Word Endings

Before you start learning words, it's helpful to know the different parts of speech and how they end. You don't have to completely memorize this now, because you will see more and more of this as you go along.

What is nice about Esperanto is that you can almost always tell what part of speech something is just by looking at the ending. You can also form new words by changing this ending. For example, helpo is "help". Since verbs end with -i, then helpi means "to help".

Nouns

All nouns end with -o. For example, helpo = help, tago = day. Nouns in Esperanto, like in English, are people, places, things, or ideas. 

Adjectives

All adjectives end with -a. For example, helpa = helpful, taga = of the day (adjective form of the word "day"). Adjectives in Esperanto must describe a noun - they cannot describe a verb or any other part of speech.

Adverbs

Most adverbs end with -e. For example, helpe = helpfully, tage = during the day. There are also about 20 adverbs that don't end with -e, but you will learn about these later. Adverbs in Esperanto are for when you need to describe anything other than a noun, such as a verb (ie. He walks slowly).

Verbs

The infinitive form of a verb in Esperanto (like "to be" or "to eat" in English) ends with an -i. However, depending on whether you are talking about the present, past, or future, there are a few other forms. Verbs in the past end with -is (kuris = ran), verbs in the present end with -as (kuras = run/runs), and verbs in the future end with -os (kuros = will run). Fortunately, there is no conjugation of verbs in Esperanto based on the subject. In other words, you use the same form no matter who you are talking about. In English, you have "I run" and "he runs", but in Esperanto it's just "mi kuras" and "li kuras" - the verb doesn't change depending on who you are talking about. There are a few other forms of verbs, but you will learn them later as they are not as common.

Plural

In English, we just add -s to the end of the word to make it plural. For example, "dog" and "dogs". In Esperanto, you add a -j (remember: this is pronounced like y). So if dog in Esperanto is "hundo", then the many dogs are "hundoj".

Object Form

This is a little tricky, and if you don't completely understand how it works yet, it's ok. In English, we tell who is the subject (person/thing doing an action) and object (to who or what the action is being done) by the word order. For example, in "I eat an apple", we know that I am the one performing the action and the apple is the one to who it is being done because "I" comes before the verb, and "apple" comes after. In Esperanto, you can say words in pretty much any order you like. So, we need a way to figure out who is doing the action. So, we add -n to the end of the object. Apple in Esperanto is "pomo", I is "mi", and eats is "manĝas", so since it is the apple being eaten, we add an -n to the end of that, so we have "pomon". Now, the sentence is "Mi manĝas pomon". We could also say "Mi pomon manĝas", since it's still clear that the apple is being eaten by me. You can order the words however you want, and it will still be clear.

Remember, you don't have to memorize all of this, but you should look it over. As you learn more Esperanto, you can come back here for clarification.