Esperanto is a constructed auxiliary language. A highly regular grammar makes Esperanto much easier to learn than most other languages of the world, though particular features may be more or less advantageous or difficult depending on the language background of the speaker. Parts of speech are immediately obvious, for example: Τhe suffix -o indicates a noun, -a an adjective, -as a present-tense verb, and so on for other grammatical functions. An extensive system of affixes may be freely combined with roots to generate vocabulary; and the rules of word formation are straightforward, allowing speakers to communicate with a much smaller root vocabulary than in most other languages. It is possible to communicate effectively with a vocabulary built upon 400 to 500 roots, though there are numerous specialized vocabularies for sciences, professions, and other activities. This article is about the language. ... A constructed or artificial language — known colloquially as a conlang — is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary have been devised by an individual or group, instead of having naturally evolved as part of a culture. ... An international auxiliary language (sometimes abbreviated as IAL or auxlang) is a language used (or to be used in the future) for communication between people from different nations who do not share a common native language. ... It has been suggested that Ending (linguistics) be merged into this article or section. ...

Reference grammars of the language include the Plena Analiza Gramatiko (Complete Analytical Grammar) by Kálmán Kalocsay and Gaston Waringhien, and the Plena Manlibro de Esperanta Gramatiko (Complete Handbook of Esperanto Grammar) by Bertilo Wennergren. Kálmán Kalocsay (October 6, 1891-February 27, 1976), in Hungarian name order Kalocsay Kálmán (pronounced ) is one of the foremost figures in the history of Esperanto literature. ... Gaston Waringhien (1901 - 1991) was a French linguist, lexicographer, and esperantist. ...

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Image File history File links Flag_of_Esperanto. ... This article is about the language. ... The creator of Esperanto, L. L. Zamenhof, did not specify phonemic-phonetic correspondences for his language. ... Esperanto is written in a Latin alphabet of twenty-eight letters, upper and lower case. ... The word base of Esperanto was originally defined by Lingvo internacia, published by Zamenhof in 1887. ... The constructed international auxiliary language Esperanto was developed in the 1870s and 80s by L. L. Zamenhof, and first published in 1887. ... Ludvic Lazarus (Ludwik Lejzer, Ludwik Łazarz) Zamenhof (December 15, 1859 – April 14, 1917) was a Polish eye doctor, philologist, and the virtual inventor of Esperanto, the most widely spoken and successful constructed languages designed for international communication among speakers of all languages. ... Proto-Esperanto (or pra-Esperanto in the language itself) is the modern term for any of the stages in the evolution of L. L. Zamenhofs language project, prior to the publication of his Unua Libro in 1887. ... Unua Libro por Rusoj (first edition, 1887, in Russian) Unua Libro por Angloj (first edition in English, 1888) The Unua Libro (First Book) was the first publication to describe the international language, Esperanto (then called Lingvo Internacia, inter-national language). It was first published in Russian on July 26, 1887... The Declaration of Boulogne (Bulonja Deklaracio) was a document written by L. L. Zamenhof and endorsed by the attendees of the first world congress of Esperanto in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France in 1905. ... The Fundamento de Esperanto (Foundation of Esperanto) is a book by L. L. Zamenhof, published in the spring of 1905. ... The Montevideo Resolution is the common name for Resolution IV.4. ... The Prague Manifesto (or Manifesto de Prago) is a set of seven widely-shared principles of the Esperanto movement. ... The language Esperanto is often used to access an international culture. ... An Esperantist is a person who participates in the diffusion of Esperanto. ... Esperantujo, also Esperantio, is a term used by speakers of the planned international language Esperanto to refer to the sphere of activity taking place in that language. ... // There are four feature films known to have been shot exclusively in the constructed language Esperanto. ... La Espero (The Hope) is a poem written by L. L. Zamenhof (1859-1917), the initiator of the Esperanto language. ... The following Esperanto libraries and collections of works in the Esperanto language are worthy of note: The Montagu Butler Library of Esperanto materials, maintained by the British Esperanto Association, whose collection of 30,000 items is often quoted. ... Since Esperanto is the largest planned language, there are over 25,000 books in Esperanto and the largest Esperanto book service at the World Esperanto Association sells over 4,000 books. ... Music in a variety of styles is written, recorded, and performed in Esperanto, a planned language used for international communication. ... Native Esperanto speakers (in Esperanto denaskuloj) come to be in families in which Esperanto (and usually other languages) is spoken. ... References to Esperanto, a constructed language, have been made in a number of films and novels. ... December 15 (Zamenhof Day, Zamenhofa Festo) is the birthday of L. L. Zamenhof, the initiator of Esperanto. ... Junularo Esperantista Brita (JEB) is the organisation for young Esperantists in the British Isles. ... SATEB (Workers’ Esperanto Movement) is the British affiliate of the non-nationalist world organisation SAT (Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda) which is a world-wide worker movement active in socialist, peace, trade union, feminist and environmental issues. ... This is a list of Esperanto organizations. ... Amikeca Reto (Friendship Network) is a directory of people around the world who do not necessarily want to host other Esperanto speakers, but want to work together and exchange ideas with others around the world. ... The Akademio de Esperanto (Academy of Esperanto) is, according to its website, an independent language institute whose task is to conserve and protect the fundamental principles of the language Esperanto and control its evolution. ... Kurso de Esperanto is a free language course software with 12 units for the constructed language Esperanto. ... Encyclopedia of Esperanto may refer to three different attempts of creating an encyclopedia of all Esperanto topics. ... The Pasporta Servo (Passport Service) is a publication in Esperanto. ... The Breton village of Plouézec has hosted an International Meeting annually since 1997. ... TEJO is the Tutmonda Esperantista Junulara Organizo, or World Esperanto Youth Organization. ... The World Esperanto Association (in Esperanto UEA: Universala Esperanto-Asocio) is the largest international organization of Esperanto speakers, with members in 119 countries (as of 2000) and in official relations with the United Nations and UNESCO. In addition to individual members, 95 national Esperanto organizations are affiliated to UEA. Its... Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda (SAT; in English, World Anational Association) was founded in 1921 by Eugène LANTI. SAT is a world-wide worker movement active in socialist, peace, trade union, feminist and environmental issues. ... The World Congress of Esperanto (in Esperanto: Universala Kongreso de Esperanto) has the longest tradition among international Esperanto conventions, with an almost unbroken run of nearly a hundred years. ... The International Youth Congress of Esperanto or Internacia Junulara Kongreso is the biggest annual meeting of young esperantists in the world and participants usually number around 300 but have been know to have more than 1000 esperanto-speakers from all over the world coming for the entire week. ... The third universal congress of Esperanto was held in 1907 in Cambridge, England. ... Esperanto was conceived as a language of international communication, more precisely as a universal second language. ... It has been suggested that Baza (language) be merged into this article or section. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Reformed Esperanto was a reformed version of Esperanto created in 1894. ... Riism (Riismo in Esperanto) is a modification of Esperanto to simplify it, to make it symmetric, and to incorporate non-sexist language and gender-neutral pronouns into it. ... This article attempts to highlight the main differences between Esperanto and Ido, two constructed languages that have a related past but have since parted ways. ... Esperanto and Interlingua are two planned languages which have taken radically different approaches to the problem of providing an International auxiliary language (IAL). ... Wikibooks has more about this subject: Novial // Alphabet and Pronunciation Both Esperanto and Novial are written using versions of the Latin alphabet. ... An international auxiliary language (sometimes abbreviated as IAL or auxlang) is a language used (or to be used in the future) for communication between people from different nations who do not share a common native language. ... A constructed or artificial language — known colloquially as a conlang — is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary have been devised by an individual or group, instead of having naturally evolved as part of a culture. ... Ido (pronounced ) is a constructed language created with the goal of becoming a universal second language for speakers of different linguistic backgrounds as a language easier to learn than ethnic languages. ... Interlingua is an international auxiliary language (IAL) published in 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA). ... Novial [nov- (new) + IAL, International Auxiliary Language] is a constructed international auxiliary language (IAL) intended to facilitate international communication and friendship, without displacing anyones native language. ... Volapük is a constructed language, created in 1879–1880 by Johann Martin Schleyer, a Roman Catholic priest in Baden, Germany. ... Signuno alphabet & numerals Signuno is signed Esperanto, derived from Gestuno roots and Esperanto morphology by an anonymous author. ... Anationalism is a term originating from the community of Esperanto speakers. ...

Grammatical summary

Esperanto has an agglutinative morphology, no grammatical gender, and simple verbal and nominal inflections. Verbal suffixes indicate four moods, of which the indicative has three tenses, and are derived for several aspects, but do not agree with the grammatical person or number of their subjects. Nouns and adjectives have two cases, nominative/oblique and accusative/allative, and two numbers, singular and plural; pronouns also have a genitive case. Adjectives generally agree with nouns in case and number. In addition to indicating direct objects, the accusative/allative case is used with nouns, adjectives and adverbs to show the destination of a motion, or to replace certain prepositions; the nominative/oblique is used in all other situations. The case system allows for a flexible word order that reflects information flow and other pragmatic concerns, as in Russian, Greek, and Latin. It has been suggested that Agglutination be merged into this article or section. ... For other uses, see Morphology. ... In linguistics, grammatical gender is a morphological category associated with the expression of gender through inflection or agreement. ... In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection (regular alteration according to rules of grammar). ... In linguistics, declension is a feature of inflected languages: generally, the alteration of a noun to indicate its grammatical role. ... In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood (or mode), which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and intent. ... Grammatical tense is a way languages express the time at which an event described by a sentence occurs. ... Inflection of the Spanish lexeme for cat, with blue representing the masculine gender, pink representing the feminine gender, grey representing the form used for mixed-gender, and green representing the plural number. ... The aktionsart or lexical aspect of a verb is a part of the way in which that verb it is structured in relation to time. ... Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to the participant role of a referent, such as the speaker, the addressee, and others. ... In linguistics, grammatical number is a morphological category characterized by the expression of quantity through inflection or agreement. ... According to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle, every sentence can be divided in two main constituents, one being the subject of the sentence and the other being its predicate. ... In linguistics, a noun or noun substantive is a lexical category which is defined in terms of how its members combine with other grammatical kinds of expressions. ... // In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun (called the adjectives subject), giving more information about what the noun or pronoun refers to. ... In linguistics, declension is a feature of inflected languages: generally, the alteration of a noun to indicate its grammatical role. ... The nominative case is a grammatical case for a noun, which generally marks the subject of a verb, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments. ... An oblique case (Latin: ) in linguistics is a noun case of analytic languages that is used generally when a noun is the predicate of a sentence or a preposition. ... The accusative case (abbreviated ACC) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. ... In the Finnish language, the Allative case is the fifth of the locative cases, with the basic meaning of onto. Its ending is -lle, for example pöytä (table) and pöydälle (onto the top of the table). ... In linguistics, grammatical number is a morphological category characterized by the expression of quantity through inflection or agreement. ... In linguistics, grammatical number is a morphological category characterized by the expression of quantity through inflection or agreement. ... Look up plural in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun or noun phrase with or without a determiner, such as you and they in English. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Look up Agreement in Wiktionary, the free dictionary An agreement may be an agreement in beliefs, rules, practices (policies), or conduct. ... The accusative case of a noun is, generally, the case used to mark the direct object of a verb. ... “Adverbs” redirects here. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with adposition. ... In linguistic typology, word order is the order in which words appear in sentences. ... In discourse-based grammatical theory, information flow is any tracking of referential information by speakers. ... Pragmatics is the study of the ability of natural language speakers to communicate more than that which is explicitly stated. ... For other uses, see Latin (disambiguation). ...

These concepts are illustrated below.

Script and pronunciation

The script resembles the Czech alphabet, but with circumflex diacritics instead of háčeks on the letters ĉ, ŝ; Westernized ĝ, ĵ in place of Slavic dž, ž; and ĥ rather than ch (there are no digraphs). The letter ŭ is shared with the Belarusian Łacinka alphabet. (See Esperanto orthography.) The diacritical marks make it unnecessary to indicate sounds with digraphs or letters not in the Roman alphabet. The Czech alphabet consists of 42 letters (or more precisely - graphemes): A, Á, B, C, ÄŒ, D, ÄŽ, E, É, Äš, F, G, H, Ch, I, Í, J, K, L, M, N, Ň, O, Ó, P, Q, R, Ř, S, Å , T, Ť, U, Ú, Å®, V, W, X, Y, Ý, Z, Ž Most of the diacritic letters were added to the alphabet through reforms... The circumflex ( ˆ ) (often called a caret, a hat or an uppen) is a diacritic mark used in written Greek, French, Dutch, Esperanto, Norwegian, Romanian, Slovak, Vietnamese, Japanese romaji, Welsh, Portuguese, Italian, Afrikaans and other languages, and formerly in Turkish [citation needed]. It received its English name from Latin circumflexus (bent... Example of a letter with a diacritic A diacritical mark or diacritic, also called an accent, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation or to distinguish between similar words. ... č Å¡ ž A háček (ˇ, pronounced ), also known as a caron, is a diacritic placed over certain letters to indicate palatalization or iotation in the orthography of Baltic languages and some Slavic languages, whereas some Finno-Lappic languages use it to mark postalveolar fricatives (sh, zh, ch). ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... The Łacinka alphabet (лацінка) is the variant of the Latin alphabet which was used for writing the Belarusian language. ... Esperanto is written in a Latin alphabet of twenty-eight letters, upper and lower case. ...

The Italian language is suggested as a model for Esperanto pronunciation. Italian ( , or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people,[2] primarily in Italy. ... Below is a list of all of the letters in the Esperanto alphabet and how to pronounce them transliterated into English and SAMPA. a: ah, [a] b: b, [b] c: ts [ts] ĉ: ch, [tS] d: d, [d] e: eh, [e] f: f, [f] g: hard g (as in go...

The article

Esperanto has a single definite article, la, which is invariable. It is similar to English the. Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzards 1996 performance released on video and CD. The video/DVD and CD performances were both recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, England. ...

La is used:

For identifiable, countable objects:

mi trovis botelon kaj deprenis la fermilon (I found a bottle and took off the lid).

For representative individuals:

la gepardo estas la plej rapida de la bestoj (The cheetah is the fastest of the beasts)

la abeloj havas felon, sed ili ne taŭgas por karesi (Bees have fur, but are not good for petting).

For adjectives used as nouns, such as ethnic adjectives used as the names of languages:

la blua (the blue one)

la angla (English: lit., "the English [language]").

For possessive pronouns, when definite:

la mia bluas, la via ruĝas (mine is blue, yours is red).

The article is also used for inalienable possession of body parts and kin terms, where English would use a possessive adjective: A possessive pronoun is a part of speech that attributes ownership to someone or something. ... Inalienable possession is a relationship between two objects indicating that they are (possibly on a less-than-physical level) connected in some way that cannot be changed. ... Headline text hjvhwhatsgm,Possessive adjectives modify nouns. ...

ili tranĉis la manon (they cut their hands [one hand each])

The article la, like the demonstrative adjective tiu (this, that), nearly always occurs at the beginning of the noun phrase, but this is not required by the grammar, and exceptions occur in poetry. Demonstratives are words that indicate which objects a sentence is referring to. ... Look up noun phrase in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

There is no grammatically required indefinite article: homo means either human being or a human being, depending on the context, and similarly the plural homoj means human beings or some human beings. The words iu and unu (or their plurals iuj and unuj) may be used somewhat like indefinite articles, but they're closer in meaning to "some" and "a certain" than to English "a". An article is a word that is put next to a noun to indicate the type of reference being made to the noun. ...

Parts of speech

The suffixes -o, -a, -e, and -i indicate that a word is a noun, adjective, adverb, and infinitive verb, respectively. Many new words can be derived simply by changing these suffixes, just as -ly derives adverbs from adjectives in English: From vidi (to see), we get vida (visual), vide (visually), and vido (sight). In linguistics, a noun or noun substantive is a lexical category which is defined in terms of how its members combine with other grammatical kinds of expressions. ... // In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun (called the adjectives subject), giving more information about what the noun or pronoun refers to. ... “Adverbs” redirects here. ... In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. ... It has been suggested that Verbal agreement be merged into this article or section. ...

Each root word has an inherent part of speech: nominal, adjectival, verbal, or adverbial, and this affects the use of the part-of-speech suffixes. With an adjectival or verbal root, the nominal suffix -o indicates an abstraction: parolo (an act of speech, one's word) from the verbal root paroli (to speak); belo (beauty) from the adjectival root bela (beautiful); whereas with a noun, the nominal suffix simply indicates the noun. Nominal or verbal roots may likewise be modified with the adjectival suffix -a: reĝa (royal), from the nominal root reĝo (a king); parola (spoken). The various verbal endings mean to be when added to an adjectival root: beli (to be beautiful); and with a nominal root they mean to act as the noun, to use the noun, etc., depending on the semantics of the root: reĝi (to reign). There are relatively few adverbial roots, so most words ending in -e are derived: bele (beautifully). Often with a nominal or verbal root, the English equivalent is a prepositional phrase: parole (by speech, orally); vide (visually, by sight); reĝe (like a king, royally). The root is the primary lexical unit of a word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents. ... In grammar, a part of speech or word class is defined as the role that a word (or sometimes a phrase) plays in a sentence. ... A prepositional phrase (PP) is a linguistic term for a phrase whose head is a preposition. ...

A suffix -j following the noun or adjective suffixes -o or -a makes a word plural. Without this suffix, a countable noun is understood to be singular. Direct objects take an accusative case suffix -n, which goes after any plural suffix. (The resulting sequence -ojn rhymes with English coin, and -ajn rhymes with fine.) A count noun is a noun which is itself counted, or the units which are used to count it. ... The accusative case of a noun is, generally, the case used to mark the direct object of a verb. ... The accusative case (abbreviated ACC) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. ...

Adjectives agree with nouns. That is, they are plural if the nouns they modify are plural, and accusative if the nouns they modify are accusative. Compare bona tago; bonaj tagoj; bonan tagon; bonajn tagojn (good day/days). This requirement allows for free word orders of adjective-noun and noun-adjective, even when two noun phrases are adjacent in subject-object-verb or verb-subject-object clauses: Look up Agreement in Wiktionary, the free dictionary An agreement may be an agreement in beliefs, rules, practices (policies), or conduct. ... In grammar, a modifier (aka qualifier) is a word or sentence element that limits or qualifies another word, a phrase, or a clause. ... In linguistic typology, Subject Object Verb (SOV) is the type of languages in which the subject, object, and verb of a sentence appear (usually) in that order. ... Verb Subject Object—commonly used in its abbreviated form VSO—is a term in linguistic typology. ...

la knabino feliĉan knabon kisis (the girl kissed a happy boy)

la knabino feliĉa knabon kisis (the happy girl kissed a boy).

Agreement clarifies the syntax in other ways as well. Adjectives take the plural suffix when they modify more than one noun, even if those nouns are all singular: For other uses, see Syntax (disambiguation). ...

ruĝaj domo kaj aŭto (a red house and [a red] car)

ruĝa domo kaj aŭto (a red house and a car).

A predicative adjective does not take the accusative case suffix even when the noun it modifies does: An adjective is a part of speech which modifies a noun, usually making its meaning more specific. ...

mi farbis la pordon ruĝan (I painted the red door)

mi farbis la pordon ruĝa (I painted the door red).

The meanings of part-of-speech affixes depend on the inherent part of speech of the root they are applied to. For example, brosi (to brush) is based on a nominal root, whereas kombi (to comb) is based on a verbal root. Change the suffix to -o, and their similar meanings diverge: broso (a brush, the name of an instrument) vs. kombo (a combing, the name of an action). Dictionaries help here by listing the roots as broso and kombi. Changing verbal kombi (to comb) to a noun simply creates the name for the action, kombo (a combing). For the name of the tool, the suffix -ilo is used, which derives words for instruments from verbal roots: kombilo (a comb). On the other hand, changing the nominal root broso (a brush) to a verb gives the action associated with that noun, brosi (to brush). For the name of the action, the suffix -ado will change a derived verb back to a noun: brosado (a brushing). Similarly, an abstraction of a nominal root (changing it to an adjective and then back to a noun) requires the suffix -eco, as in infaneco (childhood), but an abstraction of an adjectival or verbal root merely requires the nominal -o: belo (beauty). However, the form beleco is also acceptable and widely used.

Additionally, most verbs are inherently transitive or intransitive. This is not apparent from the shape of the verb, and must simply be memorized. Transitivity is changed with the suffixes -igi (the transitivizer/causative) and -iĝi (the intransitivizer/middle voice): In grammar, a verb is transitive if it takes an object. ... In grammar, an intransitive verb is an action verb that takes no object. ... Voice, in grammar, is the relationship between the action or state expressed by a verb, and its arguments (subject, object, etc. ...

akvo bolas je cent gradoj (water boils at 100 degrees)

ni boligas la akvon (we boil the water).

A limited number of basic adverbs do not end with -e, but with an undefined part-of-speech the ending -aŭ.Not all words ending in -aŭ are adverbs, and most of the adverbs that end in -aŭ have other functions, such as hodiaŭ "today" [noun or adverb] or ankoraŭ "yet, still" [conjunction or adverb]. About a dozen other adverbs are bare roots, such as nun "now", tro "too, too much", not counting the adverbs among the correlatives. (See special Esperanto adverbs). Esperanto is a constructed auxiliary language. ... A limited number of Esperanto adverbs do not end with the regular adverbial ending (-e): ajn: at all almenaŭ: at least ankaŭ: also; too; likewise ankoraŭ: still; yet anstataŭ: instead of antaŭ: before; in front of apenaŭ: barely apud: next to; beside; near; near...

Other parts of speech occur as bare roots, without special suffixes. These are the pronouns (mi "I"), prepositions (al "to"), conjunctions (kaj "and"), interjections (ho "oh"), and numerals (du "two"). (The final -i found on pronouns is not a suffix, but part of the root.) There are also several "grammatical particles" which don't fit neatly into any category, and which must generally precede the words they modify, such as ne (not), ankaŭ (also), nur (only), eĉ (even). In linguistics, the term particle is often employed as a useful catch-all lacking a strict definition. ...

Pronouns

There are three types of pronouns in Esperanto: personal (vi "you"), demonstrative (tio "that", iu "someone"), and relative/interrogative (kio "what"). Unlike nouns, pronouns take three cases: nominative/oblique, accusative, and genitive.

Personal pronouns

The Esperanto personal pronoun system is similar to that of English, but with the addition of a reflexive pronoun. Personal pronouns are pronouns often used as substitutes for proper or common nouns. ... “Oneself” redirects here. ...

Personal pronouns take the accusative suffix -n like nouns do: min (me), lin (him), ŝin (her). Possessive adjectives are formed with the adjectival suffix -a: mia (my), ĝia (its), nia (our). These agree with their noun like any other adjective: ni salutis liajn amikojn (we greeted his friends). Esperanto does not have separate forms for the possessive pronouns; this sense is generally (though not always) indicated with the definite article: la mia (mine). The term accusative may be used in the following contexts: A form of morphosyntactic alignment, as found in nominative-accusative languages. ... Headline text hjvhwhatsgm,Possessive adjectives modify nouns. ... // In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun (called the adjectives subject), giving more information about what the noun or pronoun refers to. ... A possessive pronoun is a part of speech that attributes ownership to someone or something. ...

The reflexive pronoun is used, in non-subject phrases only, to refer to back to the subject, usually only in the third and indefinite persons: “Oneself” redirects here. ...

li lavis sin "he washed" (himself)

ili lavis sin "they washed" (themselves or each other)

li lavis lin "he washed him" (someone else)

li manĝis sian panon "he ate his bread" (his own bread)

li manĝis lian panon "he ate his bread" (someone else's bread).

The indefinite pronoun is used when making general statements, and is often used where English would have the subject it with a passive verb,

oni diras, ke ... "they say that ..." or "it's said that ..."

Zamenhof created an informal second-person singular pronoun ci (thou), and capitalized the formal singular pronoun Vi, following usage in most European languages, but these forms are rarely seen today. Dr. Ludovic Lazarus (Ludwik Lejzer) Zamenhof (December 15, 1859–April 14, 1917) was a Polish-Jewish ophthalmologist, philologist, and the initiator of Esperanto, the most widely spoken planned language to date. ... For other uses, see Thou (disambiguation). ... In sociolinguistics, a T-V distinction describes the situation wherein a language has second-person pronouns that distinguish varying levels of politeness, social distance, courtesy, familiarity, or insult toward the addressee. ...

Ĝi is used principally with animals and objects. Zamenhof also prescribed it to be the epicene (gender-neutral) third-person singular pronoun, for use when the sex of an individual is unknown, or to refer to an epicene noun such as persono (person). However, it is generally only used for children:

La infano ploras, ĉar ĝi volas manĝi "the child is crying, because it wants to eat".

When speaking of adults or people in general, it is much more common for the demonstrative adjective and pronoun tiu (that one) to be used in such situations.

Other pronouns

The demonstrative and relative pronouns form part of the correlative system, and are described in that article. The pronouns are the forms ending in -o (simple pronouns) and -u (adjectival pronouns). Their accusative case is formed in -n, but the genitive case ends in -es, which is the same for singular and plural and does not take accusative marking. Compare the nominative phases lia domo (his house) and ties domo (that one's house, those ones' house) with the plural liaj domoj (his houses) and ties domoj (that one's houses, those ones' houses), and with the accusative genitive lian domon and ties domon. A demonstrative pronoun in grammar and syntax is a pronoun that shows the place of something. ... A poprelative pronoun is a pronoun that marks a relative clause within a larger sentence. ... The word base of Esperanto was originally defined by Lingvo internacia, published by Zamenhof in 1887. ...

Prepositions

Although Esperanto word order is fairly free, prepositions must come at the beginning of a noun phrase. Whereas in languages such as German, prepositions may require a noun to be in various cases (accusative, dative, etc.), in Esperanto all prepositions govern the nominative: por Johano (for John). The only exception is when there are two or more prepositions and one is replaced by the accusative. In linguistic typology, word order is the order in which words appear in sentences. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with adposition. ... Look up noun phrase in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In linguistics, declension is a feature of inflected languages: generally, the alteration of a noun to indicate its grammatical role. ... The term accusative may be used in the following contexts: A form of morphosyntactic alignment, as found in nominative-accusative languages. ... Dative has several meanings. ... The nominative case is a grammatical case for a noun. ...

Prepositions should be used with a definite meaning. When no one preposition is clearly correct, the indefinite preposition je should be used:

ili iros je la tria de majo (they'll go on the third of May: the "on" isn't literally true).

Alternatively, the accusative may be used without a preposition:

ili iros la trian de majo.

Note that although la trian (the third) is in the accusative, de majo (of May) is still a prepositional phrase, and so the noun majo remains in the nominative case. A prepositional phrase (PP) is a linguistic term for a phrase whose head is a preposition. ...

A frequent use of the accusative is in place of al (to) to indicate the direction or goal of motion (allative case). It is especially common when there would otherwise be a double preposition: In the Finnish language, the Allative case is the fifth of the locative cases, with the basic meaning of onto. Its ending is -lle, for example pöytä (table) and pöydälle (onto the top of the table). ...

la kato ĉasis la muson en la domo (the cat chased the mouse in [inside of] the house)

la kato ĉasis la muson en la domon (the cat chased the mouse into the house).

The accusative/allative may stand in for other prepositions as well, especially when they have vague meanings that don't add much to the clause. Adverbs, with or without the case suffix, are frequently used in place of prepositional phrases:

li iris al sia hejmo (he went to his home)

li iris hejmen (he went home)

Occasionally a new preposition is coined. As a bare root may indicate a preposition or interjection, removing the grammatical suffix from another part of speech can be used to derive a preposition or interjection. For example, from fari (to do, to make) we get the preposition far (done by), a more precise substitute for de (of, by, from). The root is the primary lexical unit of a word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents. ... An interjection is a part of speech that usually has no grammatical connection to the rest of the sentence and simply expresses emotion on the part of the speaker, although most interjections have clear definitions. ...

Verbs

All verbs are regular. Three tenses together form what is called the indicative mood. The other moods are the infinitive, conditional, and jussive. No aspectual distinctions are required by the grammar, but derivational expressions of Aktionsart are common. Grammatical tense is a way languages express the time at which an event described by a sentence occurs. ... In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood (or mode), which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and intent. ... In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. ... The conditional mood (or conditional tense) is the form of the verb used in conditional sentences to refer to a hypothetical state of affairs, or an uncertain event that is contingent on another set of circumstances. ... In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood (or mode), which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and intent. ... In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof) in the described event or state. ... The aktionsart or lexical aspect of a verb is a part of the way in which that verb it is structured in relation to time. ...

Verbs do not change form according to their subject. I am, we are, and he is are simply mi estas, ni estas, and li estas, respectively. Impersonal subjects are not used: pluvas (it is raining); estas muso en la domo (there's a mouse in the house). According to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle, every sentence can be divided in two main constituents, one being the subject of the sentence and the other being its predicate. ...

The verbal paradigm

The tenses have characteristic vowels. A indicates the present tense, i the past, and o the future.

The verbal forms may be illustrated with the root esper- (hope): In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood (or mode), which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and intent. ... In linguistics, a participle is a non-finite verb form that can be used in compound tenses or voices, or it can be used as a modifier. ... In linguistics, a participle is a non-finite verb form that can be used in compound tenses or voices, or it can be used as a modifier. ... In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. ... In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood (or mode), which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and intent. ... The conditional mood (or conditional tense) is the form of the verb used in conditional sentences to refer to a hypothetical state of affairs, or an uncertain event that is contingent on another set of circumstances. ... The past tense is a verb tense expressing action, activity, state or being in the past. ... The present tense is the tense (form of a verb) that is often used to express: Action at the present time A state of being A habitual action An occurrence in the near future An action that occurred in the past and continues up to the present There are two... It has been suggested that Future perfect tense be merged into this article or section. ...

esperi (to hope)

esperas (hopes, is hoping)

esperis (hoped, was hoping)

esperos (shall hope, will hope)

esperu (hope!)

esperus (were to hope, would hope)

A verb can be made emphatic with the particle ja (indeed): mi ja esperas (I do hope), mi ja esperis (I did hope).

Mood

The conditional mood is used for such expressions as se mi povus, mi irus (if I could, I would go) and se mi estus vi, mi irus (if I were you, I'd go). The conditional mood (or conditional tense) is the form of the verb used in conditional sentences to refer to a hypothetical state of affairs, or an uncertain event that is contingent on another set of circumstances. ...

The jussive mood, called the volitive in Esperanto, is used for wishing and requesting, and serves as the imperative. It covers some of the uses of the subjunctive in European languages: In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood (or mode), which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and intent. ... Imperative programming, as opposed to functional programming, is a sort of programming employing side-effect as central execution feature. ... The subjunctive mood (sometimes referred to as the conjunctive mood) is a grammatical mood of the verb that expresses wishes, commands (in subordinate clauses), and statements that are contrary to fact. ...

Iru! (Go!)

Mi petis, ke li venu. (I asked him to come.)

Li parolu. (Let him speak.)

Ni iru. (Let's go.)

Benu ĉi tiun domaĉon (Bless this mess.)

Mia filino belu! (May my daughter be beautiful!)

Aspect

Although verbal aspect is not grammatically required in Esperanto, the Slavic aspectual system survives in two aktionsart affixes, perfective (often inceptive) ek- and imperfective -adi. Compare: In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof) in the described event or state. ... The aktionsart or lexical aspect of a verb is a part of the way in which that verb it is structured in relation to time. ... In grammar, the perfective aspect is an aspect that exists in many languages. ... The imperfective aspect, sometimes known as the continuous or progressive aspect, is a grammatical aspect. ...

Tiu ĉi ekinteresis min kaj montris al mi, ke ... (This caught my interest and showed me that ...)

and:

Tiu ĉi interesis min (This interested me).

Various prepositions may also be used as aktionsart prefixes, such as el (out of), used to indicate that an action is performed to completion or at least to a considerable degree. In,

Germanan kaj francan lingvojn mi ellernadis en infaneco (I learned French and German in childhood),

the verb el-lern-ad-is is past tense (-is), on-going/imperfective (-ad-), and performed to significant completion (el-). Such distinctions are notoriously difficult to render in English, but perhaps a circumlocution may help: In childhood, I spent time soaking up German and French. Here spend time —ing corresponds roughly to -adi, and the up of soak up [originally also a preposition] conveys some of the meaning of el-.

The participles (see below) may also be used for aspectual distinctions.

The copula

The verb esti (to be) is both the copula and the existential ("there is") verb. As a copula linking two noun phrases, it does not cause either to take the accusative case. Therefore, unlike the situation with other verbs, word order with esti can be semantically important: compare hundoj estas personoj (dogs are people) and personoj estas hundoj (people are dogs). This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Look up noun phrase in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

It is becoming increasingly common to replace esti-plus-adjective with a verb: la ĉielo estas blua or la ĉielo bluas (the sky is blue). This is a stylistic rather than grammatical change in the language, as the more economical verbal forms were always found in poetry.

Participles

Participles are verbal derivatives. In Esperanto, they retain the tense of the verb in their vowel. They may be active (performing an action) or passive (receiving an action). In linguistics, a participle is a non-finite verb form that can be used in compound tenses or voices, or it can be used as a modifier. ... active active lifestyle active volcano sexually active, meaning to regularly undertake sexual activity active grammatical voice active electronics are components, circuits or units of equipment that consume power other than the signal itself, most normally to provide amplification. ... Passive has several meanings: In grammar it describes a grammatical voice. ...

Adjectival participles

The basic principle of the participles may be illustrated with the verb fali (to fall). Picture Wile E. Coyote running off a cliff. Before gravity kicks in (after all, this is a cartoon), he is falonta (about to fall). As he drops, he is falanta (falling). After he impacts the desert floor, he is falinta (fallen). Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote The Road Runner cartoons are a series of Looney Tunes cartoons created by Chuck Jones for Warner Brothers. ...

Active and passive pairs can be illustrated with the transitive verb haki (to chop). Picture a woodsman approaching a tree with an axe, intending to chop it down. He is hakonta (about to chop) and the tree is hakota (about to be chopped). While swinging the axe, he is hakanta (chopping) and the tree hakata (being chopped). After the tree has fallen, he is hakinta (having chopped) and the tree hakita (chopped).

Compound tense

Compound tenses are formed with the adjectival participles plus esti (to be) as the auxiliary verb: Adjectival participle is a lexical category in the grammar of some languages (Russian [1], Hungarian, many Eskimo languages, e. ...

• Present progressive: mi estas kaptanta (I am catching [something]), mi estas kaptata (I am being caught)
• Present perfect: mi estas kaptinta (I have caught [something]), mi estas kaptita (I have been caught)
• Present predictive: mi estas kaptonta (I am going to/about to catch), mi estas kaptota (I am going to be/about to be caught)

These are not used as often as their English equivalents. For "I am going to the store", you would normally use the simple present mi iras in Esperanto. In English, and sometimes in other languages, the continuous or progressive aspect is an aspect that denotes an incomplete action in progress at a specific time. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... A prediction or forecast is a statement or claim that a particular event will occur in the future. ...

The tense and mood of esti can be changed in these compound tenses:

mi estis kaptinta (I had caught)

mi estus kaptonta (I would be about to catch)

mi estos kaptanta (I will be catching).

The option of replacing esti + adjective with a verb holds for adjectival participles, with the verbal suffix reflecting the tense of the auxiliary:

mi estas kaptinta or mi kaptintas (I have caught)

mi estis kaptinta or mi kaptintis (I had caught).

Adjectival participles agree with nouns, as any other adjectives do:

ili ŝparis la arbojn hakotajn (they spared the trees that were to be chopped down).

Nominal participles

Participles may be turned into adverbs or nouns by replacing the adjectival suffix -a with -e or -o. This means that, in Esperanto, some nouns may be inflected for tense.

A nominal participle indicates one who participates in the action specified by the verbal root. For example, esperinto is a "hoper" (past tense), or one who had been hoping. (In the early years of the language, such forms were assumed to be masculine, but that is no longer the case.)

Adverbial participles

Adverbial participles are used with subjectless clauses: Look up Adverbial participle in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Kaptinte la pilkon, li ekkuris golen (Having caught the ball, he ran for the goal).

Conditional and tenseless participles (unofficial)

Occasionally, the participle paradigm will be extended to include conditional participles, with the vowel u (-unt-, -ut-). If, for example, in our tree-chopping example, the woodsman found that the tree had been spiked and so couldn't be cut down after all, he would be hakunta and the tree hakuta. (These don't translate well into English.)

This can also be illustrated with the verb prezidi (to preside). Just after the recount of the 2000 United States presidential election: Presidential electoral votes by state. ...

• then-president Bill Clinton was still prezidanto (current president) of the United States,
• president-elect George W. Bush was declared prezidonto (president-to-be),
• the previous president George H. W. Bush was a prezidinto (former president), and
• the contending candidate Al Gore was prezidunto (would-be president – that is, if the recount had gone differently).

Note that this example is somewhat artificial, since the customary word for 'president' (of a country) is the tense-neutral word prezidento, which is officially a separate root, not a derivative of the verb prezidi. However, prezidanto is typically used for the presidents of organizations other than sovereign countries, and prezidinto is used for former presidents in such contexts. William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States, inaugurated on January 20, 2001. ... George Herbert Walker Bush (born June 12, 1924) was the 41st President of the United States, serving from 1989 to 1993. ... This article is about the former Vice President of the United States. ...

The conditional forms are infrequent, but their regular derivation ensures that they can be readily understood, even if rarely needed. No European language has conditional participles; in English, words like prezidunto must be expressed periphrastically.

Likewise, some Esperantists have proposed a tenseless participle, though only for active-participle role. The element -ento is not officially a participle or even a separate morpheme, but it is very common and is sometimes regarded as a suffix. It frequently occurs in words for occupations where one would not wish to specify tense, such as prezidento or studento (student). Since there is often a verb derived from the same Latin root, in these cases prezidi (to preside) and studi (to study), this -ento has occasionally been proposed as a tense-neutral active participle by analogy with the temporal participles -anto, -into, -onto.

However, even if the participial paradigm were to be extended in this way, it would be asymmetric in that there can be no direct passive counterpart to *-ento because the expected -eto already exists as the diminutive suffix. The nearest equivalent is the middle voice suffix -iĝi, which is commonly used as a generic passive. Unlike the active case, where a few new nouns like prezidento were sufficient to avoid making the language overly specific, a need for a neutral passive participle was felt in the verbs. For example, there was heated debate for several decades as to whether "I was born in 19xx" should be mi estis naskita (I had been born) or mi estis naskata (literally 'I was being born'), with the French and Germans generally holding opposite opinions deriving from usage in their native languages. Today, people sidestep the issue with the temporally neutral mi naskiĝis (I was born). Voice, in grammar, is the relationship between the action or state expressed by a verb, and its arguments (subject, object, etc. ...

Negatives

A statement is made negative by using ne or one of the negative (neni-) correlatives. Only one negative word is allowed per clause: Esperanto is a constructed auxiliary language. ...

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

*Mi ne faris nenion ajn (I didn't do nothing) is considered ungrammatical.

The word ne comes before the word it negates, with the default position being before the verb:

Mi ne skribis tion (I didn't write that)

Ne mi skribis tion (It wasn't me who wrote that)

Mi skribis ne tion (It wasn't that that I wrote)

The latter will frequently be reordered as ne tion mi skribis depending on the flow of information.

Questions

Main article: Interrogatives in Esperanto In Esperanto there are two kinds of interrogatives: yes-no interrogatives, and correlative interrogatives. ...

"Wh" questions are asked with one of the interrogative/relative (ki-) correlatives. They are commonly placed at the beginning of the sentence, but different word orders are allowed for stress: Esperanto is a constructed auxiliary language. ...

Li scias, kion vi faris (He knows what you did.)

Kion vi faris? (What did you do?)

Vi faris kion? (You did what?)

Yes/no questions are marked with the conjunction ĉu (whether):

Mi ne scias, ĉu li venos (I don't know whether he'll come)

Ĉu li venos? (Will he come?)

Such questions can be answered jes (yes) or ne (no) in the European fashion of aligning with the polarity of the answer, or ĝuste (correct) or malĝuste (incorrect) in the Japanese fashion of aligning with the polarity of the question:

Ĉu vi ne iris? (Did you not go?)

— Ne, mi ne iris (No, I didn't go); — Jes, mi iris (Yes, I went)

— Ĝuste, mi ne iris (Correct, I didn't go); — Malĝuste, mi iris (No, I did go)

Note that Esperanto questions may have the same word order as statements.

Conjunctions

Basic Esperanto conjunctions are kaj (both/and), aŭ (either/or), nek (neither/nor), se (if), ĉu (whether/or), sed (but), anstataŭ (instead of), krom (besides, in addition to), kiel (like, as), ke (that). Like prepositions, they precede the phrase or clause they modify:

Mi vidis kaj lin kaj lian amikon (I saw both him and his friend)

Estis nek hele nek agrable (it was neither clear [sunny] nor pleasant)

ĉu pro kaprico, ĉu pro natura lingvo-evoluo (whether by whim, or by natural language development)

Li volus, ke ni iru (he would like us to go)

However, unlike prepositions, they allow the accusative case, as in the following example from Don Harlow:

Li traktis min kiel princon (He treated me like a prince: that is, as he would treat a prince)

Li traktis min kiel princo (He treated me like a prince: that is, as a prince would treat me)

Interjections

Interjections may be derived from bare affixes or roots: ek! (get going!), from the perfective prefix; um (um, er), from the indefinite/undefined suffix; fek! (shit!), from feki (to defecate). An interjection is a part of speech that usually has no grammatical connection to the rest of the sentence and simply expresses emotion on the part of the speaker, although most interjections have clear definitions. ...

Word formation

Main article: Esperanto word formation

Esperanto derivational morphology uses a large number of lexical and grammatical affixes (prefixes and suffixes). These, along with compounding, decrease the memory load of the language, as they allow for the expansion of a relatively small number of basic roots into a large vocabulary. For example, the Esperanto root vid- (see) regularly corresponds to several dozen English words: see (saw, seen), sight, blind, vision, visual, visible, nonvisual, invisible, unsightly, glance, view, vista, panorama, observant etc., though there are also separate Esperanto roots for a couple of these concepts. The word base of Esperanto was originally defined by Lingvo internacia, published by Zamenhof in 1887. ... For other uses, see Morphology. ... In linguistics, a prefix is a type of affix that precedes the morphemes to which it can attach. ... It has been suggested that Ending (linguistics) be merged into this article or section. ...

Numbers

Numerals

The cardinal numerals are: A numeral is a symbol or group of symbols that represents a number. ...

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)

These are grammatically numerals, not nouns, and as such do not take the accusative case suffix. However, unu (and only unu) is sometimes used adjectivally or demonstratively, meaning "a certain", and in such cases it may take the plural affix -j, just as the demonstrative pronoun tiu does:

unuj homoj

"certain people";

ili kuris unuj post la aliaj

"they ran some after others".

In such use unu is irregular in that it doesn't take the accusative affix -n in the singular, but does in the plural:

ian unu ideon

"some particular idea",

but

unuj objektoj venis en unujn manojn, aliaj en aliajn manojn

"some objects come into certain hands, others into other hands".

Additionally, when counting off, the final u of unu may be dropped, as if it were a part-of-speech suffix:

Un'! Du! Tri! Kvar!

Higher numbers

As in other languages, there are several systems for numbers above a million. A billion in the US and Russia is different from a billion in France and Germany (10⁹ vs. 10¹² respectively; that is, a thousand million vs. a million million), and Esperanto biliono is likewise ambiguous. However, there is an additional unambiguous system: The long and short scales are two different numerical systems used throughout the world: Short scale is the English translation of the French term échelle courte. ...

10⁶: miliono

10⁹: miliardo (or mil milionoj)

10¹²: duiliono

10¹⁵: duiliardo (or mil duilionoj)

10¹⁸: triiliono

10²¹: triiliardo (or mil triilionoj)

etc.

Note that these are not numerals but nouns, and behave as such.

An additional unambiguous system is provided by the international set of metric prefixes, and occasionally the nonce numerals meg (miliono) and gig (miliardo) are derived from them.

Compound numbers and derivatives

Numerals are written together as one word when their values are multiplied, and separately when their values are added (dudek 20, dek du 12, dudek du 22). Ordinals are formed with the adjectival suffix -a, quantities with the nominal suffix -o, multiples with -obl-, fractions with -on-, collectives with -op-, and repetitions with the root -foj-.

sescent sepdek kvin (675)

tria (third [as in first, second, third])

trie (thirdly)

dudeko (a score)

duobla (double)

kvarono (one fourth, a quarter)

duope (by twos)

dufoje (twice)

The particle po is used to mark distributive numbers, that is, the idea of distributing a certain number of items to each member of a group. Consequently the logogram @ is not used (except in email addresses, of course): Egyptian hieroglyphs, which have their origins as logograms. ...

mi donis al ili po tri pomojn or pomojn mi donis al ili po tri (I gave them three apples each).

Note that particle po forms a phrase with the numeral tri and is not a preposition for the noun phrase tri pomojn, so it does not prevent a grammatical object from taking the accusative case.

Comparisons

Comparisons are made with the adverbial correlatives tiel ... kiel (as ... as), the adverbial roots pli (more) and plej (most), the antonym prefix mal-, and the preposition ol (than):

mi skribas tiel bone kiel vi (I write as well as you)

tiu estas pli bona ol tiu (this one is better than that one)

tio estas la plej bona (that's the best)

la mia estas malpli multekosta ol la via (mine is less expensive than yours)

Implied comparisons are made with tre (very) and tro (too [much]).

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 (The more people, the smaller the portions)

Des pli bone! (All the better!)

Non-Indo-European aspects

Although Esperanto is billed as an international language, its vocabulary, syntax, and semantics are predominantly European. Roots are Romance, Slavic, and Germanic in origin, with a bit of Classical Greek. It is claimed that there are elements of the grammar which are not found in these language families. Frequently mentioned is Esperanto's lack of ablaut (internal inflection of its roots), which is found in all its source languages. Examples of ablaut in English are mouse vs. mice for nouns and run vs. ran for verbs, or song sing sang sung for both. However, the majority of words in all European languages inflect without ablaut, as cat vs. cats and walk vs. walked do in English. (This is the so-called strong-weak dichotomy.) Esperanto merely extends this tendency, with the only ablaut being frozen in the lexicon, in a few sets of related roots such as pli, plu, plej (more, more, most), tre, tro (very, too much), and the verbal morphemes -as, -anta, -ata; -is, -inta, -ita; -os, -onta, -ota; and -us. (This system can be extended further, with conditional participles -unta and -uta derived from the conditional mood in -us.) For other uses, see Syntax (disambiguation). ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family, comprising all the languages that descend from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. ...  Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language  Countries where an East Slavic language is the national language  Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup... The History of Greece extends back to the arrival of the Greeks in Europe some time before 1500 BC, even though there has only been an independent state called Greece since Turkey, Italy and Libya. ... In linguistics, the term ablaut (from German ab- in the sense down, reducing + Laut sound) designates a system of vowel gradations in Proto-Indo-European and its far-reaching consequences in all of the modern Indo-European languages. ... The root is the primary lexical unit of a word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents. ... A strong inflection is a system of verb conjugation or noun/adjective declension which can be contrasted with an alternative system in the same language, which is then known as a weak inflection. ... In grammar, the term weak (originally coined in German: schwach) is used in opposition to the term strong (stark) to designate a conjugation or declension when a language has two parallel systems. ...

Some claimed non-Indo-European features are derived through regular analogic extension of standard European grammatical structures. For example, the nominal-adjectival paradigm is taken from Greek: Esperanto nominative singular muso (mouse) vs. Greek mousa, nominative plural musoj vs. Greek mousai, and accusative singular muson vs. Greek mousan. However, Esperanto does not have a separate accusative plural suffix like Greek mous-ās; rather, it compounds the accusative and plural suffixes for this use: mus-o-j-n. This system does not occur in any of Esperanto's source languages, but is similar to Hungarian and Turkish grammar in its mechanics, if not in its details. However, in none of these cases were the "non-Indoeuropean" elements of Esperanto grammar taken from non-Indoeuropean languages. Analogy is both the cognitive process of transferring information from a particular subject (the analogue or source) to another particular subject (the target), and a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process. ...

Sample text

The paternoster, from the first Esperanto publication in 1887, illustrates many of the grammatical points presented above, and should be readable without translation: The Lords Prayer (sometimes known by its first two Latin words as the Pater Noster, in Greek as the , or the English equivalent Our Father) is probably the best-known prayer in Christianity. ... Unua Libro por Rusoj (first edition, 1887, in Russian) Unua Libro por Angloj (first edition in English, 1888) The Unua Libro (First Book) was the first publication to describe the international language, Esperanto (then called Lingvo Internacia, inter-national language). It was first published in Russian on July 26, 1887...

Patro nia, kiu estas en la ĉieloj,

sanktigata estu via nomo.

Venu via regno,

fariĝu via volo,

kiel en la ĉielo, kaj sur la tero.

Panon nian ĉiutagan donu al ni hodiaǔ.

Kaj pardonu al ni niajn ŝuldojn,

kiel ankaǔ ni pardonas al niaj ŝuldantoj.

Kaj ne konduku nin en tenton,

sed liberigu nin de la malbono.

(Ĉar via estas la regno kaj la potenco

kaj la gloro eterne.

Amen.)

(A slightly different version.)

The morphologically complex words (see Esperanto word formation) are: The word base of Esperanto was originally defined by Lingvo internacia, published by Zamenhof in 1887. ...

sanktigata
sankt	-ig	-at	-a
holy	causative	passive participle	adjective
"made holy"

fariĝu
far	-iĝ	-u
do	middle voice	jussive
"be done"

ĉiutagan
ĉiu	-tag	-a	-n
every	day	adjective	accusative
"daily"

ŝuldantoj
ŝuld	-ant	-o	-j
owe	active participle	noun	plural
"debtors"

liberigu nin
liber	-ig	-u	ni	-n
free	causative	jussive	we	accusative
"free us"

la malbono
la	mal	-bon	-o
generic article	antonym	good	noun
"evil"

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"

"Word Building With Esperanto Affixes"

"Esperanto Grammar", by Jiří Hana