tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60840902834893013612024-03-08T09:38:28.212-06:00Esperanto Is Easy!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084090283489301361.post-84502984304071913932010-04-14T19:24:00.000-05:002010-04-14T19:24:46.501-05:00Nouns Part IEvery single noun in Esperanto, which is the subject of the sentence ends in -o.<br />
<br />
<blockquote><i>La hundo bojas </i>- The dog barks; The dog is barking<br />
<i>La virino laboris</i> - The woman worked.</blockquote><br />
Plural subjects add -j.<br />
<br />
<blockquote><i>La hundoj bojas</i> - The dogs bark; The dogs are barking<br />
<i>La virinoj laboris</i> - The women worked.</blockquote><br />
You should be able to pick out the nouns in this sentence even if you don't know what all the words mean:<br />
<blockquote><i><br />
</i><br />
<i>La hundoj kaj la kato dormis ekster la domo.</i></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084090283489301361.post-74210238126364028342010-04-05T23:37:00.001-05:002010-04-05T23:38:02.494-05:00There Are No Irregular VerbsThere are no irregular verbs. Verbs in Esperanto are so simple that you will find it easy to conjugate every verb in the present, past, and future tense after this post. Verbs in the infinitive end in -i. The verb <i>esti</i> means "to be". Let's conjugate this in English first.<br />
<br />
<blockquote>I <b>am</b><br />
thou <b>art</b><br />
he <b>is</b><br />
she <b>is</b><br />
it <b>is </b><br />
one <b>is</b><br />
we <b>are</b><br />
you <b>are</b><br />
they <b>are</b></blockquote><br />
As a native English speaker, I find this simple. But the verb "to be" in English is irregular. It's irregular in the Romance languages as well. Spanish is more complicated than English because Spanish has two verbs which mean "to be" - <i>ser </i>and <i>estar</i>. Not only must one remember how to conjugate each one, one must also know when to use each. Let's just look at <i>ser</i>:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>yo <b>soy</b><br />
tú <b>eres</b><br />
el <b>es</b><br />
ella <b>es</b><br />
usted <b>es </b><br />
nosotros <b>somos</b><br />
vosotros <b>sois</b><br />
ellos <b>son</b><br />
ellas <b>son</b><br />
ustedes <b>son</b></blockquote><br />
Much more variation than in English and causes non-native speakers of Spanish much difficulty. Now, let's look at Esperanto's <i>esti</i><br />
<br />
<blockquote><i>mi <b>estas</b></i><br />
<i>ci </i><i><b>estas</b></i>(<i>Ci</i> is almost never used, but is listed here for completeness)<br />
<i>li </i><i><b>estas</b></i><br />
<i>ŝi </i><i><b>estas</b></i><br />
<i>oni </i><i><b>estas</b></i><br />
<i>ĝi </i><i><b>estas</b></i><br />
<i>ni </i><i><b>estas</b></i><br />
<i>vi </i><i><b>estas</b></i><br />
<i>ili </i><i><b>estas</b></i></blockquote><i> </i><br />
<i>Esti</i>, like all Esperanto verbs, is regular. To conjugate <i>esti </i>in the present tense, remove the -i at the end and add -as<br />
<br />
Let's try it with <i>manĝi </i>- to eat<br />
Removing the -i leaves us with the root <i>manĝ</i>. Add -as and we have <i>manĝas</i>. We won't even bother listing out the pronouns with it because the verb does not change no matter which pronoun we use it with.<br />
<br />
What about the other tenses? They're just as easy. For the future, drop the -i and add -os. This would give us <i>estos </i>and <i>manĝos </i>for our examples.<br />
<br />
<blockquote><i>Mi manĝos</i> - I will eat<br />
<i>Vi estos</i> - You will be</blockquote><br />
For the past, drop the -i and add -is.<br />
<br />
<blockquote><i>Ni manĝis</i> - We ate<br />
<i>Ili estis</i> - They were</blockquote><br />
It's that simple. Here are some useful verbs to experiment with:<br />
<br />
<ul><li><i>helpi </i>- to help</li>
<li><i>doni </i>- to give</li>
<li><i>veni </i>- to come</li>
<li><i>lerni </i>- to learn</li>
<li><i>stari </i>- to stand</li>
<li><i>sidi </i>- to sit</li>
<li><i>dormi </i>- to sleep</li>
<li><i>legi </i>- to read</li>
<li><i>trinki </i>- to drink</li>
<li><i>voli </i>- to want</li>
<li><i>bezoni </i>- to need</li>
<li><i>paroli </i>- to speak</li>
</ul>You can also use the infinitive as-is. <i>Mi venis helpi</i> means "I came to help."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084090283489301361.post-12468459301748405122010-03-31T22:54:00.002-05:002010-03-31T23:13:11.272-05:00One Definite Article Esperanto's grammar is simple. There is no greater example of this than in the part of speech called the article.<br />
<br />
In English, we have three articles - "a", "an", and "the". "The" is a definite article. "A" and "an" are indefinite articles. In other words, if you say "the table", you are referring to a specific table, but if you say "a table", which particular table doesn't matter.<br />
<br />
We are lucky enough in English to only have to deal with these three. Spanish, which is supposedly the easiest foreign language for native English speakers to learn, has many more articles. In Spanish, one must not only distinguish between definite and indefinite, but also between gender and number. Esperanto, in contrast, only has one article, "la" which is the definite article. Esperanto does not use an indefinite article.<br />
<br />
Suppose I want to say, "The boys and the girl played a game with the dog." Let's just look at the nouns<br />
<br />
<ol><li>The boys</li>
<li> the girl</li>
<li>a game</li>
<li>the dog</li>
</ol>Translating these to Spanish, we would have<br />
<ol><li> <i><b style="color: red;">Los</b> niños</i></li>
<li><i><b style="color: red;">la</b> niña</i></li>
<li><i><b><span style="color: red;">un</span></b> juego</i></li>
<li> <i><b style="color: red;">el</b> perro</i> or<i> <b><span style="color: red;">la</span></b> perra</i>, depending whether the dog was male or female.</li>
</ol>Translating instead to Esperanto, we have<br />
<ol><li> <i><b style="color: red;">La </b>knaboj</i></li>
<li><i><b style="color: red;">la </b>knabino</i></li>
<li><i>ludon</i></li>
<li><i><b style="color: red;">la </b>hundo</i> (male) or <i><b style="color: red;">la </b>hundino</i> (female)</li>
</ol>Notice that number and gender do not matter. To translate "the" we simply use <i>la. </i>Looking at #3 we can see that the English indefinite article "a" is not translated. "An", which is the indefinite article used before nouns which begin with a vowel sound, is not translated either. The full sentence in Esperanto: <i>La knaboj kaj la knabino ludis ludon kun la hundo</i>.<i> </i><br />
<br />
Esperanto, with only one article to remember, has an advantage over both English, Spanish, and many other languages.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084090283489301361.post-91727965984744542132010-03-27T20:27:00.005-05:002010-03-31T23:11:15.497-05:00Personal Pronouns / Personaj PronomojEsperanto's personal pronouns are easy. Before we get to them, let's consider some of them in other languages.<br />
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Just how do you say "you" in Spanish? The answer is that it depends on how many people you are addressing and how familiar you are with them. Your choices are <i>tú</i>, <i>usted</i>, <i>vosotros</i>, <i>ustedes</i>, or <i>vos</i>. <i>Vosotros </i>is not used in all Spanish-speaking countries and <i>vos </i>is used even less. This can cause much confusion for non-native speakers.<br />
<br />
French makes things a little easier. There are only <i>tu </i>and <i>vous</i>. Even with only two choices, it is easy to make mistakes. <i>Vous </i>can be both plural and singular but formal. <i>Tu </i>is always singular and always informal. Do I use tu with my lover, my pets, my children, my best friend? Again, the answer is "It depends." If you incorrectly use <i>tu </i>you may likely offend someone.<br />
<br />
Italian can also be confusing. Italian also has an informal word, <i>tu</i>. The formal word is <i>Lei</i>. <i>Lei </i>can also mean "she". Supposedly this is easy enough to figure out in context, due to Italian's complex system of verb endings. But do you really want to go to that much trouble?<br />
<br />
Esperanto has a simple answer - <i>vi</i> (pronounced "vee"). <i>Vi </i>is used as singular you and plural you. You can confidently use <i>vi </i>with everyone you meet. Address a head of state as <i>vi </i>and you're not going to unintentionally offend anyone. <br />
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Esperanto does have another word for you, but ci (pronounced "tsee") is used the same way we use "thou" in English. That is, <i>ci </i>is used when praying or in poetry, but never in conversation.<br />
<br />
Here are the personal pronouns in Esperanto:<br />
<br />
<i>Mi </i>- I<br />
<i>Vi </i>- You<br />
<i>Li </i>- He<br />
<i>Ŝi </i>- She<br />
<i>Ĝi </i>- It <br />
<i>Oni </i>- "One" or "they" or "people" <br />
<i>Ni </i>- We<br />
<i>Ili </i>- They<br />
<br />
Pretty simple. <i>Oni </i>is the odd one out. This is used similarly to the French <i>on</i>. In sentences where "they" is not specific, <i>oni </i>is used.<br />
<br />
"Our neighbors are evil. They killed our cat." - We would use <i>ili </i>in this case because "they" refers to the neighbors. In Esperanto: <i>Niaj najbaroj estas malbonaj. Ili mortigis nian katon</i>.<br />
<br />
"They say cats have nine lives." - We would use <i>oni </i>here because "they" does not refer to someone specific. In Esperanto: <i>Oni diras ke katoj havas naŭ vivojn</i>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084090283489301361.post-10335636748236101642010-03-27T17:12:00.003-05:002010-03-27T17:28:10.802-05:00Let's Count to Ten/ Ni Nombru ĝis Dek1 - unu<br />2 - du<br />3 - tri<br />4 - kvar<br />5 - kvin<br />6 - ses<br />7 - sep<br />8 - ok<br />9 - naŭ<br />10 - dek<br /><br />If you've studied other languages, some of these numbers may seem familiar. If not, <span style="font-style: italic;">du, tri </span>and <span style="font-style: italic;">dek</span> should at least sound familiar. Consider the English words <span style="font-style: italic;">duet</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">dual</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">tripod</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">tricycle</span>, and <span style="font-style: italic;">decade</span>, for instance.<br /><br />Although the title of this post is "Let's Count to Ten", you can actually count to ninety-nine (99) with just these ten numbers. It's just a matter of addition or multiplication.<br /><br />11 - dekunu<br />12 - dekdu<br />13 - dektri<br />14 - dekkvar<br />15 - dekkvin<br />16 - dekses<br />17 - deksep<br />18 - dekok<br />19 - deknaŭ<br />20 - dudek<br />21 - dudekunu<br />22- dudekdu<br />30 - tridek<br />99 - naŭdeknaŭ<br /><br />See the pattern? It doesn't get much simpler than this.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084090283489301361.post-25661259996594966422010-03-27T16:08:00.007-05:002010-03-27T17:09:43.449-05:00Word Building With AffixesLearning Esperanto vocabulary is fairly straightforward. This is because Esperanto makes heavy use of affixes. An affix is either a prefix or a suffix which changes the meaning of the root word. Let's look at an example. We will use the word <span style="font-style: italic;">domo</span>, which means "house". <span style="font-style: italic;">Domo </span>is the root word. The affixes are <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">bold red</span>.<br /><br />la domo - the house<br />la dom<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">eg</span>o - the mansion<br />la dom<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">et</span>o - the cottage<br />la dom<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">aĉ</span>o - the hovel<br /><br />These can also be applied to verbs. The prefix <span style="font-style: italic;">mal</span> is especially useful because it denotes an opposite.<br /><br />fermi - to close<br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">mal</span>fermi - to open<br />ferm<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">eg</span>i - to slam<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Fermegi</span> is an especially interesting example of word building. My dictionary says the word for slam is <span style="font-style: italic;">brufermi</span>. But I didn't know that until just now. However, because of the suffix <span style="font-style: italic;">eg</span>, I can still get my point across even if I don't quite know the correct word to use. More importantly, this construction will be easily understood by other Esperanto speakers. There are many of different affixes available in Esperanto which makes expanding your vocabulary quite simple once you know a root word.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084090283489301361.post-10142807558015472142010-03-27T09:06:00.001-05:002010-03-27T15:24:37.040-05:00What This Blog Is AboutWelcome to <span style="font-style: italic;">Esperanto is Easy</span>! This blog is about how easy it is for native speakers of English to learn Esperanto. The plan is that many of the posts here will be micro-lessons in Esperanto. Because it's much easier to learn something new in small doses, most posts will favor focusing on a particular concept.<br /><br />Not all posts will be Esperanto micro-lessons. Some posts will also point out the problems English speakers have when learning certain other languages and will show how Esperanto solves that problem.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2