Esperanto/Lesson 3

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We will learn about adverbs in Esperanto, get to know the word "ĉu", the suffixes "-ulo" and "-ino", the ending "-n", and learn the numbers in Esperanto.

Adverbs

Adverbs are words that usually describe a characteristic of a verb, adjective, another adverb, or an entire sentence. Examples can be found in the box directly below.

Examples of adverbs in English
I quickly saw it. He spoke quietly. They often have new ideas. I am quickly learning Esperanto well. I have just started studying the new lesson.

In Esperanto, adverbs are most often marked by the ending -e. These are adverbs derived from other words. We will discuss this derivation in the next lesson. Several common adverbs end in -aŭ, which does not specify the part of speech of the word and is shared with some words that function as conjunctions or prepositions, or do not have a specific ending. Examples are in the short vocabulary section below.

Vocabulary

Here are the first adverbs to memorize.

Word	Audio	Meaning
laŭte		loudly
bone		well
ĝuste		correctly
kutime		usually, ordinarily
ofte		often
ankaŭ		also
baldaŭ		soon
preskaŭ		nearly, almost
nun		now
jam		already
ja		indeed
jes		yes
nur		only, just
tuj		immediately
ĵus		just now

Placement

Adverbs can be placed preceding or following the verb, adjective, or adverb that it modifies. Adverbs that modify an entire sentence typically come first. There is no difference in meaning.

Examples

Sentence	Audio	Meaning
La infano laŭte ploras.		The child cries loudly.
Ŝi skribas bele.		She writes beautifully.
Ili bone studas.		They study well.
Mi venos baldaŭ.		I will come soon.

ĉu

To ask a yes/no question in Esperanto, one only has to place "ĉu" at the beginning of the sentence (and, of course, like in English, place a question mark at the end of a written sentence). Contrary to in English, word order does not change.

Sentence	Audio	Meaning
Ŝi volas promeni. — Ĉu ŝi volas promeni?		She wants to walk. — Does she want to walk?
Li estas malsana. — Ĉu li estas malsana?		He is ill. — Is he ill?
La hundo estas en la ĝardeno. — Ĉu la hundo estas en la ĝardeno?		The dog is in the garden. — Is the dog in the garden?

"Ĉu" can also be used in indirect questions, where it translates to 'whether'. It is then always preceded by a comma.

Sentence	Audio	Meaning
Ĉu li volas promeni?		Does he want to walk?
Mi ne scias, ĉu li volas promeni.		I don't know whether he wants to walk (or not).
Ĉu li estas malsana? — Ŝi ne volas scii, ĉu li estas malsana.		Is he ill? — She does not want to know whether he is ill (or not).
Ĉu la hundo estas en la ĝardeno? — Ĉu vi scias, ĉu la hundo estas en la ĝardeno?		Is the dog in the garden? — Do you know whether the dog is in the garden (or not)?

-n

The subject of a sentence is the 'doer' of the verb and the object is the 'undergoer' of the verb. Examples can be found in the box directly below.

Examples of subjects and objects in English
subjects in italics; objects in bold
He saw me. He told a story to me. They have a new idea. I am learning Esperanto well. I am studying the new lesson.

In English, what is the object and the subject of a sentence is indicated by where the word is in the sentence. As can be seen in the examples above, the subject (in italics) comes before the verb and the object (in bold) comes after the verb. Many pronouns in English have distinct subject and object forms: I vs. me, he vs. him, she vs. her, etc..

In Esperanto, the object of a sentence is indicated by adding the ending -n to nouns and accompanying adjectives (which may already have taken the plural ending -j) or pronouns, not by the order of the words in the sentence. The article ("la") does not take -n. Even though word order does not matter in Esperanto, there is a default word order, which is the same as the normal word order in English (first the subject, then the verb, then the object).

Examples

Sentence	Audio	Meaning
Mi vidas la hundon. La hundon mi vidas. La hundon vidas mi.		I see the dog.
Li ne vidas la grandajn hundojn, nur la malgrandajn (hundojn).		He does not see the big dogs, just the small ones/dogs.
La patrino amas la filinon. La filinon la patrino amas. La filinon amas la patrino.		The mother loves the daughter.
Ŝi ne aŭdis min. Min ŝi ne aŭdis. Min ne aŭdis ŝi.		She did not hear me.
Kutime mi ne komprenas la lecionojn. La lecionojn kutime mi ne komprenas.		I usually don't understand the lessons.
Mi ĵus vidis la fortan viron.		I have seen the strong man just now.

The numbers

The basic numbers in Esperanto are:

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

These regularly combine as follows:

Numeral	Word	Numeral	Word
20	dudek	11	dek unu
30	tridek	12	dek du
40	kvardek	13	dek tri
etc.		etc.

Affixes

-ulo

The suffix "-ulo" indicates a word that refers to someone characterized by the base word.

Examples
Base word	Meaning	Derived word	Meaning	Audio
griza	gray	grizulo	graybeard, gray-haired person
malsana	ill, sick	malsanulo	sick person
blonda	blond	blondulo	blond person
kara	lovely, dear	karulo	darling
maljuna	old	maljunulo	old person

-ino

-ino is a suffix to indicate female sex.

Examples
Base word	Meaning	Derived word	Meaning	Audio
viro	man	virino	woman
amiko	friend	amikino	female friend
hundo	dog	hundino	female dog, bitch
patro	father	patrino	mother
frato	brother	fratino	sister
knabo	boy	knabino	girl
blondulo	blond	blondulino	blond female person

Vocabulary

Here are more words to memorize.

Word	Audio	Meaning
havi		to have
vidi		to see
kuraci		to cure
aŭdi		to hear
legi		to read
danci		to dance
forgesi		to forget
dormi		to sleep
veni		to come
stari		to stand
loĝi		to live, to reside
hieraŭ		yesterday
hodiaŭ		today
morgaŭ		tomorrow
ŝuo		shoe
helpi		to help
porti		to carry
mordi		to bite
ĥoro		choir
aĉeti		to buy
vendi		to sell
butiko		shop
aperta		open
kvankam		although
..., do ...		..., so ...
botelo		bottle
..., ke ...		... that ...
aperi		to appear
ankoraŭ		still
ĉar		because
plori		to cry
teo		tea
kafo		coffee
pensi		to think
nubo		cloud

Exercises

Write out the following numbers: (answers)

11, 14, 21, 34, 77, 17, 99, 67, 76, 54, 38, 22, 83, 92, 50, 93, 87, 78, 90
108, 104, 112, 184, 200, 307, 503, 808, 818, 311, 271, 511, 401, 837, 983, 543, 651, 765, 345, 813, 173, 148, 713, 607, 670, 573, 963, 842, 633, 752, 937
2014, 2007, 1954, 1945, 1859, 1914, 1801, 1777, 1653, 2373, 8472, 2367, 2151, 2263, 2177, 8371, 8297, 7939, 4567, 7654, 9369, 3713, 5407, 4095

Now, let's play with affixes:

Go through the words in this lesson and tack on mal-. What do they mean then? (answers)
Go through the words in this lesson and the previous one and tack on -ulo and -ino wherever meaningful. Also see if you can tack on both and either or both with mal-. What do these words mean then? (answers)

There are one or more grammatical mistakes in each of the following five sentences. Where?

Sentence (answers)
Mi ne volas vidi li.
Ŝi ne aŭdis la granda ĥoron.
La hundo mordos la viro.
Hieraŭ ni iros al lin.
Ni portis la malsana knabo al la kuracisto.

You can continue practicing by translating the following sentences:

Sentence (answers)	Audio
La fratino estas bela.
Li amas knabinojn.
Hodiaŭ la bela virino venos al ni, sed la malbela kato ne venos.
Ŝi forgesis, ke hieraŭ vi trinkis la akvon de la hundo!
Ĉu vi volas trinki teon aŭ kafon?

Sentence (answers)
I see two clouds in the sky.
I went across the river.

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