Verda Drako- Esperanto Club Notes and English-Esperanto Course

Esperanto ASAP- Chapter 18

^CAPITRO 18 (DEK OK)

The Last Step/ La Lasta Pa^so

In this chapter we bring to an end our study of Esperanto grammar. The remaining chapters will deal with how you can try to achieve fluency in the language. Now you have covered all the grammar the main job is to aquire an extensive vocabulary and, by practice, confidence and finally fluency. However a few 'odds and ends' still remain.

The Final Affixes

1). Fuš-

This prefix indicates incompetence or bungling. e.g.

Kiam mi unuafoje uzis man^gbastonetojn, mi fu^sman^gis kaj la man^ga^o aperis sur mia ^cemizo kaj sur la tablotuko anstataû en mia bu^so.

When I first used chopsticks, I made a mess of eating and the food appeared on my shirt and on the table cloth instead of in my mouth.

As an independent word fu^si is to botch or bungle.

2). -oz-

Usually only used in technical words- means 'full of' and is only used with materials and not with ideas. e.g.

poro (a pore); poroza (porous)

3). -iv-

Another technical affix which means 'the ability of a material to' e.g.

4). -iz-

The final suffix has two uses- to indicate a scientific or technical procedure and to show something is provided with e.g.

5). Tute ne, Ne tute

Although word order is very flexible in Esperanto and almost anything is accepted this is not true for the word ne. This negates the word which directly follows it and so the position can clearly alter the meaning.

An interesting effect is on the difference between tute ne and ne tute.

Mi tute ne komprenas (I totally do not understand, I don't understand at all) (Understanding = 0%)

Mi ne tute komprenas (I do not totally understand, I do not quite understand) (Understanding perhaps 80%)

bruli	to burn	bruliva	combustible
senti	to feel	sentiva	sentient
kondukti	conduct electricity	konduktivo	conductivity

tin	stano	to tin plate, coat with tin	stanizi
gold	oro	to gild,coat with gold	orizi
nail	najlo	to stud with nails	najlizi

to galvanize,coat with zinc	galvanizi	cauterize, use heat on flesh	kaûterizi
electrolysis	elektrolizo	to pasteurize, sterilize milk	pasteûrizi

q	kuo	w	vavo aû duobla vo
x	ikso	y	ipsilono
Acute accent (é)	streko supren	Grave accent (è)	streko falanta
Umlaut (ö)	tremao	alpha (a)	alfo
beta (b)	beto	gamma (c)	gamo
delta (d)	delto	pi (o)	pio
omega (z)	omego	theta (h)

6). Abbreviations

Some important abbreviations are :

* often read as ko-to-po

7). Foreign letters

Occasionally in spelling out proper names in Esperanto one.of course, meets letters which do not occur in the language. The most likely are

Punctuation is

Another possible problem in spelling out words is if mathematical symbols are present e.g. E=mc2

This is read as ' eh estas mo co kvadrata ' or 'co potenco du '

8). Writing Letters

At this stage the reader has covered all the grammar in Esperanto. The main need now is to obtain an adequate vocabulary.

A good way to start this is to obtain a correspondent (preferably abroad and especially in some 'exotic' country).

Addresses of potential correspondents can be found in :

(a). The UEA runs a scheme to obtain correspondents. Send two International Reply Coupons (IRC) - available from post offices- and state your requirements to :

Koresponda Servo Mondskala, BP6, FR-55000 Longeville-en-Barrois, France or http://members.aol.com/enrike/ekspeto.htm

(b). Another possibility is the organization Korespondi. Send one IRC to obtain a sample copy to

R.Melo, 34 Avenue de Russie, FR.03700 Bellerive s/Allier, France

Some useful items for letter writing :

The Date: As indicated in Chapter 12 this is written as la 6an de aûgusto, 1999.

The Start:

Estimata Sinjoro Esteemed Sir (very formal letter); Kara S-ro (A) Dear Sir, Mr A; Kara Jo^cjo Dear Jack (informal)

The End:

Fidele via Yours faithfully (formal); Sincere via Yours sincerely; Via amikece Yours, in friendship

Via Yours (informal) Bondezirojn Good wishes (very informal)

9). Swearing

I have heard it said that Esperanto is not a 'proper' language because one cannot swear in it! I heard Don Lord give a brilliant one hour lecture at the British Congress at Saffron Waldron in 1996 on Tabuaj vortoj en Mondlingvo. (Taboo words in a World Language). The air went quite blua!

(A CD of this lecture is now available from EC at £3.50!)

I don't think that this is the place to list the available fivortoj (rude words) but in case of need to add atmosphere to one of your written passages I give two (mild) ones. I leave the reader to research into the stronger ones if he so wishes. There is one book which is quite obscene (Sekretajn Sonetojn by P.Peneter (a pseudonym for a very well known Esperanto author!)

Diable! By the devil (about as strong as the E. "Hell!"); Merdo! Shit! (F : merde)

CONCLUSION

Congratulations you have now covered the complete grammar!! After a summary table of affixes (select key in the Control Keys below) the next chapter will contain a series of 'Legu kaj Komprenu' Passages.

Work through them and then in the following chapter you will guided through the works of Literature available for you to conquer. Bon^sancon! (Good luck)

a.K.	antaû Kristo	Before Christ (B.C)	p.K.	post Kristo	The Year of our Lord (A.D.)
ekz.	ekzemple	For example (e.g.)	k.a.	kaj aliaj	And others (et al )
b.t.	Bonvolu turni	Please turn over (P.T.O)	k .c	kaj cetere	and the rest (etc.)
^c.	^cirkaû	About	k.t.p.	kaj tiel plu*	and so on (etc.)
n.b	notu bone	Note well N.B.	kp.	komparu	compare with (Cf. )
n-ro	numero	Number (#)	t.n.	tiel nomata	so called (viz.)
t.e.	tio estas	that is (i.e.)	proks.	prosimume	Approximately (approx.)
Red.	redaktoro	Editor (Ed)	p.s.	posta skribo	After writing (P.S.)
atm.	antaûposttagmeze	Before noon (AM)	ptm.	posttagmeze	Afternoon (PM)

apostrophe (')	apostrofo	brackets	krampoj
colon (:)	dupunkto	exclamation mark (!)	ekkria signo
full stop (.)	punkto	hyphen (-)	dividostreko
question mark (?)	demandosigno	semi-colon (;)	punktokomo
comma (,)	komo	inverted commas (")	citosignoj

Lastfoje ^san^gita : la 16an de februaro, 2007