Esperanto Self-Taught with Phonetic Pronunciation, William W. Mann [crime books to read TXT] 📗

>tute ne too'teh neh notwithstanding malgraŭ (tio) mahl'grahw (tee'oh) not yet ankoraŭ ne ahnkoh'rahw neh now nun noon nowadays nuntempe, hodiaŭ noon-tehm'peh, hoh-dee'ahw nowhere nenie neh-nee'eh of de; da (after numerals) deh; dah of course kompreneble kompreh-neh'bleh often ofte off'teh on, upon sur soor on account of pro pro on no account nenial neh-nee'ahl on the contrary kontraŭe kontrah'weh on the left maldekstre mahl-dek'streh on the right dekstre dehk'streh only nur noor opposite kontraŭe kontrah'weh or aŭ ahw otherwise alie ahlee'eh outside, out of ekster eks'tehr over super soo'pehr perhaps eble eh'bleh presently, soon baldaŭ bahl'dahw previously antaŭe ahntah'weh purposely intence intehnt'seh quickly rapide rahpee'deh rather, preferably prefere prehfeh'reh rather, somewhat iom ee'ohm save, excepting escepte ehst-sehp'teh scarcely apenaŭ ahpeh'nahw seldom, rarely malofte mahl-off'teh since, prep. de deh —, conj. ĉar chahr — (the time when) de l' tempo kiam dehl tehm'po kee'ahm so, thus tiel tee'ehl so much tiom tee'ohm somehow iel ee'ehl something io ee'oh sometimes kelkafoje kehl'kah-fo'yeh soon baldaŭ bahl'dahw suddenly subite soo-bee'teh that, conj. ke keh that is tio estas (abbr., t.e.) tee'oh es'tahss then tiam tee'ahm then, conj. do doh thence de tie deh tee'eh there tie tee'eh through tra trah through (by means of) per pehr till, until ĝis jeess to al ahl together kune koo'neh too much, too tro tro towards al, en la direkto de ahl, ehn lah deerehk'toh deh unexpectedly neatendite neh-ahtehndee'teh unless se…ne seh…neh until ĝis jeess up, upwards supren soo'prehn up above supre soo'preh weekly ĉiusemajne chee'oo-sehmah'y-neh well bone bo'neh when kiam kee'ahm whence? de kie? deh kee'eh? where? kie? kee'eh? wherever kie ajn kee'eh ahyn' whether, if ĉu choo while, whilst dum doom why? kial? kee'ehl? willingly volonte volohn'teh wisely saĝe sah'jeh with kun koon within interne intehr'neh without sen sehn yearly ĉiujare chee'oo-yah'reh yet, as yet ankoraŭ ahnkoh'rahw

ELEMENTARY GRAMMAR. The Article.

The Definite Article the is in Esperanto represented by la. Like the article in English, la does not vary with the number or gender of the noun before which it is placed; e.g., la briko, the brick; la brikoj, the bricks; la patro, the father; la patrinoj, the mothers.

The Indefinite Article a is not expressed in Esperanto. Thus, "filo" is son or a son.

The Noun.

In Esperanto every noun in the singular ends in o. Thus: viro, a man; la libro, the book. The plural is formed from the singular by adding the termination -j. Thus: viroj, men; la libroj, the books.

In order to allow each nation to construct its sentences in the order to which it is accustomed, every noun in Esperanto has two forms or "cases," (1) the Nominative, or unchanged form, and (2) the Accusative, which is formed from the nominative by adding the termination -n. This is merely to distinguish between subject and object. The accusative form is also used to indicate motion towards, etc.

The Adjective.

All adjectives end in the nominative singular in a. They may be placed either before or after the noun. As in the case of the noun, the plural is formed by adding the termination -j, and the accusative is formed by adding -n to the nominative. The adjective agrees in number and case with the noun which it qualifies. Ex.:—

Blua libro (or libro blua), a blue book; bluaj libroj, blue books. La viro legas bluan libron. The man reads a blue book. La viroj legas bluajn librojn. The men are reading blue books.

Thanks to the accusative case, one might say without loss of clearness: Bluan libron legas la viro, or la viro bluan libron legas, or bluan libron la viro legas, etc.

Degrees of Comparison.

There are three degrees of comparison, as in English:

The Positive, as bona, good; bela, beautiful; granda, big, great.

The Comparative is formed by placing pli (more) or malpli (less) before the positive, thus: bona, good—pli bona, better; bela, beautiful—malpli bela, less beautiful. The comparison may be heightened by using multe (much), thus: multe pli (or malpli) bela.

Than is translated by ol, thus: pli (or malpli) bela ol…, more (or less) beautiful than…

The Superlative degree is formed by using plej (most) with the positive; as bela, beautiful—plej bela, most beautiful.

Of with a superlative is translated by the preposition el (out of). La plej granda el ĉiuj, the greatest of all.

The more…the more, the less…the less, are translated by means of the particles ju and des. Thus: Ju pli oni studas, des pli oni lernas, the more one studies, the more one learns. Ju pli mi kun li parolas, des malpli mi lin estimas, the more I speak to him, the less I esteem him.

Cardinal Numbers.

The Cardinal Numbers may be used as nouns, by the addition of the ending -o. Thus, unuo, a unit; trio, a trio; dekduo, a dozen; dudeko, a score; cento, a hundred; milo, a thousand. Note that miliono is ALWAYS used as a noun.

When a number or any other word is used as a noun of quantity, the noun which follows it must be preceded by the quantitative preposition da:—Dekduo da ovoj, a dozen eggs; milo da soldatoj, a thousand soldiers (one might of course also say dek du ovoj, mil soldatoj); du metroj da drapo, two metres of cloth; tri funtoj da sukero, three pounds of sugar.

Ordinal Numbers.

The Ordinal Numbers are formed by adding the adjectival ending -a to the Cardinals. In Compound Ordinal Numbers, the groups of hundreds, tens, units, etc., are joined by hyphens, and the ending -a is added to the unit numeral. Thus: unu, one—unua, first; tria, third; dek-unua, eleventh; tridek-sepa, thirty-seventh; kvarcent-sesdek-dua, 462nd, and so on. Written in figures these would be 1a, 3a, 11a, 37a, 462a. The Ordinals are of course inflected like adjectives. (See page 77.)

Fractions

Fractionals are formed by adding the suffix -on (plus the endings o, a, or e as required) to the Cardinal Numbers. Thus: unu duono, one-half; tri kvaronoj, three-quarters; dek sep dek-naŭonoj, 17/19; dudek tri kvarmil-kvincent-tridek-naŭonoj, 23/4539. Duone vera (or duonvera), half-true. Tri-kvaronoj da funto (or trikvaronfuntoj), ¾ lb. Duono da funto (or duonfunto), ½ lb.

Multiples, Collectives, and Distributives.

Multiple Numbers are formed from the Cardinals by adding the suffix -obl, with the requisite grammatical ending o, a, or e. Thus: duobla, double; duoblo, a double; duoble, doubly; tridekoble, thirty-fold; sesoble naŭ estas (or faras) kvindek kvar, six nines are fifty-four; duoble du estas kvar, twice two are four.

Collective Numerals are formed by the addition of the suffix -op (plus the grammatical termination required). Thus: duope, two at a time, two together; naŭope, nine at a time; ili venadis dekope, they came in tens; dumilopa taĉmento, a detachment two thousand strong.

Distributives are shown by the preposition po, meaning at the rate of. Thus: li aĉetis por ĉiu infano po ses pomoj, he bought six apples for each child; li ricevas po dek ŝilingoj por ĉiu tago, he gets ten shillings a day; la vagonaro veturas po sesdek mejloj en ĉiu horo (or ĉiuhore), the train travels at (the rate of) sixty miles an hour, etc.

The Pronoun.

The Personal Pronouns are, in the nominative: Mi, I; vi, you (sing. and pl.); ni, we; li, he; ŝi, she; ĝi, it; ili, they.

The archaic English thou may be translated by ci.

The Accusative case of the personal pronouns is formed like that of nouns and adjectives, by adding -n. Thus: Min, me; vin, you; nin, us; lin, him; ŝin, her; ĝin, it; ilin, them.

The Reflexive Pronoun of the 3rd person is si (accusative sin), standing for himself, herself, itself, one's-self, or themselves, as the case may be. There is no special reflexive form for the pronouns of the 1st and 2nd person, I, we, and you.

The Indefinite Personal Pronoun is oni (= the French on)—one, people, they, you. Ex.: Li amas sin, he loves himself; ŝi amas sin, she loves herself; ĝi montras sin, it shows itself; ili diras al si, they say to themselves; oni vidas sin, one sees one's-self; mi lavas min, I wash myself; vi laŭdas vin, you praise yourself.

Possessive Adjectives or Pronouns.

By adding the adjectival ending -a to the personal pronouns, the Possessive Adjectives and Pronouns are obtained. Thus: Mia, my, mine; cia, thy, thine; via, your, yours; nia, our, ours; lia, his; ŝia, her, hers; ĝia, its; sia (reflexive), his, her(s), its, their(s), one's.

Note the following use of sia. In English the sentence, "He saw his friend with his brother," is not clear. Does it mean that he saw his friend (1) with his friend's brother, or (2) with his own brother? In Esperanto, the use of sia makes the meaning quite clear; (1) would be: Li vidis sian amikon kun LIA frato, and (2) would be: Li vidis sian amikon kun SIA frato.

The word mem, meaning -self or -selves, may be added to a personal pronoun to give emphasis. Thus: Konu vin mem, know thyself; li iris mem, he went himself; li mem, himself; li parolis al si mem, he spoke to himself.

Like other adjectives, possessives agree in case and number with the noun to which they refer. Ex.:

lia libro, his book; liaj libroj, his books; ŝi havas lian, kaj li havas ŝian, she has his, and he has hers; liaj estas la plej bonaj libroj, his are the best books; mi preferas miajn, I prefer mine; li preferas siajn, he prefers his; ili preferas siajn, they prefer theirs. Demonstrative Adjective or Pronoun.

The Demonstrative Adjective and Pronoun "that" is rendered in Esperanto by the word tiu (acc. tiun); plural tiuj (acc. tiujn), those. The addition (either before or after) of the particle ĉi to the singular and plural respectively, gives this and these. Ex.:

Tiu viro, that man. Tiu estas mia, that (one) is mine. Mi elektas tiun, I choose that (one). Mi preferas tiun ĉi (or ĉi tiujn), I prefer this (one). Tiuj ĉi (or ĉi tiuj) estas miaj, these are mine. Mi portos tiujn ĉi, I will carry these. Interrogative Pronouns.

Kiu?—who, which? Plural, kiuj? Kio?—what? Kies?—whose? Al kiu?—to whom? Kiun?—whom? (acc.), kiujn? (acc. plu.). Ex.:

Kiu estas tiu?—who is that? Kiun vi deziras vidi?—whom do you desire to see? Kiuj foriris?—which (ones) went away? Kiujn vi vidis?—which ones did you see?

Kiu is also used with Adjectival meaning. Thus: Kiu libro estas via?—which book is yours?