Ana Pana 4 and the Object

You may have already noticed that some words have an -n attached to the end for some reason. You're about to learn why. In Esperanto, we don't use word order to specify the subject and object of a sentence like we do in English. Instead, we use the object form of a word. So, while in English you might say "I drink milk", in Esperanto you can say "Mi trinkas lakton". The "lakto" (milk) has an -n added on to the end because it is the object - the noun on the receiving end of an action. Since word order rarely matters, you can also say "Lakton trinkas mi". Even though you mention the milk before you mention yourself, the sentence still means "I drink milk" because the lakto has an -n at the end, indicating that that's what the action is being done to.

It's a pretty common mistake to forget the -n at the end of the words that need to have it, but don't worry, you'll get used to it. If you make this mistake in an Ana Pana correspondence, your tutor will point it out and correct it.