^CAPITRO 4 (KVAR)
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Esperanto ASAP- Chapter 4
NOUNS : SUBSTANTIVOJ
1). Introduction

Nouns in Esperanto always take the grammatical ending -o






There is no indefinite article (a, an) in Eo - in this sense it resembles Latin- and so a noun such as kato can mean 'cat' or 'a cat'.
The definite article (the) is always la and never changes. None of the horrors of French (le, la, l' or les) or even worse German (der, die, das, den, des or dem).
e.g. hundo (dog, a dog); la hundo (the dog) (E: hound)

2). Plural Nouns

These take the plural ending -oj. (pronounced as in E boy) e.g. katoj (cats), la katoj (the cats) la ^cevaloj man^gis (The horses ate) (F : cheval)


kant/-i        
(to sing)
kant/-o
(a song)
traduk/-i        
(to translate)
traduk/-o        
(a translation)
parol/-i        
(to talk)
parol/-o
(a talk)
3). Accusative Case

Consider the sentence 'The father smacked his son'. The action of one noun (the father) affects another (the son) through the verb. The 'doer' is called the subject, and is said to be in the nominative case and takes the ending -o in Esperanto. The 'receiver' of the action is termed the direct object, is in the accusative case and takes the ending -on in Eo.

La patro batis la filon. : The father smacked the son (E: paternal,  E: beat;  F: fils)

In English word order is all important and must be in the order subject...verb...object. The sentence 'The son beat his father' has a very different meaning! An international language such as Eo must, however, be much more flexible in word order to make it easier for those who do not have such word order rules in their native languages. The use of the ending -n in Esperanto permits much greater freedom. Thus:
La patro batis la filon and La filon batis la patro both mean the same.
(The father (with the -o ending) smacked the son (with the -n ending).
La patron batis la filo and La filo batis la patron in turn also have their same meaning
(The son (with the -o ending) hit his father (with the -n ending).

Grammatical endings and not word order matter in Esperanto and this, when we are used to it, gives much greater clarity of meaning and freedom of expression.

4). Plural Accusative

Plural nouns also take the accusative ending when necessary e.g.
La knabo portis la librojn (The boy carried the books) (E: knave, G: Knabe) and (E: library)

The k- in knabo must be clearly sounded as a separate letter before the -nabo.

5). After Prepositions

In contrast to many other languages, nouns do not normally become accusative after prepositions in Esperanto.

sur la tablo   
on the table
F: sur 
en la libro 
in the book  

al la urbo
to the town  
L: al; E: urban
la birdo flugis el la arbo  
the bird flew out of the tree
E: arboreal, F: arbre
There is a special case, however, when prepositions are followed by the accusative- motion towards. This is dealt with in Chapter 12.

6). The complement of a verb


Certain verbs ('to be' and verbs which do not show the subject acting on the object e.g. 'to seem', 'to appear', 'to become') take a complement rather than a direct object e.g. la viro ^jus i^gis patro (the man has just become a father) (E virile)

The man does not act on the father as a subject does on an object. In fact they are the same thing and so father is not a direct object and so does not need the accusative ending.

7). Some Common Expressions

The first expressions one needs in any language are yes/no; please/thank you; hello/goodbye etc. In Esperanto they are :


jes
yes
(Pronounced as E: yes)
ne
no

mi petas
please
(Means I ask, I beg)  (E: petition)
dankon
thank you*
(E: thanks, G: danke)
saluton 
hello*
(E: salute,salutation)
^gis la revido
goodbye+

(* In both these cases the accusative is used because we really mean to say : 'I give you thanks' (Mi donas al vi) dankon and 'I give you a greeting' (Mi donas al vi) saluton but we are leaving out as understood the start of the sentence. )
(+Often shortened, in spoken Esperanto,  to ^gis la or just ^gis. This means 'until the re-seeing' and is equivalent to F: au revoir; G: auf Wiedersehen; S: Hasta la vista.


to bite   
mord/-i
E : mordant
to give
don/-i
E : donation
to know
(be acquainted with)
kon/-i
F: connaître
to live,dwell
lo^g/-i
E : lodge
to play   
lud/-i
E: Ludo
to prefer
prefer/-i  

to run 
kur/-i
E: concurrent
to stand  
star/-i

apple  
pom/-o
F: pomme
fruit
frukt/-o
G: Frucht
garden    
^garden/-o
house
dom/-o
E: domestic
pear   
pir/-o
street
strat/-o
G: Strasse
tennis    
tenis/-o



after  
post
E: postmortem, posterior
along
laû  

in front of    

antaû
E: antecedent
with
kun
L: cum
8). NEW WORDS
EXERCISES (CHAPTER 4) / EKZERCOJ (^CAPITRO 4)

Translate into Esperanto/ Traduku en Esperanton

1. The dog run after the cat.
2. Do you speak Esperanto?
3. They are eating apples and pears.
4. An apple is a fruit.
5. In the house live a man and a boy.
6. The dog bit the cat but the man hit the dog
7. Do you have a house in the town?
8. The horses ran along the street
9. Hello. Do you have the book? Yes, it is on the table.
10 The streets in the town do not have trees.
11 The boy will sing. Do you know the song?
12 Thank you and goodbye!
13 The house is along the street after the trees
14 We hope to go to town
15 The horse stood in front of the tree and ate an apple from it.
16 On the table was some fruit - apples and pears.
17 Give an apple to me, please.
18 The boys will carry the tables out of the house.
19 Do you have three or four books?
20 The son thanked his (use la) father.

Translate into English/ Traduku en la anglan

21 La knabo batis la hundon
22 La hundo mordis la katon
23 La hundon mordis la kato
24 Mi havas tri pirojn.
25 Antaû la domo en la ^gardeno estas du arboj.
26 Al ili ni donu la librojn
27 Kuru laû la strato ^gis la tri arboj.
28 La patro donus al la filo libron se li kantus, sed la knabo preferas ludi tenison.
29 La knabo ludis kun la kato.
30 La viro tradukis la libron el la Esperanto.
31 En la domo lo^gas viro, du katoj, tri hundoj kaj kvar filoj.
32 Iru al la filo kaj donu al li piron.


Answers/Solvoj
CHAPTER 5
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