An Esperanto Primer

This will be written from the standpoint of a native English speaker who has some familiarity with Spanish and French and a bit more familiarity with Russian, so I may mention similarities and differences between them.

The most useful site (besides this one =) ) I have found to learn Esperanto is Lernu.net.

Other Very Useful Tools:

Esperanto’s Alphabet

Each letter is pronounced the same each time with no exceptions – phonetic pronunciation.

Letters: a b c [ts] ĉ [ch] d e f g ĝ [j] h ĥ [hard h] i j [y] ĵ [zh] k l m n o p r [rr] s ŝ [sh] t u ŭ [w] v z

The alphabet is sounded out just like English letters with a few new letters that, for me, seem very Czech or Russian in nature. The letters are always pronouced phonetically all the time. The letters make the same sound each and every time you say them:

Not present in
or different from English		 Esperanto
Letter		 Sound English Examples Esperanto Noun Examples English Translation
Not present in
or different from English		 Esperanto
Letter		 Sound English Examples Esperanto Noun Examples English Translation
a ah Arc amiko friend
b b Barber birdo bird
c ts bats cimo bug
* ĉ ch chocolate ĉapo cap
d d dog dezerto desert (as in a tasty desert)
e eh echo edzo husband
f f fast filo son
g g garden glaso glass (for drinking)
* ĝ ja jello ĝino gin (alcoholic drink)
h h had heĝo hedge
* ĥ h (hard h) Bach ĥoro choir
i ee three ideo idea
j y yes jako jacket
* ĵ zh pleasure ĵurnalo newspaper
k k cat kato cat
l l lake lupo wolf
m m market muso mouse
n n November nubo cloud
o oh glory onklo uncle
p p pastry patro father
* r rr (rolled like Russian or Spanish) (no English equivalent) rano frog
s ss sent sekretario secretary
* ŝ sh shambles ŝinko ham
t t travel tigro tiger
u oo too urso bear
* ŭ wuh want ŭato watt
v v van vermo worm
z z zebra zebro zebra

Useful Tools and Words

Nouns

All of the Esperanto examples given above are all nouns, and as you probably noticed all of the base nouns end the letter ‘o’, and this is true for all base nouns all of the time. If it ends it on it is a noun. Now Esperanto’s vocabulary is built with base words and then there are several ways usually via prefixes or suffixes to modify the word to have a slightly different though related meaning as I will show below.

  • Base Nouns end in ‘o’: libro – book
  • Plural Noun by adding ‘j’ to the end: libroj – books
  • Sentence Objects end in n: libron – book
  • Plural Sentence Objects end in ‘ojn’ which is a combo of the previous two – librojn
  • Smaller Noun by adding ‘et’ at the end of a noun creates something smaller: libreto – booklet
  • Gender: base word sets that have an implied  gender such as those for parents – father and mother –   use the male form as the base father – patro. To make a base word female you add the ‘in’ suffix. Mother would be patrino.

Verbs

Base verbs end in ‘i’: doni – ‘to give’

  • Present tense verbs end in: ‘as’: donas – give
  • Past tense verbs end in: ‘is’: donis – gave
  • Future tense verbs end in: ‘os’: donos – will give
  • Conditional tense verbs end in: ‘us’: donus – would give
  • Command tense verbs end in: ‘u’: donu – Give! (implied subject you)

Examples of intransitive verbs

  • Estas – Am/is/are (present)
  • Estis – Was/Were (past)
  • Estos – ‘will be’ (future)

Adverbs

Adverbs are verbs that end in ‘e’: done – ?generously?

  • Base – sano – health
  • Adj – sana – healthy
  • Verb – sani – to be healthy
  • Adv – sane – healthily

Pronouns

Pronouns are very short and end in ‘i’:

  • mi – I
  • vi – you
  • li – he
  • ŝi – she
  • ĝi – It
  • ni – we
  • ili – they
  • oni – indefinite pronoun – no gender or personhood or numbers assumed

Prefixes and Suffixes

  • Opposite: by adding ‘mal’ to the beginning creates the negative: malbela – ugly
  • Negative: by adding ‘ne’ prior to the word ne bela – not beautiful.
  • Sentence Object add an ‘n’ to the end: malbelan
  • Magnify Description one level by adding ‘pli’ : pli bela – very beautiful
  • Greatly Magnify by adding ‘plej’ – plej bela – most (very, very) beautiful (or gorgeous)

Articles, Conjunctions, and Others

  • Article: ‘la’ – the (no associated gender)
  • Comparison – ‘ol’: this is bigger ‘than’ that
  • Conjunction - ‘kaj’ [kai] – and

Handy Conversational Words

  • Hello – Saluton!
  • Good bye – Adiaŭ
  • Yes - Jes
  • No - Ne

Adjectives

Base Adjectives end with ‘a’.

  • bela – beautiful
  • nova – new
  • verda – green
  • granda – big/large

Accent

on second to last vowel

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