The Guide to Learning Esperanto
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At the moment, this website contains the Guide to Learning Esperanto and a games page.More content will probably be added later. For the Guide to Learning Esperanto, scroll down.
The Guide to Learning Esperanto
This guide in intended to help a learner learn from not knowing any Esperanto to near-fluency. This guide isn't complete yet, but there's no reason you shouldn't start it anyways. This page will contain an index of the entire guide.
What is Esperanto and why learn it?
Note: Lernu.net has a series of pages dedicated to explaining a brief history. It's highly reccomended that you look through them here.
Esperanto is a language created in 1887 by a man named L.L. Zamenhof. The goal of the language was to be an international second language, so that people from all around the world could communicate with each other. To accomplish this, it is intentionally made to be easy to learn - Esperanto has a regular grammar and draws many of its words from English and other European languages, so it should be especially easy for English speakers to learn. Esperanto is also a neutral language, because except for a dozen native speakers, everyone has to learn it, so everyone has been through the learning experience. Also, Esperanto isn't owned by any country, so it's politically neutral as well.
There are many reasons that people choose to learn Esperanto. Many learn it because studies show that it helps you learn other languages if you learn it first, while others learn it so that they can use Pasporta Servo, a program where Esperantists can travel to nearly any country and be hosted by other Esperantists. Esperanto also has a large amount of literature, and many of the books have been translated from another language into Esperanto but not English, or are original Esperanto novels. In the end, lots of people choose to learn Esperanto simply because it's a language you can learn without studying for years, and learning a new language can be fun.
Signing up for Lernu and Memrise
Before you begin actually learning Esperanto, you'll need to sign up for 2 key websites that you'll be using throughout your Esperanto-learning journey: lernu.net and memrise.com (these two links will take you to the sign-up pages for each site). When you've registered, come back to this post.
Now that you've registered for Lernu, you may want to take some time to look around. On the top navigation bar, there is a "Courses" tab, and under "Basic" you will find Ana Pana, the course you will begin with. Under "Learning", you can find word lists, as well as a page that describes each of Esperanto's few grammar rules. You can also find some games to play, but you probably won't be doing this until you begin to learn. Under "Community", you can find other users and message them, as well as post in the Lernu forums if you need help with anything.
On the left side of the page, you will see a dictionary that translates between Esperanto and English (or many other languages if you want). If you want to translate something to or from Esperanto, this is probably the best translator you will find, so try it before you turn to Google Translate. In the same column near the bottom is the "Tujmesaĝilo", the instant messenger. As you learn, you can visit that chat room in order to get some practice.
While Lernu is used for more general learning, Memrise is used for learning vocabulary, and it isn't exclusive to Esperanto - you can use it to memorize just about anything. Memrise's interface is a little more streamlined than Lernu's. On the very top, the "Browse" button will allow you to search for courses (though there will be links in this guide to any courses used) and the "Create" button lets you make your own.
Memrise uses the metaphor of gardening when helping you remember things. "Planting" is learning new vocabulary, while "watering" is reviewing. Memrise uses spaced repetition and knows when you need to review, so it's best to water your vocabulary as soon as Memrise tells you to. It's also good not to "overwater", which messes with the algorithm that figures out when you need to review.
Both of these websites will be helpful as you learn, and you will learn more about these sites as you use them more and more.
Now that you've registered for Lernu, you may want to take some time to look around. On the top navigation bar, there is a "Courses" tab, and under "Basic" you will find Ana Pana, the course you will begin with. Under "Learning", you can find word lists, as well as a page that describes each of Esperanto's few grammar rules. You can also find some games to play, but you probably won't be doing this until you begin to learn. Under "Community", you can find other users and message them, as well as post in the Lernu forums if you need help with anything.
On the left side of the page, you will see a dictionary that translates between Esperanto and English (or many other languages if you want). If you want to translate something to or from Esperanto, this is probably the best translator you will find, so try it before you turn to Google Translate. In the same column near the bottom is the "Tujmesaĝilo", the instant messenger. As you learn, you can visit that chat room in order to get some practice.
While Lernu is used for more general learning, Memrise is used for learning vocabulary, and it isn't exclusive to Esperanto - you can use it to memorize just about anything. Memrise's interface is a little more streamlined than Lernu's. On the very top, the "Browse" button will allow you to search for courses (though there will be links in this guide to any courses used) and the "Create" button lets you make your own.
Memrise uses the metaphor of gardening when helping you remember things. "Planting" is learning new vocabulary, while "watering" is reviewing. Memrise uses spaced repetition and knows when you need to review, so it's best to water your vocabulary as soon as Memrise tells you to. It's also good not to "overwater", which messes with the algorithm that figures out when you need to review.
Both of these websites will be helpful as you learn, and you will learn more about these sites as you use them more and more.
The Esperanto Alphabet
These Esperanto alphabet is very similar to the English one, but it has a few differences. Each letter makes only one sound (no combinations of letters or letters that make different sounds in different situations), which means that if you know how to write Esperanto, you can speak it, and if you hear a word, you immediately know how it is spelled. So, here is the alphabet:
In addition to the alphabet, you need to know the rule about the stress of a word: the second-to-last syllable of a word is where the stress falls. Now, you can prononuce any Esperanto word!
| Letter | Sound |
|---|---|
| a | a like apple |
| b | b like button |
| c | ts like meets |
| ĉ | ch like chocolate |
| d | d like donkey |
| e | e like elephant |
| f | f like fire |
| g | g like grade |
| ĝ | g like giraffe |
| h | h like heat |
| ĥ | ch like Bach (this is now used in very few words) |
| i | ee like decree |
| j | y like yell (be careful - it's not pronounced like an English j! |
| ĵ | s like pleasure |
| k | k like koala |
| l | l like lemons |
| m | m like mice |
| n | n like night |
| o | o like boat |
| p | p like pin |
| r | rolling r (like in Spanish or other languages - does not exist in English) |
| s | s like sun |
| ŝ | sh like shoe |
| t | t like tiger |
| u | oo like moose |
| ŭ | w like wind |
| v | v like vine |
| z | z like zebra |
In addition to the alphabet, you need to know the rule about the stress of a word: the second-to-last syllable of a word is where the stress falls. Now, you can prononuce any Esperanto word!