Esperanto/Lesson 2

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After a short review of the most difficult pronunciations, we will learn about adjectives in Esperanto, get to know more verb tenses, and start playing with words (i.e. derive new words). As always, there will be vocabulary to be memorized.

Pronunciation again

Remember how c, ĉ, ĝ, ĥ, j, ĵ, ŝ, and ŭ are pronounced? Review the box below if you're not completely sure about any of them anymore. If you'd like to practice them again, please redo the exercise in Lesson 1.

Pronunciation
Letter	Pronunciation (IPA)	Audio	Difference with English
c	/t͡s/		Always as "ts".
ĉ	/t͡ʃ/		Always as "ch" as in "chase".
ĝ	/d͡ʒ/		Always as the soft "g", as in "gem".
ĥ	/x/		As in the Scottish pronunciation of "loch".
j	/j/		Always as "y" as in "yard", never as English "j". Compare "hallelujah"
ĵ	/ʒ/		Always as "zh", for example the sound in "measure".
ŝ	/ʃ/		Always as "sh" as in "ship".
ŭ	/u̯/		Like in "now", not "water". Almost always does this sound come in the combinations "aŭ" or "eŭ".

Adjectives

Adjectives are words that usually describe a characteristic of a noun. Examples can be found in the box directly below.

Examples of adjectives in English
I see a big dog. He sits in a brown chair. I have an brilliant idea. I am learning the beautiful language Esperanto. It is a good time to study the new contents of this useful course.

In Esperanto, adjectives are marked by the suffix -a. Examples are in the short vocabulary section below.

Vocabulary

Here are the first adjectives that you should memorize.

Word	Audio	Meaning
granda		big
bela		beautiful
bona		good
forta		strong

Placement

Adjectives can be placed preceding the noun or following the noun. There is no difference in meaning between these. More often do adjectives precede the noun than follow it, which will also be the case during this course.

Agreement

In Esperanto, if a noun takes the plural suffix, so will any adjective that describes it:

granda hundo — belaj katoj — fortaj viroj

Examples

Sentence	Audio	Meaning
La granda hundo estas en la ĝardeno.		The big dog is in the garden.
La belaj katoj estas ruĝaj.		The beautiful cats are red.
La knaboj bonaj sidas en la granda parko.		The good boys are sitting in the big park.

Verbs

In the previous lesson we have already seen that Esperanto indicates the present tense on verbs using the suffix -as. Esperanto marks the past tense using -is, the future tense using -os, and the infinitive using -i. The infinitive is the so-called citation form of verbs, which means that only this form will appear in dictionaries.

Word	Example	Audio	Meaning
-i	esti		infinitive
-as	estas		present tense
-is	estis		past tense
-os	estos		future tense

If an event is in the past, Esperanto always uses the -is suffix. If the event is in the future, Esperanto always uses the -os suffix. Esperanto is fully consistent in when it uses these. English, however, is not (e.g. "My train leaves tomorrow morning"), so you may need to be careful when translating English sentences into Esperanto. The English continuous verb forms (e.g. "I am going to bed") are usually translated using these simple tenses in Esperanto.

So, the verbs learned in the previous lesson can be found in a dictionary as esti (to be), brili (to shine), flugi (to fly), fali (to fall), and sidi (to sit).

Examples

Sentence	Audio	Meaning
Mi iris al la lito.		I went to bed.
La birdoj flugas al la parko kaj sidos en ĝi.		The birds are flying to the park and will sit in it.
Vi ne volas promeni.		You do not want to walk.

Vocabulary

Here are more words to memorize.

Word	Audio	Meaning
mola		soft
kontenta		content, satisfied
longa		long
alta		high
grava		important
strato		street
monto		mountain
amo		love
amiko		friend
knabo		boy
patro		father
frato		brother
filo		son
ne		not
kuŝi		to lie, to be in a horizontal position
paroli		to speak, to talk
objekto		object
nomo		name
sana		healthy
juna		young
pala		pale
kun		with (preposition)
al		to (preposition)
promeni		to walk
ludi		to play
kanti		to sing
glaso		drinking glass
trinki		to drink
maro		sea
nova		new
voli		to want
povi		to be able
devi		to must, to have to, to should
labori		to work
ĉambro		room, chamber
ĉielo		sky
voĉo		voice
manĝi		to eat
tablo		table
seĝo		chair, seat
ĝojo		joy
riĉa		rich
kara		dear
multa		many, much
ruĝa		red
akvo		water
kaj		and
aŭ		or
iri		to go

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns are words like "I", "me", "you", "we", "them". We have already encountered a few of them in the previous lesson: mi (I), vi (you), and li (he). Now, we will learn the other most common ones.

		singular	plural
first person		mi (I)	ni (we)
second person		vi (you)
third person	masculine	li (he)	ili (they)
	feminine	ŝi (she)
	epicene	ĝi (it)

There are two more pronouns in Esperanto. We will learn these in a later lesson.

Affixes

An important part of Esperanto is its affixes (prefixes and suffixes). There are a sizable number of them, and many new words can be derived from them. This greatly reduces the number of words one needs to learn. In this lesson the first, and arguarbly most important, affix will be introduced: mal-.

mal-

mal- is a prefix that indicates the opposite of what it is attached to. This is similar to English "un-", e.g. in "unfortunate".

Examples
Base word	Meaning	Derived word	Meaning	Audio
granda	big	malgranda	small
forta	strong	malforta	weak
mola	soft	malmola	hard
kontenta	content, satisfied	malkontenta	malcontent, dissatisfied
longa	long	mallonga	short
amo	love	malamo	hatred
amiko	friend	malamiko	enemy

Exercises

• Go through the adjectives in the two vocabulary tables in this lesson and tack on mal-. What do they mean then? (answers)
• Now go through the other words presented in this lesson. Are there any that would make sense when mal- is tacked on? What do they mean then? (answers)

Have you memorized the vocabulary of this lesson? Then you can also practice by translating the following sentences:

Sentence (answers)	Audio
Li ne parolas kun mi.
Mi laboris kun ŝi.
Ni ne povas labori.
Ĝi estas grava.
La malforta infano iros al la granda parko.
La pala knabo estas malsana.
La malgrandaj hundoj estas kontentaj.
Ili ne volas promeni en la parko.

Sentence (answers)
You will love the small boy.
I will eat with them.
They will walk to the big park and sit on a hard chair.
I will walk to the high mountain.
The young men went to the sea.
She doesn't want to walk with a dog, but has to.
It is old hatred, not joy.
The beautiful birds sit in the sun on the low mountain.
Short streets are ugly.
The men will fly to the new cities.

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