The 16 rules of Esperanto
The 16 rules of Esperanto:
We have already tried to convince you on another occasion to study Esperanto if you have already thought about it. Because, as we told you, it is a language whose objective is to get speakers from all over the world, so that since it is an artificial language, everyone studies it on equal terms. In addition, we also tell you how easy it was going to be since it is a language with only 16 grammar rules that if you master them, you will be able to speak and understand perfectly.
Dr. Zamenhof, its creator, also proposed that it be a very easy language to learn so that anyone could do it without much work. Therefore, he thought it would be good to create grammar without complications and, especially, without exceptions, which is what often makes languages a bit hard to study, as well as complex.
Rules of Esperanto
Before we start, we want you to know, as a general rule and that it will facilitate the study of the other 16, that Esperanto uses the Latin alphabet. It adds some additional symbols that you will see that they are easy; that is, it has 28 basic letters. Among them, the five vowels must be highlighted, the same as in Spanish (a, e, i, o, u), and each of these vowels within the words marks a syllable.
Well, let’s go there, here you have explained all the grammar of the Esperanto language, which we hope that with this article will help you to master and thus to introduce you to this language fully:
- In Esperanto, there is only the indefinite article la , which will be used the same for all genders, numbers, and cases. There is no indefinite article: La arbo estas granda (the tree is big).
- The nouns are formed by adding one or a root and to form the plural one is added j to the singular. For the direct or accusative object an n is added after the o or oj. The rest of the cases are expressed with prepositions: La pano estas freŝa (the bread is fresh).
- The adjectives are formed by adding one to the root, and cases and numbers as nouns. The comparative is formed with pli and the superlative with ple j: Mi manĝas bonan panon (I eat good bread).
- The basic numbers s are: unu, du, tri, kvar, kvin, ses, sep, ok, naŭ, dek (these are from 1 to 10), cent (100), thousand (1000). The tens and hundreds are formed by joining the numerals ( 674: ses sepdek kvar ). Ordinals are formed by adding the ending a to the adjective ( dua: second ).
- The personal pronouns are mi (I), vi (you), li (he), ŝi (she), ĝi (them), si (reflexive), ni (we), ili (them), oni (impersonal). Possessive pronouns have the ending a ( mia: mine), and in the accusative n ( nin: our ). In the following table you have all the Esperanto pronouns:
Personal pronouns | Possessive | Possessive pronouns in plural | |||
| Mi | I | Mia | my, mine, mine | Miaj | my, mine, mine |
| Vi | You, you / you | Via | Yours, yours | Viaj | Yours, yours |
| Li | The | Lia | his | Liaj | his, his, his |
| Ŝi | She | Ŝia | his, his, hers | Ŝiaj | his, hers hers |
| Ĝi | It, that | Ĝia | his, hers, hers or that | Ĝiaj | his, his, hers, hers or that |
| Ni | Us, us | Nia | our our | Niaj | our, our |
| Ili | they, they | Ilia | yours, yours, theirs or theirs | Iliaj | yours, yours, theirs or theirs |
| Oni | one people | Onia | of one, of the people | Oniaj | the ones of one, of the people |
| Si | itself | Sia | his / her own | Siach | the ones of himself |
Verb tenses do not change according to person or number. The present ends in as , the past in is , the future in os , the conditional in us , the imperative in u, and the infinitive in i . There are active participles with ant, int, and ont , and passive participles with at, it, and ot. The preposition of liability is of . For example, my amas: mi amas: I love, li amis: He loved.
Infinitive | Past | Present | Future | Conditional | Imperative |
| ~ i | ~ is | ~ as | ~ you | ~ us | ~ u |
| ami love | Mi amis I loved | Vi amas you love | Ni amos we will love | Li amus He would love | Vi amu love you |
| Present active participle | -anta | Ex:Mi estas amanta (I am loving) |
| P. active past | -int | Ex: Mi estas aminta (I have loved) |
| Future active participle | -onta | Ex: Mi estas amonta (I will be loving) |
| P. present passive | -ata | Ex: Mi estas amata (I am being loved) |
| Passive past participle | -ita | Ex: Mi estas amita (I have been loved) |
| P. future passive | -ota | Ex: Mi estas amota (I will be loved) |
- Adverbs are formed by adding e to the stem ( amike: friendly ).
- Prepositions use the nominative.
- Each word is read as it is written. That is, each letter has a characteristic sound that does not vary depending on the one next to it.
- The accent always falls on the penultimate syllable.
- Compound words are formed by joining the roots of simple words, with the main root at the end.
Affix | Meaning | Example |
| Mal- | Contrary idea | varma – malvarma (hot / cold) |
| Eks- | Former | direktoro, eksdirektoro |
| Pra- | primitive | historio, prahistorio |
| Bo- | Political kinship | frato, bofrato (brother / brother-in-law) |
| Ge- | Both genders | gepatroj (father and mother) |
| Ek- | Start | krii, ekkrii (shout, exclaim) |
| Dis- | separation | doni, disdoni (give, distribute) |
| Re- | repetition | fari, refari (do, redo) |
| -aĉ | derogatory | domo, domaĉo (house, shack) |
| For- | outside | iri, foriri (go, go out) |
| Sam- | same | samtempo (at the same time) |
| jus- | newly | jusvenita (newcomer) |
| Sen- | without | Sensento (nonsense) |
| Ne- | No, in- | neekzista (nonexistent) |
| Antaŭ- | before | diri, antaŭdiri (say, predict) |
| -ar | collective | arbo, arbaro (tree, forest) |
| -eg | augmentative | granda, grandega (big / immense) |
| -et | diminutive | infano, infaneto (child, little boy) |
| -id | descendant | hundo, sunk (dog / puppy) |
| -ist | Profession | pano panisto (bread, baker) |
| -estr | I send | urbo, urbestro (city / mayor) |
| -an | Neighbor, belonging | blunt, roman |
| -ul | An individual | juna, junulo (young / a young man) |
| -ec | Abstract quality | bela, beleco (beautiful, beauty) |
| -er | Particular element | monkey, monero (money / currency) |
| -il | instrument | kombi, kombilo (comb / comb) |
| -ej | Local, site | lerni / lernejo (learn / school) |
| -ad | duration | parolo, parolado (talk / conversation) |
| -ig | do | morti, mortigi (die / kill) |
| -iĝ | to be made | morti, mortiĝi (to die / die) |
| -ebl | possible | vidi, videbla (see, visible) |
| -em | Prone to | kredi, kredema (believe / gullible) |
- There is no double negation. The word is not said ne , but it is not used if there is another negative word in the sentence.
- The ending n can also be used to indicate movement to a place.
- Each preposition has a definite meaning. However, there is a preposition je that is used in a more free way, but is currently rarely used.
- To adopt new words, apart from the possibility of combining existing roots, foreign words can be taken, adapting them to the Esperanto spelling and adding the corresponding endings. It is about enriching the language, but without departing from its fundamental rules.
- The o of the ending of the nouns and the a of the article can be eliminated and replaced by an apostrophe, for aesthetic reasons, but this is used almost exclusively in poetry. For example, it is not usual in common usage to use l’amiko .
