A Key to the Inter-National Language Esperanto

INTRODUCTION

The 3000 languages in the world today were originated by our ancient ancestors and morphed over several millennia. These languages are full of inconsistencies and irregularities. It is a tribute to the capacity of the human mind that it can handle such difficult material. In 1887, a new language, free from irregularities, was introduced. By speaking this relatively easy-to-learn bridge language, people from all backgrounds are able to overcome the language barrier. Today, Esperanto is the only planned human language in widespread use. Use an Esperanto-English dictionary and refer to this "key" while reading texts in Esperanto to help you unlock the meaning of Esperanto according to the grammatical rules.

CONTENTS

Jump to the following topic:

· Alphabet

· Structure

· Pronouns

· Affixes

· Adverbs

· Numbers

· Correlatives

· Participles

· Accusative

· Prepositions

Esperanto-English Glossary | English-Esperanto Glossary

ALPHABET

Every Esperanto word is pronounced as it is spelt, without exception. The five vowels are a as in father, e as in set, i as in machine, o as in bone, u as in tune. (These guides are for U.S. English speakers.)

The six letters unique to Esperanto, ĉ, ĝ, ĥ, ĵ, ŝ and ŭ, were introduced so that every sound could be represented by just one letter (unlike combinations such as "ch" in "church" or "sh" as in "shoe"). In Esperanto, q, w, x and y are absent, but appear in foreign names, and are treated like ç, ñ, ð, ø, ß etc.

The consonants are pronounced pretty much the same as in English, but those that differ from English are as follows:

c	ts as in dance
ĉ	ch as in chop
g	'hard' g as in go
ĝ	'soft' g as in age
ĥ	'hard' like j in Andalusean Spanish jota or ch in Scottish loch
j	y as in year
ĵ	is like s in pleasure
s	always like s in sip
ŝ	sh as in shoe
ŭ	w as in west

All of the other consonants are like in English, except note that r is slightly trilled, like in Spanish. The dot over the j is lost in ĵ.

Combinations involving vowels:

aj	like y in sky
ej	like ay in day
oj	like oy in boy
uj	like ouy in bouy, but as one syllable
aŭ	like ow in cow
eŭ	say eh+w as one syllable

The stress in Esperanto always falls on the second-to-last vowel. Be careful with words like radio and familio, in which the last i is stressed. Also, be aware that there are no "silent" letters in Esperanto. So in words with combinations such as kn or sc at the beginning, both consonants must be sounded out. The sc combination may be tricky, but in reality it is common in English, in words such as chests. This combination appears on the beginning of some common Esperanto words.

STRUCTURE
(NOUNS, ADJECTIVES & VERBS)

Esperanto words consist of an assembly of parts put together in a logical fashion. Their function in a sentence is signaled by their grammatical endings. The ability to make words by combination greatly reduces the need for memorization. This principle is found in nature, where, from approximately 110 elements, millions of substances can be created by various combinations.

Root words, or base words, give the general idea, but they lack a definite meaning until they receive a grammatical ending. Take the root akv-, for example, which means “water.” Adding -o makes the singular noun akvo, a thing, “water." Adding -j makes it plural, so that akvoj means “waters.” Alternatively, adding -a to akv- makes akva, an adjective, “watery.”

The Guinness Book of World Records lists Esperanto as the only language in which there are no irregular verbs to learn. By comparison, French has 2238, and Spanish and German have about 700 apiece. There is only one pattern in Esperanto, which consists of just 6 endings for verbs. The present, past and future are shown by the endings -as, -is and -os, respectively. The infinitive is shown by -i, the imperative by -u, and the conditional by -us. So, from the root for “speak,” parol-, and mi (meaning "I") we make:

mi parolas	I speak, I am speaking
mi parolis	I spoke, I was speaking
mi parolos	I will speak
paroli	to speak
parolu!	speak!
mi parolu	I should speak
mi parolus	I would speak

To ask a yes/no question in Esperanto, the word ĉu is used. Any sentence that begins with ĉu is saying, “Is it true that…?” Ĉu li parolis? Means “Did you speak?” In non-interrogatory, contexts, ĉu means “whether.”

PRONOUNS

mi	I, me	ni	we, us
vi	you (whether one or many)
li ŝi ĝi	he, him she, her it	ili	they, them

reflexive pronoun for when the actor
of a verb is also the recipient of the action.

oni

one/they

Example: Oni diras ke... They say that...

Adding -a to a pronoun makes it possessive. mia = my. These possessive pronouns behave in the same manner as adjectives, in that they can go before or after the noun, and they will be in the plural (and accusative, see below) if the noun is also. “My house” could be mia domo or domo mia.

AFFIXES

Affixes are the elements which are most often used to modify the meanings of root words, although they can stand as root words if logic permits. Those affixes which come at the beginnings of words are called prefixes, those found at the ends of roots are called suffixes. The very last part of a complete Esperanto word is the grammatical ending, for example, one of the endings used above to create verbs.

Prefixes

bo-	in-law	filo	son	bofilo	son-in-law
dis-	separation	doni	to give	disdoni	to distribute
eks-	former	edzo	husband	eksedzo	ex-husband
ek-	start	vidi	to see	ekvidi	to catch a glimpse of
fi-	immoral	libro	book	filibro	dirty book
ge-	both sexes	patro	father/parent	gepatroj	parents
mal-	opposite (note: not "bad")	varma	warm	malvarma	cold
pra-	long ago	historio	history	prahistorio	prehistory
re-	again	legi	to read	relegi	to read again

Suffixes

-aĉ	filthy	vetero	weather	veteraĉo	foul weather
-ad	continuation	studi	to study	studado	act of studying
-aĵ	thing	manĝi	to eat	manĝaĵo	food
-an	member	klubo	club	klubano	club member
-ar	collection	arbo	tree	arbaro	forest
-ebl	possible	vidi	to see	videbla	visible
-ec	quality	libera	free	libereco	freedom
-eg	increases	domo	house	domego	mansion
-ej	place	kuiri	to cook	kuirejo	kitchen
-em	tendency	paroli	speak	parolema	talkative
-er	piece of	polvo	dust	polvero	dust mote
-estr	boss	lernejo	school	lernejestro	principal
-et	reduces	domo	house	dometo	cottage
-id	offspring	kato	cat	katido	kitten
-iĝ	become	naski verda	to bear green	naskiĝi verdiĝi	to be born to become green
-ig	causation	dormi	to sleep	dormigi	to put to sleep
-il	tool	tranĉi	to cut	tranĉilo	knife
-ind	worthy	laŭdi	to praise	laŭdinda	praiseworthy
-ing	socket	kandelo	candle	kandelingo	candlestick
-ĉj	male diminutive	patro	father	paĉjo	papa
-in	female	avo leono	grandfather lion	avino leonino	grandmother leonino
-ism	ideology	Markso	Marx (Karl)	marksismo	Marxism
-ist	professional	baki	to bake	bakisto	baker
-nj	female diminutive	patrino	mother	panjo	mama
-op	group	tri	3	triopo	threesome
-uj	container	cigaro	cigar	cigarujo	cigar box
-ul	guy	nova	new	novulo	newbie/novice

-um

(wild card)

um is an affix with no definite meaning that you can use when no others are appropriate.

folio	leaf	foliumi	to leaf through (a book, for example)
cerbo	brain	cerbumi	to brainstorm

Whole words can be built from the affixes. ilo tool, ilaro a set of tools, ilarujo a toolbox. See how creative you can be!

ADVERBS

Adverbs are words that modify a verb, adjective or another adverb and describe how some action is done. They are formed by adding -e to the root. So Li rapide kuras means "he quickly runs." -e can be attached to almost any root, so a sentence such as Kata kato kate katas meaning "a catlike cat cattishly behaves as a cat," is entirely possible. Note there is no Esperanto word for "a or an." There is only one word, la, for "the."

There is a separate class of adverbs, marked by -aŭ. When a word has this ending, it is incorporated into the root. For example, "soon" is baldaŭ, but there is no root bald-. You can, however, add affixes and grammatical endings to make words such as baldaŭa, which would mean "forthcoming."

NUMBERS

The numerals are completely regular, and are built with a small number of elements.

0	nul
1	unu
2	du
3	tri
4	kvar
5	kvin
6	ses
7	sep
8	ok
9	naŭ
10	dek
100	cent
1000	mil

From these thirteen root words, you can make any number under a million

11	dek unu
12	dek du
13	dek tri
20	dudek
21	dudek unu
39	tridek naŭ
140	cent kvardek
1999	mil naŭcent naŭdek naŭ
2000	du mil

The numbers listed above are called cardinal numbers. Ordinal numbers, which are used to put things in their order, (such as "first," "second," "third", etc.), are formed by putting -a at the end. So, "the 7th father" is la sepa patro. But "7 fathers" would be sep patroj.

CORRELATIVES

The idea behind correlative words is that certain words like where, there, nowhere, everywhere and somewhere are related, as are whose, that person's, no one's, everyone's and someone’s.

Each correlative word consists of three parts, with i being in the middle of every word (it is also the accented syllable in every correlative word).

The last part of each word shows the topic. Here are the nine in alphabetical order:

a	kind
al	motive or reason
am	time
e	place
el	manner
es	possession
o	object
om	amount
u	individuality

At the beginning comes the five ways to think about the topics. These parts are:

k	question
t	definite answer
(blank)	indefinite
nen	negation
ĉ