-	thing, substance	manĝaĵo: food; novaĵo: news, novelty
-an-	member, inhabitant	Kristano: Christian; Usonano: American
-ar-	collection, group	arbaro: forest; vortaro: dictionary
-ĉj-	affectionate form of masculine proper nouns; the root name is often shortened by one to five letters	Joĉjo: Jonny; paĉjo: daddy
-ebl-	possible	kredebla: credible; videbla: visible
-ec-	abstract quality	amikeco: friendship; boneco: goodness
-eg-	great size, intense degree, augmentative	domego: mansion; varmega: extremely hot
-ej-	place	lernejo: school; vendejo: store
-em-	propensity, tendency	ludema: playful; parolema: talkative
-estr-	leader, chief	lernejestro: school principal; urbestro: mayor
-et-	smallness, small degree, diminutive	libreto: booklet; varmeta: lukewarm
-id-	child, descendent	katido: kitten; reĝido: prince
-ig-	to make, to cause to become	mortigi: to kill; purigi: to clean
-iĝ-	to become	amuziĝi: to enjoy oneself; naskiĝi: to be born
-il-	tool, instrument	ludilo: a toy; tranĉilo: knife
-ind-	worthy of	memorinda: memorable; vidinda: worth seeing
-in-	feminine	bovino: cow; patrino: mother
-ism-	doctrine, system (as in English ism)	komunismo: communism; kristanismo: Christianity
-ist-	person connected with something (as in English)	instruisto: teacher; komunisto: communist
-obl-	multiple	duobla: double; trioble: triply
-on-	fraction	duona: half (of); centono: one hundredth
-uj-	country (archaic in this sense); container	Anglujo: England (more often "Anglio" in current usage); monujo: purse
-ul-	person possessing a quality or characteristic	junulo: young person; riĉulo: rich person
-um-	indefinite suffix indicating some relation with the root	kolumo: collar; krucumi: to crucify; malvarmumo: a cold; plenumi: to fulfill

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    maldekstren        Towards the left       supren          Upwards    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.

elation by marriage, "in-law"	bopatrino: mother-in-law; bofrato: brother-in-law
#265;ef-	head, chief	ĉefurbo: capital; ĉefministro: prime minister
is-	separation, scattering	disĵeti: to throw about; dissendi: to distribute
k-	sudden or momentary action	ekbrili: to flash; ekkrii: to shout out
ks-	former, ex-	eksedzo: ex-husband; eksprezidanto: former president
e-	a group of both sexes	gepatroj: parents; gesinjoroj: ladies and gentlemen
al-	opposite	granda: big, malgranda: small; riĉa: rich, malriĉa: poor
is-	incorrect, amiss	loki: to place, to locate; misloki: to misplace
ra-	great-(grand-), ancient	avo: grandfather; praavo: great-grandfather; besto: animal; prabesto: prehistoric animal
e-	over again, back again	resendi: to send back; rekonstrui: to rebuild

ge- is clasically used only with plurals, as in the examples above. The use of ge- in the singular to mean "of unspecified gender" with the few roots that are inherently masculine, e.g. gepatro (parent) from patro (father) or geedzo (spouse) from edzo (husband), is not yet universally accepted.

Participles

Participles, like tenses use the vowels i, a and o to indicate past, present and future time, respectively (suffixes -int-, -ant-, -ont-). Example: esperinto = former hoper, one who had been hoping. Passive participles are formed like active participle, except the n is omitted (suffixes -it-, -at-, -ot-). Occasionally this system will be extended to include conditional participles with the vowel u (-unt-, -ut-). Just after the recount of the 2004 US presidential election, Clinton was still prezidanto, Bush Jr was declared prezidonto, Bush Sr was the last prezidinto, and Gore was prezidunto ("The Man Who Would be King" - that is, if the recount had gone differently). The first three forms are subsumed under the term prezidento, if the speaker doesn't want to specify the tense.

Compounds

Compound nouns in Esperanto are similar to English: the final root is basic to the meaning.

kantobirdo (a songbird) versus birdokanto (a birdsong)

velŝipo (a sailship) versus ŝipvelo (a ship's sail)

centjaro (a centennial: "a year of a hundred") versus jarcento (a century: "a hundred of years")

Numbers

Integers

The cardinal numbers defined in Esperanto are as follows.

nul: zero
unu: one
du: two
tri: three
kvar: four
kvin: five
ses: six
sep: seven
ok: eight
naŭ: nine
dek: ten
cent: one hundred
mil: one thousand

As in English, there exist multiple systems for writing numbers above 1,000 in Esperanto. A British "billion" and a US "billion" are different, and Esperanto biliono is ambiguous. However, there is another, unambiguous system:

10⁶: iliono
10⁹: iliardo
10¹²: duiliono
10¹⁵: duiliardo
10¹⁸: triiliono
10²¹: triiliardo

Ordinals are formed with the ending -a (the adjectival ending), multiples with -obla, fractionals with -on, and collectives with -ope. Examples:

sescent sepdek kvin: 675
tria: third, number three
duobla: double
kvarono: one fourth, a quarter
duope: by twos

The word po is used before numbers to mark distributive numbers, i.e., the idea of distributing a certain number of items to each member of a group. For example, po tri pomoj means "three apples each".

Grammar examples

    esperi             To hope    esperas            Hopes, is hoping, does hope    esperis            Hoped, was hoping, did hope    esperos            Shall or will hope    esperu             Hope! (volitive)    esperus            Were to hope, would hope (conditional)

    esperanta(n)       Hoping - nominative (accusative) adjective    esperantaj(n)      Hoping - nominative (accusative) adjective, plural    esperanto(n)       Hoper  - nominative (accusative) noun    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!".

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: