Esperanto is a language, but not one like most other languages. It is an artificially constructed language, but this fact makes Esperanto even more interesting to learn. Esperanto was constructed at the end of the 19th century by Ludwig L. Zamenhof from Poland. In his hometown, there were serious problems caused by miscommunication. There were many people from many different countries, and so many different languages being spoken caused confusion and racism. Zamenhof found a solution to this problem. For most of his life, he worked at constructing the Esperanto language, an easy and logical language meant to become the international language, the language that people would speak when they couldn't speak each other's language.
After it's construction, the Esperanto language rapidly became popular and spread all over the world. Several conventions were organized and many people visited, but then the world was hit with the two world wars. In the 2nd world war, as well as in Stalin's Soviet Union, Esperantist were prosecuted. Nevertheless, the language survived and it's still being spoken by about 3 million people worldwide. Yearly conventions are still being organized and many Esperantists come and visit them. The Esperanto language has also officially been recognized by UNESCO. There are quite a few books written in Esperanto, original works as well as translations. "Asterix & Obelix" can be found in Esperanto, as well as the Bible, the Koran, Hamlet, and so on...
As you have read, Esperanto is still alive. There are many books available and there are two million speakers worldwide. The language still can solve the problems it was designed for, so we'd like to encourage as many people as possible to learn this wonderful language. The language is extremely easy, but still very complete, and by learning Esperanto you can also learn to understand other languages better and easier because Esperanto forms a solid base. It breaks language barriers and it's a neutral language, not belonging to a nation, culture or religion.
This course will teach you Esperanto in 21 lessons. All basic aspects will be covered and
after finishing this course you'll already be able to speak much Esperanto! You'll
even amaze yourself!
This course is a translation of it's Dutch equivalent by Wil van Ganswijk but has
been adapted to English and also has some additions. Also, lots of thanks go to her for
helping out with this course! For those interested: the original dutch version can be
found at http://www.xs4all.nl/~wvganswk.
If you speak Dutch better than English, then we recommend that course instead.
There are five different vowels in Esperanto: a, e, i, o and u. They are pronounced as described below:
The A, at the end of a syllable, is pronounced long and open. There is no real English equivalent of the sound but it can be compared with "aardvark" and "Afrikaans" or the French word "voila" or the Spanish word "verdad".
| la = the | |
| la patro | the father |
| la kapo | the head |
| la tablo | the table |
| la nazo | the nose |
| la knabo | the boy |
| la strato | the street |
| la mano | the hand |
But when an A appears in the middle of a syllable, it is pronounced shortly as the A in "bath", only slightly shorter.
| la planko | the floor |
| la arbo | the tree |
| la parto | the part |
| la lampo | the lamp |
| la parko | the park |
The E is pronounced like the E in "gem".
| la festo | the party |
| la besto | the animal / the beast |
| la stelo | the star |
| la azeno | the donkey |
| la orelo | the ear |
| la somero | the summer |
The I is pronounced like EA in "meat".
| la filo | the son |
| la amiko | the friend |
| mi | I (1st person singular pronoun) |
| la libro | the book |
| la lito | the bed |
| ni | we (1st person plural pronoun) |
| la birdo | the bird |
| la piro | the pear |
| li | he (3rd person singular pronoun) |
The O is pronounced like in the word "port", but slightly shorter.
| la floro | the flower |
| la onklo | the uncle |
| la rozo | the rose |
| la pomo | the apple |
| la domo | the house |
| la tondro | the thunder |
The U is pronounced like OU in "would", or like the double O in "moon". Note that the sound is NOT the same as in the English words "up" and "cut".
| la muro | the wall |
| la frukto | the fruit |
| la urbo | the city |
| la suno | the sun |
| unu | one |
| du | two |
| la hundo | the dog |
| nun | now |
Important rules regarding pronunciation
The accent/stress of the word is always on the syllable before the last syllable.
| la azeno | the donkey |
| la infano | the child |
| la tulipo | the tulip |
| la sinjoro | the lord / mister / sir |
| la letero | the letter |
| la kolombo | the pigeon |
| la familio | the family |
| la folio | the leave |
| la leono | the lion |
| la lernanto | the student |
| la najbaro | the neigbour |
| Esperanto | Esperanto |
Each character is pronounced seperately, the following words illustrate the pronunciation in syllables.
| la boato | la bo-a-to | the boat |
| la biero | la bi-e-ro | the beer |
| la piedo | la pi-e-do | the foot |
| la heroo | la he-ro-o | the hero |
Note: When a word ends in IO, IA, IE or IU then the accent/stress lies on the I. As in: familio, historio, and also kie (where).
The characters b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, s, g, t en z have the same pronunciation as in English. They are also pronounced the same irregardless of where they appear in the sentence. A little exception is the "r". It is pronounced harder than in English: more like the "r" in other languages, such as French (regarder) and Spanish (señor). This r is pronounced without starting with your tongue in the back of your throat and therefore is more vibrating.
Names of persons, animals, things, concepts, materials, etc. such as man, dog, chair, warmth, milk - are nouns. A noun can be recognized because it's always possible to put a definite article (the) and/or an indefinite article (a, an) in front of it. In Esperanto, all nouns end in -O. The definite article is always LA. (Note that there's no such concept as noun gender in Esperanto). The indefinite article is never translated. Instead, it's just omitted (a house = letero). The plural version of a noun is created by adding a -J to the noun.
| the house | la domo |
| the houses | la domoj |
| a tulip | tulipo |
| tulips | tulipoj |
Each lesson will come with a list of words. It is highly recommended that you learn these lists as they appear.
| sed | but |
| mi | I |
| li | he |
| ni | we |
| kaj | and |
| sur | on |
| de | of |
| kio | what |
| tio | that |
| en | in |
| la tero | the earth |
| la floro | the flower |
| sidi | to sit |
| esti | to be |
| fali | to fall |
| brili | to shine |
| mi estas | I am |
| li estas | he is |
| ni estas | we are |
| mi falas | I fall |
| li falas | he falls |
| ni falas | we fall |
Each of our lessons also comes with exercises that test the grammar and vocabulary discussed in the lesson It is wise to try to do all exercises as well as possible and also to check the answers afterwards.
Exercise A: Translate to English:
1) La knabo estas en la domo
2) Pomoj kaj piroj estas fruktoj
3) La boato estas de la infano
4) Kio estas tio?
5) Tio estas floro
6) Li estas amiko de sinjoro Bakker
7) La infanoj estas en la urbo
8) La suno brilas
9) Ni sidas en la boato kaj li sidas sur la planko
10) Malibu estas parto de la urbo Los Angeles
Exercise B: Translate to Esperanto:
1) The father of the child
2) A tulip is a flower
3) The streets of the city
4) Roses and tulips are flowers
5) The birds are on the house
6) The books are on the table
7) The friends are in the house
8) The houses are in the cities
9) I am in the house
10) That is a tulip
11) But that is a rose
12) The sun shines in the summer
13) The nose of the boy
14) The appel is a fruit
15) In the house are two tables
16) Lewenborg is a part of the city
17) The child is in the bed
18) The dog is a friend of the boy
19) A pigeon is in the house
20) Pigeons are birds
After you've done the exercises you can check whether your answer is correct using the following solutions:
Solution of Exercise A:
Here are the solutions so you can verify your answers:
1) The boy is in the house
2) Apples and pears are fruits
3) The boat belongs to the child (literally: the boat is of the child)
4) Who is that?
5) That is a flower
6) He is a friend of Mr. Bakker
7) The children are in the city
8) The sun shines
9) We sit on the boat and he sits on the floor
10) Malibu is a part of the city Los Angeles
Solution of Exercise B:
1) La patro de la infano
2) Tulipo estas floro
3) La stratoj de la urbo
4) Rozaj kaj tulipoj estas floroj
5) La birdoj estas sur la domo
6) La libroj estas sur la tablo
7) La amikoj estas en la domo
8) La domoj en la urboj
9) Mi estas en la domo
10) Tio estas tulipo
11) Sed tio estas rozo
12) En la somero brilas la suno
13) La nazo de la knabo
14) La pomo estas frukto
15) En la domo estas du tabloj
16) Lewenborg estas parto de la urbo
17) La infano estas en la lito
18) La hundo estas amiko de la knabo
19) En la domo estas kolombo
20) Kolomboj estas birdoj
In the previous lesson, we've seen that most consonants are pronounced like in English. However, there are a few consonants which have a different pronunciation:
The C is pronounced like TS, as in in "cats".
| la paco | the peace |
| la celo | the goal |
| la placo | the square (as in Times Square, New York) |
The V is pronounced almost as in English, only a bit softer and closer to the W. Note that the Esperanto languages does not have a W character.
| la vango | the cheek |
| la vetero | the weather |
| la viro | the man |
| la divano | the divan (a couch) |
| la vazo | the vase |
| la avo | the grandfather |
| la vino | the wine |
| la vivo | the life |
In lesson one, we've seen what a noun is. These nouns can have certain properties, such as: the long man, the black sheep, the big love, the cold weather. These words are called "adjectives". An adjective describes a property of a noun. In Esperanto all adjectives end in -A:
| bela | beautiful |
| bona | good |
| granda | big |
| fremda | strange |
| forta | strong |
Attention! The adjective has to agree with the noun in number. This means that when the noun is plural, the adjective also has to be made plural. This happens by adding a -J.
| la bona viro | the good man |
| la bela infano | the beautiful child |
| la bonaj viroj | the good men |
| la belaj infanoj | the beatiful children |
| nigra | black |
| varma | warm |
| griza | grey |
| longa | long |
| pala | pale |
| dika | thick |
| bruna | brown |
| mola | soft |
| verda | green |
| blinda | blind |
| blua | blue |
| juna | young |
| tuta | all/entire |
| sana | healhty |
| kia | how/what kind of |
| kontenta | satisfied |
| la tago | the day |
| la cigaro | the cigar |
| la glaso | the glass |
| la fingro | the finger |
| la angulo | the angle |
| la gazeto | the newspaper |
The Esperanto language uses a number of prefixes and suffixes to give certain words another meaning. One of these suffixes is -IN. When you put it behind a noun (first drop the -O, then add the suffix, then add an -O again because it's a noun), it indicates that it's the feminine form of the word. In other words: it forms the female equivalent of persons and animals.
| la patro | the father |
| la patrino | the mother |
| la frato | the brother |
| la fratino | the sister |
| la azeno | the donkey |
| la azenino | the female donkey |
| la heroo | the hero |
| la heroino | the heroine |
| la viro | the man |
| la virino | the woman |
The prefix MAL- is used to express the opposite of a word. Just paste it in front of the word.
| Kontenta | happy/satisfied |
| malkontenta | unhappy/dissatisfied |
| bona | good |
| malbona | bad |
| la amo | the love |
| la malamo | the hatred |
| la amiko | the friend |
| la malamiko | the enemy |
| longa | long |
| mallonga | short |
The verb in a sentence indicates what's happening. For example: The man walks. What is the man doing? He is walking. The verb "walk" indicates what is the action of the sentence. A verb has a distinct property. It indicates when something is happening (I walk, I walked, I will walk). A verb that does not indicate when something happens is called the infinitive verb, and in English is preceded by "to" (to walk, to swim, to fly, to eat). An infinitive verb in Esperanto always ends in "i". When you remove the i, you have the stem of the verb, and using that stem you can later form all the tenses.
| to sing | kanti |
| to fall | fali |
| to sleep | dormi |
| to walk | promeni |
| to sit | sidi |
| to stand | stari |
| to go | iri |
| to be | esti |
| to have | havi |
| to play | ludi |
| to read | legi |
Now we can put the verb in a certain tense, meaning that we can add a
little ending to the stem that will indicate in when the action is taking place. When
something is happening in the present, it is called the present tense (I walk, you sleep,
we eat). In Esperanto, the present tense is formed by adding "as" to the stem of the verb,
irregardless of who is the subject of the action.
Examples:
| to sing | kanti |
| I sing | mi kantas |
| We sing | ni kantas |
| You sing | vi kantas |
| He sings | li kantas |
| She sing | sxi kantas |
| They sing | ili kantas |
| the children sing | la infanoj kantas |
| the city is beautiful | la urbo estas bela |
| the cities are beautiful | la urboj estas belaj |
| the street is long | la strato estas longa |
| the streets are long | la stratoj estas longaj |
Exercise A: Translate to English:
1) Ni promenas en la parko.
2) La infano sidas sur la planko.
3) La glasoj staras sur la tablo kaj la tablo staras sur la planko en la domo.
4) La malgrandaj infanoj iras al (=to) la granda urbo.
5) La pala virino estas malsana.
6) La belaj floroj estas en grandaj vazoj, sed la malbelaj rozoj estas sur la strato.
7) La suno brilas kaj la vetero estas bela.
8) En la granda urbo la viroj, la virinoj kaj la infanoj estas kontentaj.
9) La bela birdo kantas.
10) La birdo kaj la azeno estas grizaj.
Exercise B: Translate to Esperanto:
1) The brown bird sits in the beautiful tree and sings.
2) The child plays in the house.
3) A small child sits on the floor.
4) The donkey and the female donkey are gray.
5) The big green bird is healthy.
6) The weather is cold.
7) The life is good.
8) The young, blind woman is satisfied but the old gray man is dissatisfied.
9) In a big city are many (=multaj) small and big houses, streets and squares.
Solution for Exercise A:
1) We walk in the park
2) The child sits on the floor
3) The glasses stand on the table and the table stands on the floor in the house
4) The small children go to the great city
5) The pale woman is sick
6) The beautiful flower are in big vases, but the ugly roses are on the street.
7) The sun shines and the weather is beautiful
8) In the big city the men, the women and the children are satisfied/happy
9) The beautiful bird sings
10) The bird and the donkey are gray
Solution for Exercise B:
1) La bruna birdo sidas en la bela arbo kaj kantas.
2) La infano ludas en la domo.
3) Malgranda infano sidas sur la planko.
4) La azeno kaj la azenino estas grizaj.
5) La dika verda birdo estas sana.
6) La vetero estas malvarma.
7) La vivo estas bela.
8) La juna, blinda virino estas kontenta, sed la maljuna griza viro estas malkontenta.
9) En granda urbo estas multaj malgrandaj kaj grandaj domoj, stratoj kaj placoj.
| Good day | Bonan tagon |
| Good morning | Bonan matenon |
| Good evening | Bonan vesperon |
| Good night | Bonan nokton |
| Please | Mi petas/Bonvolu |
| Thanks | Mi dankas/Dankon |
| Thank you very much | Koran dankon |
In this lesson we'll introduce the last characters of the Esperanto language. These characters don't appear in English so their form and pronunciation will have to be memorized. But first, let's take a look at the Esperanto alphabet:
| La Alfabeto | |||||||
| Aa | Bb | Cc | Ĉĉ | Dd | Ee | Ff | Gg |
| Ĝĝ | Hh | Ĥĥ | Ii | Jj | Ĵĵ | Kk | Ll |
| Mm | Nn | Oo | Pp | Rr | Ss | Ŝŝ | Tt |
| Uu | Ǔǔ | Vv | Zz | ||||
You probably already spotted the special characters. The C,G,S,J and H can also appear with a circumflex in Esperanto and the U can have a breve. These letters don't appear in English and most also don't appear in other languages.
Computers, unfortunately, can have problems displaying these characters correctly. The special characters are sometimes substituted according to a commonly used substitution system. In the substituted version, CX, GX, SX, JX, HX and UX might be used instead of the special characters. Many Esperanto internet sites use this substitution system, but there are also others. Zamenhof himself suggested that CH, GH, SH, JH, HH and UH should be used and some other people prefer ^C, ^G, ^S, ^J,^H and U*.
ĉ is pronounced like ch in "reach"
| la ĉambro | the room |
| la ĉagreno | the sorrow |
| la ĉerizo | the cherry |
| la ĉokolado | the chocolate |
| la ĉapelo | the hat |
| la ĉapo | tha cap |
| la ĉielo | the sky |
| la voĉo | the voice |
ĝ is pronounced as the g in "gentleman"
| la etaĝo | the floor (as in 2nd floor, 3rd floor, etc..) |
| la ĝardeno | the garden |
| la fromaĝo | the cheese |
| la ĝojo | the joy |
| la vizaĝo | the face |
ĥ is pronounced hard in the throat as in the Scottish word "loch" or the Spanish name "Juan".
| la eĥo | the echo |
| la ĥaoso | the chaos |
ĵ is pronounced as in the French words "bonjour" and "jamais".
| ĵaluza | jealous |
| ĵeti | to throw |
| la ĵurnalo | the newspaper |
ŝ is pronounced as in "shelf" and "sheep".
| la ŝafo | the sheep |
| la ŝtono | the stone |
| la tapiŝo | the carpet |
| la buŝo | the mouth |
| la poŝo | the pocket |
| la ŝranko | the cupboard/the bookcase/the cabinet |
The last special character known in Esperanto is the ǔ character (an u with a 'bowl' on top. Note that it's not the same 'circumflex' character that appears on the other special characters). This character appears in so-called diphtongues, meaning it appears with another vowel and together they form a sound. The ǔ only appears in combination with a or e. So, you get the two diphtongues aǔ en eǔ. The first one is pronounced like ow in "vowel". The latter is somewhat more difficult to explain because the sound isn't heard in English. It's pronounced like ew, where the e sounds more like the A in the word "bad".
| aǔdi | to hear |
| Eǔropo | Europe |
| morgaǔ | tomorrow |
| neǔtrala | neutral |
| ankaǔ | also |
| ĵaǔdo | Thursday |
Attention! It is vital that you don't forget the half circle on top
of the U or use one of the subsitutes with X or *. If you forget it and just write a
plain U, then the pronunciation would be very different!
This concludes the pronunciation of all Esperanto characters. Note that the characters
Q,W,X and Y do not exist in Esperanto.
Verbs
In the previous lesson we've learned the infinitive form of a verb and the conjugation of
the present tense. But an action can also occur in the past or the future, and so now we'll
teach you the other tenses. The ending of the verb shows in what tense it is, and in
Esperanto the ending is always the same, irregardless of who is the subject of the
action. This means that all persons (I, you, he, she, we, you, they) use one and the same
conjugation of the verb. Isn't that easy?
Here are the endings for the most important tenses:
Present tense: -as
Past tense: -is
Future tense: -os
And now some example to illustrate the use of these endings:
Present tense samples (things that happen right now):
| mi falas | I fall |
| vi falas | you fall (singular) |
| li falas | he falls |
| ŝi falas | she falls |
| ni falas | we fall |
| vi falas | you fall (plural) |
| ili falas | they fall |
Past tense samples (things that happened in the past):
| mi falis | I fell |
| ŝi falis | She fell |
| ni falis | We fell |
| and so on... |
Future tense samples (things that will happen in the future):
| mi falos | I will fall |
| ŝi falos | She will fall |
| ni falos | We will fall |
| etc... |
Practice these tenses with other verbs too so you can learn the endings. It's all quite easy!
| Kuŝi | to lay |
| la skatolo | the box |
| la tagoj | the days |
| paroli | to speak |
| kiu? | who? |
| Dimanĉo | sunday |
| flugi | to fly |
| tri | three |
| lundo | monday |
| labori | to work |
| kvar | four |
| mardo | tuesday |
| la salono | the hall/room |
| objekto | object |
| merkredo | wednesday |
| la maro | the sea |
| inter | between |
| ĵaŭdo | thursday |
| la homo | the human/man |
| nova | new |
| vendredo | friday |
| la plafono | the ceiling |
| flava | yellow |
| sabato | saturday |
| la nomo | the name |
| kun | with |
| la semajno | the week |
| la kato | the cat |
| ruĝa | red |
| apud | besides/next to |
And mind your pronunciation! The accent is always put on the syllable before the last one!
Exercise A: Translate to English:
1) Ŝi falis en la ĝardeno.
2) Kvar kolomboj flugis, sed du kolomboj sidis en la domo.
3) La libroj estis sur la tablo.
4) En la poŝo de knabo estas multaj objektoj.
5) Morgaǔ iros la knabinoj al la urbo.
6) La malgranda knabo sidas sur la tablo en la ĉambro kaj ludas.
7) La nomoj de la tagoj de la semajno estas: lundo, mardo, merkredo, ĵaǔdo, vendredo, sabato, dimanĉo.
8) Kiu estas vi?
9) Mi estas sinjoro K.
10) Mi loĝas en malgranda urbo kun mia (=my) frato.
11) Ankaǔ mia fratino loĝis en nia (=our) urbo, sed nun ŝi loĝas en Londono.
12) La griza ĉapelo falis.
13) La gazeto estas interesa (=interesting).
14) Multaj homoj devas (=to must/to have to) labori.
15) Mi legis.
Exercise B: Translate to Esperanto:
1) What was that?
2) Who are you?
3) We will read.
4) The child is young and healthy, but the grandfather is old and ill.
5) Who will sleep in the new bed?
6) That was the echo.
7) The big dog is the enemy of the small cat.
8) Mister K. will speak tomorrow.
9) The voice of the mother was beautiful.
Solution for Exercise A:
1) She fell in the garden.
2) Four pigeons flew, but two pigeons sat in the house.
3) The books were on the table.
4) In the bag the boy has many things.
5) Tomorrow the girls will go to the city.
6) The small boys sits on the table in the room and plays.
7) The names of the days of the week are: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
8) Who are you?
9) I am mister K.
10) I live in a small city with my brother.
11) My sister lived in our city too, but now she lives in London.
12) The gray hat fell.
13) The newspaper is interesting.
14) Many humans/people have to work.
15) I read.
Solution for Exercise B:
1) Kio estis tio?
2) Kiu estas vi?
3) Ni legos.
4) La infano estas juna kaj sana, sed la avo estas maljuna kaj malsana.
5) Kiu dormos en la nova lito?
6) Tio estis la eĥo.
7) La granda hundo estas la malamiko de la malgranda kato.
8) Sinjoro K. parolos morgaǔ.
9) La voĉo de la patrino estis bela.
In lesson two we've seen the suffix -IN and the prefix MAL-. In this lesson, we'll get to learn two other suffixes. The suffix -ET diminishes something and indicates that something is small, tiny or weak.
| knabo | A boy |
| knabeto | A little boy |
| hundo | A dog |
| hundeto | A little dog |
| ridi | to laugh |
| rideti | to smile |
| dormi | to sleep |
| dormeti | to doze |
| varma | warm |
| varmeta | lukewarm |
| malvarma | cold |
| malvarmeta | cool |
Now the next suffix, the suffix -EG, amplifies something and indicates that something is big or strong.
| varma | warm |
| varmega | hot |
| riĉa | rich |
| riĉega | very rich |
| maljuna | old |
| maljunega | very old |
| pluvo | rain |
| pluvego | a lot of rain |
| vento | wind |
| ventego | storm |
| bela | beautiful |
| belega | splendid |
In the first lesson we covered the noun (names of persons, object, conditions etc..) and in the 2nd lesson we covered the adjective (things that describe a property of a noun). In this lesson, we'll talk about the adverb. An adverb can be compared to an adjective but instead of describing a noun it describes a verb. In other words, it tells "how" something happens. An example: "The little boy runs quickly". Here we see "little" as an adjective, saying something about "boy", but we also see the word "quickly" saying something about the verb "runs". How does the boy run? The boys runs quickly. "quickly" is called the adverb in this sentence because it tells us something about a verb.
Grammar rules in Esperanto:
1. All nouns end in -O or -OJ if they're plural
2. All adjectives end in -A or -AJ if the noun is plural
3. All adverbs end in -E
Examples:
| The big man writes beautifully. | (to write = skribi): La granda (adj.) viro (noun) skribas (verb) bele (adv.) |
| The boys cry loudly. | La knaboj (noun) laǔte (adv.) ploras (verb) |
| ---(note that the adverb appears before the verb here, but that's just a matter of choice, it could also be put after the verb) | |
| The child sleeps well. | La infano dormas bone |
| la fenestro | the window |
| la fiŝo | the fish |
| la mateno | the morning |
| la forno | the stove |
| la vintro | the winter |
| la vespero | the evening |
| la ŝuo | the shoe |
| kvin | five |
| ankau | also |
| veni | to come |
| legi | to read |
| komforta | comfortable |
| kara | kind/dear |
| jes | yes |
| ne | no/not/none |
| antaŭ | in front of/before |
| hodiau | today |
| malantaŭ | behind/after |
| hieraŭ | yesterday |
(Note that ho-di-aǔ gets stress on the -i and hi-e-raǔ on the e)
Interrogative sentences usually begin with an interrogative pronoun:
| Who are you? | Kiu estas vi? |
| Who is in the room? | Kiu estas en la ĉambro? |
| What is that? | Kio estas tio? |
But there are also sentences that don't start with an interrogative pronoun: Is the sun shining? Is he healthy? Is the girl pretty? We can identify those sentences as interrogative sentences because of the use of the question mark (?) and the special word order. In Esperanto the word order is more flexible and therefore doesn't directly show you it is an interrogative sentence, but there is a solution. In Esperanto, a sentence that doesn't start with an interrogative pronoun gets the word Ĉu to indicate it's a question. It could be translated as "Is it true that..." or "Do/Does", but it doesn't have to be translated. It only indicates that the sentence is an interrogative sentence, a question. Note that the word order doesn't change as it does in English:
| He is sick | Li estas malsana |
| Is he sick? | Ĉu li estas malsana? |
| My son is happy | Mia filo estas kontenta |
| Is my son happy? | Ĉu mia filo estas kontenta? |
Exercise A: Translate to English:
1) Ĉu miaj ŝuoj estas en la ĉambro?
2) Ne, viaj (=your) ŝuoj estas en la koridoro (=corridor).
3) Mia avo estas maljunega.
4) Ĉu ankaǔ via avo estas maljunega?
5) Ĉu "Fenixo" estas gazeto?
6) La knabino ridis laǔte, sed la knabo ploris mallaǔte.
7) Morgaǔ ankaǔ la knabo ridos.
8) Ĉu la maro estas varma?
9) Ne, la akvo (=water) estas malvarmega.
10) En la domo estas forno.
Exercise B: Translate to Esperanto:
1) Is my father happy?
2) Is the street long?
3) No, the street is short.
4) Do I write splendidly? No, you write ugly
5) The boy reads badly.
6) But my sister reads well.
7) Do the children sit in the room?
8) Were you in the sea yesterday?
9) Yes, I was in the cold water.
Solution for Exercise A:
1) Are my shoes in the room?
2) No, your shoes are in the corridor.
3) My grandfather is very old.
4) Is your grandfather also very old?
5) Is "Fenixo" a newspaper?
6) The girl laught loudly, but the boy cried softly.
7) The boy will laugh tomorrow, too.
8) Is the sea warm?
9) No the water is very cold.
10) In the house is a stove.
Solution for Exercise B:
1) Ĉu mia patro estas kontenta?
2) Ĉu la strato estas longa?
3) Ne, la stato estas mallonga
4) Ĉu vi skribas belege? Ne, vi skribas malbele.
(Note that the adverb may also appear before the verb as in: Ne, vi malbele skribas... This applies to all sentences)
5) La knabo legas malbone.
6) Sed mia fratino legas bone.
7) Ĉu la infanoj sidas en la ĉambro?
8) Ĉu hieraǔ vi estis en la maro? (Hieraǔ can also appear on other places in the sentence)
9) Jes, mi estis en la akvo malvarma.
| Good night (when going to bed) | Dormu bone |
| Thanks, you too. | Dankon, same |
| You're right | Vi pravas/Prave |
| Excuse me/Sorry | Pardonu |
| Excuse me/Sorry | (Mi petas) pardonon. |
In this lesson we won't teach you any new material. Instead, we'll tell something about the Esperanto language itself. At the end of this lesson you'll find some repetition exercises. Browse through the previous lessons and then try to do the repetition exercises. It's a good idea to read out loud so you can practice your pronunciation. Note that words ending with IO are stressed on the I, because that is the syllable before the last syllable!
In June 1887, an eye-doctor named Dr. Ludwig L. Zamenhof from Warsaw (Poland), published a book that introduced the language that was designed by him. He called the language "Internacia Lingvo" while he himself used the nickname "D-ro Esperanto". "D-ro" is an abbreviation for "doktoro" and "Esperanto" means "he who is hoping". It was only a short matter of time until his nickname became equivalent with the name of the language, hence the language is now called "Esperanto"
In 1905, the first Esperanto-World-Congress took place in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France. It was a touching event for Zamenhof and the hundreds of participants from different parts of the world. People immediately understood each other when speaking Esperanto, there was no need of time and money consuming translators!
Every year, Esperantists from all over the world hold big meetings and congresses. Over 2000 people visit these events every year to discuss a huge variety of topics. Such events lasts for about a week, and there are excursions, parties, movies, theater, lectures, and so on.. The participants feel they're part of one big family. If one visits such an event, one truly knows what it means to say: "I am an Esperantist"
At those events, there is no Italian person, no Irish person, no Polish person, nor a Dutch, Turkish, South-American, Icelandic, Chinese, Russian, Norwegian, Scottish, Japanese, Bulgarian, Belgian or Finnish person, but everyone is an Esperantist and can communicate with every other person!
In 1959, it was 100 years ago since the birth of Dr. Zamenhof. To honour him, the congress took place in Warsaw. Such a big event also took place in 1987, when the 100th birthday of the first publication in Esperanto was celebrated. Over 6000 people visited the meeting that year.
Esperanto is the only international language that's still alive. It has survived more than 100 years of use by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world in daily and cultural life. It has also survived two world wars and prosecution by Hitler and Stalin.
Some years ago people asked the United Nations to discuss the language-problem. Over 17 million people from various countries acknowledged the value of the Esperanto language as international language by handing in their signature.
In 1954, a very important meeting of the UNESCO took place in Montevideo, Uruguay. Esperanto was recognized as an international language with great cultural value for all of humanity. De U.E.A (Universala Esperanto-Asocio) was added by the UNESCO to a list of organization with a so-called “consultative status”.
Over ten thousand books are published in the Esperanto language. Among those are original publications as well as translations. New ones are published daily. In the Netherlands, an Esperanto translation was released of the famous "Diary of Anne Frank". Also, famous books such as "Eric in the Land of the Insects ", by Godfried Bomas have been translated. Even the Bible has it's Esperanto version, as well as various novels, poems, scientific books, art books, religious books, politics related books, travel books, and comic books, such as the Flintstones.
Esperanto shows are being broadcast weekly from Italy, Beijing (China) and Warsaw (Poland). Many foreign cities also publish brochures and other tourist information in Esperanto, and when one wants to travel, one can write a letter to the "Esperanto-consul" in the city of destination. There, one can obtain information about meeting other Esperantists. They will show you the city and their surroundings, like others have never seen before. You'll meet new people, but no strangers, because they all speak your language: Esperanto.
In order to establish international cooperation and friendship, it's necessary for us to get to know other countries and for them to get to know us. It used to be only a minor group of people who were able to dedicate years to study a foreign language. But now in the 20th and 21st century, everyone gets to learn foreign languages. Everyone assists in establishing international friendships by writing or talking with foreign people. Especially Esperantists from all over the world love to write with each other, and in this modern age, e-mail is of course very popular and convenient. Usually this can result in visits and holidays together with the other people.
Repetition Exercise A: Translate to English:
1) La kvar amikoj estis hieraǔ en mia komforta domo
2) Mia domo estas en nova longa strato
3) Viaj amikoj estas miaj amikoj
4) Ĉu miaj amikoj estas ankaǔ viaj amikoj?
5) Malantaǔ la fenestro staris la filineto de najbaro
6) Mi ne povas (to be able to/to can) veni ĉar (because) mia fileto estas malsana
7) Ĉu la infanoj ludas?
8) Ne, la infanoj ne ludas, ĉar ili devas lerni
9) La kato ludas en la ĝardeno
10) Ĉu vi fumas (to smoke)?
Repetition Exercise B: Translate to Esperanto:
1) Monday, Wednesday and Sunday are the names of days
2) In the room are the children, they play and read
3) My sister doesn't play, she (ŝi) sleeps
4) Is your mother ill?
5) Yesterday the weather was ugly, but today the weather is splendid
6) Our fifth (kvina) lesson (leciono) is a repetition (ripeto)
7) Do you also go to the convention (kunveno)?
8) Yes, we are also going and the people will be satisfied
Solution for Repetition Exercise A:
1) The four friends were in my comfortable home yesterday
2) My home is in a new long street
3) Your friends are my friends
4) Are my friends also your friends?
5) The daughter of a neighbour stood behind the window
6) Mi ne povas (to be able to/to can) veni ĉar (because) mia fileto estas malsana
7) Do the children play?
8) No, the children don't play, because they must learn/study
9) The cat plays in the garden
10) Do you smoke?
Solution for Repetition Exercise B:
1) Lundo, Merkredo kaj Dimanĉo estas la nomoj de la tagoj
2) En la ĉambro estas la infanoj, ili ludas kaj legas
3) Mi fratino ne ludas, ŝi dormas
4) Ĉu via patrino estas malsana?
5) Hieraǔ la vetero estis malbona, sed hodiaǔ la vetero estas belega
6) Nia kvina leciono estas ripeto
7) Ĉu ankaǔ vi iras a la kunveno?
8) Jes, ni ankaǔ iras kaj la homoj estos kontentaj
| See you tomorrow | Ĝis morgaǔ |
| How do you do? | Kiel vi fartas? |
| Very good, thank you | Dankon, tre bone |
| Bon appetit | Bonan apetiton |
This is the end of part one. You can continue with part II of this course or find a lot of information on Esperanto grammar on the UniLang site. And now you know the basics you will probably manage to learn more with our other aids.
Thanks for your interest in this course! If you discovered any mistakes or you just want to say something then please let us know 
. We do need feedback! 