Esperanto/Lesson 4

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In this lesson we will learn about how you can derive new words in Esperanto.

Part-of-speech endings

We have seen that in Esperanto nouns end in -o, verb infinitives in -i, adjectives in -a, and adverbs in -e.

Derivation

Esperanto has been designed to be a language comprised of root words that can be used in conjunction to create countless words. Individual roots remain unchanged. One way to derive new words is by simply changing the ending of the word. For example, laca ('tired') can become laci ('to be tired'); hundo ('dog') can become hunda ('dog-like').

Despite this, one of the forms is the basic or fundamental form, with the others derived from it. For example, laca is the basic word, not laci, and hundo is the basic form, not hunda. There are three types: objects and abstractions (with the basic form in -o), actions (with the basic form in -i), and characteristics (with the basic form in -a). Note that nouns end with the letter 'o', adjectives end with 'a' and adverbs end with 'e'. Often, it is clear to which type a root belongs, but this is not always the case (for example, kombi means 'to comb' and kombo means 'combing', not 'a comb'. Below are several examples, with the base form in bold.

Examples

Some of the below have rather complicated meanings that are more easily and clearly expressed in other ways, and will therefore be very uncommon. They are nevertheless grammatically correct. The idea of the table below is to introduce the principle of creating new words by changing the ending.

-o			-i			-a			-e
Word	Meaning	Audio	Word	Meaning	Audio	Word	Meaning	Audio	Word	Meaning	Audio
laco	tiredness		laci	to be tired		laca	tired		lace	tiredly
hundo	dog		hundi	to act like a dog		hunda	of a dog		hunde	like a dog
ŝtono	stone		ŝtoni	to be like (a) stone		ŝtona	of a stone		ŝtone	like a stone
kombo	(the) combing		kombi	to comb		komba	combing (adj.), referring to the (single) act of combing		kombe	combingly
sezono	season		sezoni	to season		sezona	seasonal		sezone	seasonally
laŭto	loudness		laŭti	to be loud		laŭta	loud		laŭte	loudly
havo	possession, the 'act' of having		havi	to have		hava	characterized by having (adj.)		have	characterized by having (adv.)
ideo	idea		idei	to exist as an idea		idea	existing as an idea		idee	as an idea

esti + adjective?

Words such as laci mean more or less the same thing as "esti + adjective" (i.e. laci = esti laca). There exists a difference: If identifying a more-or-less unchanging characteristic, then "esti + adjective" is used; if the characteristic is of a more temporary nature "stem + -i" is used. We will go into this distinction in a later lesson.

Compounds

Aside from deriving one part of speech from another, new words can be formed by putting two or more words together. The first word usually drops its part-of-speech ending, unless the resulting word would be difficult to pronounce: dormi + ĉambro → dormĉambro (bed room, lit. sleeping room); birdo + kanto → bird(o)kanto (bird song). The effect of the order of the compounded words is the same as in English, compare kantobirdo (songbird). This way, one can quickly multiply the number of concepts one can refer to. Conjugation such as pluralization (-j) or objectification (-n) is unchanged and is appended to the final -o or -a (e.g. dormĉambroj, kantobirdoj).

al

We have already seen the word al to refer to a destination, for example in "Mi iros al la parko.", where it is translated as "to". Like English "to", al is also used indicate the indirect object of a verb.

Examples of indirect objects in English
indirect objects in bold, direct objects in italics
He gave me a book He told a story to me. He told me a story. They gave me a new idea. It seems a good thing to me.

Note that in English "to" is sometimes left out. In Esperanto it must always be used.

Examples

Sentence	Audio	Meaning
Mi donis al ŝi libron.		I gave her a book / I gave a book to her.
Ŝajnis al mi, ke li ne povas iri al la parko.		It seemed to me that he cannot go to the park.

Vocabulary

Here are more words to play with and memorize.

Word	Audio	Meaning
ŝtono		stone
aero		air
lando		land; country
kolero		anger
laca		tired
agrabla		nice, pleasant
kapo		head
vizaĝo		face
korpo		body
okulo		eye
orelo		ear
mano		hand
piedo		foot
kruro		leg
sezono		season
vintro		winter
printempo		spring
somero		summer
aŭtuno		autumn / fall
plezuro		pleasure
tago		day
nokto		night
mateno		morning
posttagmezo		afternoon
vespero		evening
scii		to know
ideo		idea
doni		to give
diri		to say

Greetings etc.

Word	Audio	Meaning
Saluton.		Hello.
Bonvenon!		Welcome!
Bonan tagon.		Good day.
Bonan matenon.		Good morning.
Bonan vesperon.		Good evening.
Bonan nokton.		Good night.
Ĉaŭ.		Bye.
Adiaŭ.		Goodbye.
Ĝis (la) revido.		See you later.
Dankon.		Thanks.; Thank you.
Koran dankon!		Many thanks!; Thank you very much!

Exercises

Let's play some more with the affixes from the previous lessons:

• Go through the words in this lesson and tack on mal-, -ulo, and -ino. What do they mean? (answers)

Created Word (answers)	Audio
vintraero
plezurlando
marviroj
ŝtontablo

Created Word (answers)	Meaning
belulino	pretty woman
stratangulo	corner
klubano	club member
lernejo	school

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