Introduction to Esperanto: Lesson 4

Esperanto for she is ŝi.

This Ŝ is another letter peculiar to Esperanto. However, it is pronounced just like sh in short so ŝi is pronounced shi.

Esperanto for wants is volas.

You also know the word for work which is laboro. However, if you want to make work into to work, you make it end with i so that:

All to words (called infinitives) end with i in Esperanto.

So, how would you say:

?To work|Labori

Knowing this, you can already say:

?She wants to work.|Ŝi volas labori.

So, you know that all infinitives end with i. Volas means wants so it’s not an infinitive yet but it can be made into one by making it end with i. You just get rid of the present tense marker which is as and then put that i. How do you say:

?To want|Voli

Doing the opposite , you could now say:

?She works.|Ŝi laboras.

Knowing how this works, you can say:

?She wants to be a dentist.|Ŝi volas esti dentisto.

If she wants to be a dentist, it’s probably her best interest to study to be a dentist:

Esperanto for to study is studi.

How would you say:

?I study.|Mi studas.

And furthermore:

?I don’t want to study.|Mi ne volas studi.

Esperanto for to learn is lerni!

I’m not kidding you. It really is like this. Try asking literally where you learn:

?Where do you learn?|Kie vi lernas?

Alright. We have words for to work, to study and to learn.

In this lesson, let’s talk about how we do them and in the next lesson, we will talk about what we exactly we do.

Esperanto for how is kiel.

Another kuestion word now, isn’t it. You can remember that kiel means how by imagining that when you are asking how, you are asking how well or ki-well - kiel (if that works for you anyway).

You could ask literally how she works:

?How does she work?|Kiel ŝi laboras?

Imagine that you want to say that she works easily. What is the word for easy (related to facilitate) in Esperanto?

?Easy|Facila

If you want to make easy into easily in English, you add ly. In Esperanto, you do something similar:

To make words into ly words (adverbs) in Esperanto, you make them end with e.

Here you see that e from kiel again. Guess how you would say:

?Easily|Facile

Bona is good. Use the same manner to make it into well:

?Well|Bone

So, say:

?She works well.|Ŝi laboras bone.

Here are two words that come respectively from French and Latin:

Esperanto for very is tre.

Esperanto for but is sed.

?She learns very easily but she does not work well.|Ŝi lernas tre facile, sed ŝi ne laboras bone.

Finally, it’s useful to know this word:

Esperanto for to be doing or to be feeling is farti.

You could associate that word with farewell which could mean fartu well or do well i.e. good luck, or goodbye, even though that’s a bit of a stretch.

Use that how word and say literally how you are doing:

?How are you doing?|Kiel vi fartas?

How would you answer:

?I am doing very well.|Mi fartas tre bone.

Or:

?I am not doing badly.|Mi ne fartas malbone.

This sentence kiel vi fartas is used in almost every Esperanto conversation and now you know how to use it. You also know how to tell how you do things. Let’s learn to tell what exactly you do now.

Next lesson >