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The official ruling body of Esperanto is the Academy Of Esperanto . Reference grammars of the language include the ''Plena Analiza Gramatiko'' (Complete Analytical Grammar) by Kálmán Kalocsay and Gaston Waringhien , and the ''Plena Manlibro de Esperanta Gramatiko'' (Complete Handbook of Esperanto Grammar) by Bertilo Wennergren . GRAMMATICAL SUMMARY Esperanto has an Agglutinative Morphology , no Grammatical Gender , and simple Verbal and Nominal Inflections . Verbal suffixes indicate four moods, of which the Indicative has three Tense s, and are Derived for several Aspects , but do not agree with the Grammatical Person or Number of their Subjects . Noun s and Adjective s have two Case s, Nominative / Oblique and Accusative / Allative , and two Numbers , Singular and Plural ; Pronoun s also have a Genitive Case . Adjectives generally Agree with nouns in case and number. In addition to indicating Direct Object s, the accusative/allative case is used with nouns, adjectives and Adverb s to show the destination of a motion, or to replace certain Preposition s; the nominative/oblique is used in all other situations. The case system allows for a flexible Word Order that reflects Information Flow and other Pragmatic concerns, as in Russian , Greek , and Latin . These concepts are illustrated below. SCRIPT AND PRONUNCIATION The script resembles the Czech Alphabet , but with Circumflex Diacritic s instead of Háček s on the letters ''ĉ, ŝ;'' Westernized ''ĝ, ĵ'' in place of Slavic ''dž, ž;'' and ''ĥ'' rather than ''ch'' (there are no Digraph s). The letter ''ŭ'' is shared with the Belarusian Łacinka alphabet. (See Esperanto Orthography .) The diacritical marks make it unnecessary to indicate sounds with digraphs or letters not in the Roman alphabet. The Italian Language is suggested as a model for Esperanto Pronunciation . THE ARTICLE Esperanto has a single Definite Article , ''la'', which is invariable. It is similar to English ''the''. ''La'' is used: :For identifiable, countable objects: ::''mi trovis botelon kaj deprenis la fermilon'' (I found a bottle and took off the lid). :For representative individuals: ::''la gepardo estas la plej rapida de la bestoj'' (The cheetah is the fastest of the beasts) ::''la abeloj havas felon, sed ili ne taŭgas por karesi'' (Bees have fur, but are not good for petting). :For adjectives used as nouns, such as ethnic adjectives used as the names of languages: ::''la blua'' (the blue one) ::''la angla'' (English: lit., "the English {Link without Title} "). :For Possessive Pronoun s, when definite: ::''la mia bluas, la via ruĝas'' (mine is blue, yours is red). The article is also used for Inalienable Possession of body parts and kin terms, where English would use a Possessive Adjective : ili tranĉis la manon The article ''la'', like the Demonstrative Adjective ''tiu'' (this, that), nearly always occurs at the beginning of the Noun Phrase , but this is not required by the grammar, and exceptions occur in poetry. There is no grammatically required Indefinite Article : ''homo'' means either ''human being'' or ''a human being'', depending on the context, and similarly the plural ''homoj'' means ''human beings'' or ''some human beings''. The words ''iu'' and ''unu'' (or their plurals ''iuj'' and ''unuj'') may be used somewhat like indefinite articles, but they're closer in meaning to "some" and "a certain" than to English "a". PARTS OF SPEECH The suffixes ''-o'', ''-a'', ''-e'', and ''-i'' indicate that a word is a Noun , Adjective , Adverb , and Infinitive Verb , respectively. Many new words can be derived simply by changing these suffixes, just as ''-ly'' derives adverbs from adjectives in English: From ''vidi'' (to see), we get ''vida'' (visual), ''vide'' (visually), and ''vido'' (sight). Each : ''parole'' (by speech, orally); ''vide'' (visually, by sight); ''reĝe'' (like a king, royally). A suffix ''-j'' following the noun or adjective suffixes ''-o'' or ''-a'' makes a word plural. Without this suffix, a Countable Noun is understood to be singular. Direct Object s take an Accusative Case suffix ''-n'', which goes after any plural suffix. (The resulting sequence ''-ojn'' rhymes with English ''coin'', and ''-ajn'' rhymes with ''fine''.) Adjectives Agree with nouns. That is, they are plural if the nouns they Modify are plural, and accusative if the nouns they modify are accusative. Compare ''bona tago; bonaj tagoj; bonan tagon; bonajn tagojn'' (good day/days). This requirement allows for free word orders of adjective-noun and noun-adjective, even when two noun phrases are adjacent in Subject-object-verb or Verb-subject-object clauses: la knabino feliĉan knabon kisis la knabino feliĉa knabon kisis Agreement clarifies the Syntax in other ways as well. Adjectives take the plural suffix when they modify more than one noun, even if those nouns are all singular: ruĝaj domo kaj aŭto ruĝa domo kaj aŭto A Predicative Adjective does not take the accusative case suffix even when the noun it modifies does: mi farbis la pordon ruĝan mi farbis la pordon ruĝa The meanings of part-of-speech affixes depend on the inherent part of speech of the root they are applied to. For example, ''brosi'' (to brush) is based on a nominal root, whereas ''kombi'' (to comb) is based on a verbal root. Change the suffix to ''-o'', and their similar meanings diverge: ''broso'' (a brush, the name of an instrument) vs. ''kombo'' (a combing, the name of an action). Dictionaries help here by listing the roots as ''broso'' and ''komb'''i'''''. Changing verbal ''kombi'' (to comb) to a noun simply creates the name for the action, ''kombo'' (a combing). For the name of the tool, the suffix ''-ilo'' is used, which derives words for instruments from verbal roots: ''kombilo'' (a comb). On the other hand, changing the nominal root ''broso'' (a brush) to a verb gives the action associated with that noun, ''brosi'' (to brush). For the name of the action, the suffix ''-ado'' will change a derived verb back to a noun: ''brosado'' (a brushing). Similarly, an abstraction of a nominal root (changing it to an adjective and then back to a noun) requires the suffix ''-eco'', as in ''infaneco'' (childhood), but an abstraction of an adjectival or verbal root merely requires the nominal ''-o'': ''belo'' (beauty). However, the form ''beleco'' is also acceptable and widely used. Additionally, most verbs are inherently Transitive or Intransitive . This is not apparent from the shape of the verb, and must simply be memorized. Transitivity is changed with the suffixes ''-igi'' (the transitivizer/ Causative ) and ''-iĝi'' (the intransitivizer/ Middle Voice ): akvo bolas je cent gradoj ni boligas la akvo A limited number of basic adverbs do not end with ''-e'', but with an undefined part-of-speech the ending ''-aŭ''.Not all words ending in ''-aŭ'' are adverbs, and most of the adverbs that end in ''-aŭ'' have other functions, such as ''hodiaŭ'' "today" or adverb or ''ankoraŭ'' "yet, still" or adverb . About a dozen other adverbs are bare roots, such as ''nun'' "now", ''tro'' "too, too much", not counting the adverbs among the Correlatives . (See Special Esperanto Adverbs ). Other parts of speech occur as bare roots, without special suffixes. These are the pronouns ''(mi'' "I"), prepositions ''(al'' "to"), conjunctions ''(kaj'' "and"), interjections ''(ho'' "oh"), and numerals ''(du'' "two"). (The final ''-i'' found on pronouns is not a suffix, but part of the root.) There are also several " Grammatical Particles " which don't fit neatly into any category, and which must generally precede the words they modify, such as ''ne'' (not), ''ankaŭ'' (also), ''nur'' (only), ''eĉ'' (even). PRONOUNS There are three types of pronouns in Esperanto: personal (''vi'' "you"), demonstrative (''tio'' "that", ''iu'' "someone"), and relative/interrogative (''kio'' "what"). Unlike nouns, pronouns take three cases: nominative/oblique, accusative, and genitive. Personal pronouns The Esperanto Personal Pronoun system is similar to that of English, but with the addition of a Reflexive Pronoun . Personal pronouns take the s; this sense is generally (though not always) indicated with the definite article: ''la mia'' (mine). The Reflexive Pronoun is used, in non-subject phrases only, to refer to back to the subject, usually only in the third and indefinite persons: li lavis sin ili lavis sin li lavis lin li manĝis sian panon li manĝis lian panon The indefinite pronoun is used when making general statements, and is often used where English would have the subject ''it'' with a passive verb, oni diras, ke ... Zamenhof created an informal second-person singular pronoun ''ci'' ( Thou ), and capitalized the formal singular pronoun ''Vi,'' following Usage In Most European Languages , but these forms are rarely seen today. ''Ĝi'' is used principally with animals and objects. Zamenhof also prescribed it to be the (gender-neutral) third-person singular pronoun, for use when the sex of an individual is unknown, or to refer to an epicene noun such as ''persono'' (person). However, it is generally only used for children: La infano ploras, ĉar ĝi volas manĝi When speaking of adults or people in general, it is much more common for the demonstrative adjective and pronoun ''tiu'' (that one) to be used in such situations. Other pronouns The Demonstrative and ''' Relative Pronoun s''' form part of the Correlative System , and are described in that article. The pronouns are the forms ending in ''-o'' (simple pronouns) and ''-u'' (adjectival pronouns). Their accusative case is formed in ''-n,'' but the genitive case ends in ''-es,'' which is the same for singular and plural and does not take accusative marking. Compare the nominative phases ''lia domo'' (his house) and ''ties domo'' (that one's house, those ones' house) with the plural ''lia'''j''' domo'''j''''' (his houses) and ''ties domo'''j''''' (that one's houses, those ones' houses), and with the accusative genitive ''lia'''n''' domo'''n''''' and ''ties domo'''n'''.'' PREPOSITIONS Although Esperanto Word Order is fairly free, Preposition s must come at the beginning of a Noun Phrase . Whereas in languages such as German, prepositions may require a noun to be in various Case s ( Accusative , Dative , ''etc.''), in Esperanto all prepositions govern the Nominative : ''por Johano'' (for John). The only exception is when there are two or more prepositions and one is ''replaced'' by the accusative. Prepositions should be used with a definite meaning. When no one preposition is clearly correct, the indefinite preposition ''je'' should be used: ili iros je la tria de majo Alternatively, the accusative may be used without a preposition: ili iros la trian de majo Note that although ''la trian'' (the third) is in the accusative, ''de majo'' (of May) is still a Prepositional Phrase , and so the noun ''majo'' remains in the nominative case. A frequent use of the accusative is in place of ''al'' (to) to indicate the direction or goal of motion ( Allative Case ). It is especially common when there would otherwise be a double preposition: la kato ĉasis la muson en la domo la kato ĉasis la muson en la domo The accusative/allative may stand in for other prepositions as well, especially when they have vague meanings that don't add much to the clause. Adverbs, with or without the case suffix, are frequently used in place of prepositional phrases: li iris al sia hejmo li iris hejmen Occasionally a new preposition is coined. As a bare Root may indicate a preposition or Interjection , removing the grammatical suffix from another part of speech can be used to derive a preposition or interjection. For example, from ''fari'' (to do, to make) we get the preposition ''far'' (done by), a more precise substitute for ''de'' (of, by, from). VERBS All verbs are regular. Three Tense s together form what is called the Indicative Mood . The other moods are the Infinitive , Conditional , and Jussive . No Aspectual distinctions are required by the grammar, but derivational expressions of Aktionsart are common. Verbs do not change form according to their Subject . ''I am'', ''we are,'' and ''he is'' are simply ''mi estas'', ''ni estas'', and ''li estas'', respectively. Impersonal subjects are not used: ''pluvas'' (it is raining); ''estas muso en la domo'' (there's a mouse in the house). The verbal paradigm The tenses have characteristic vowels. ''A'' indicates the present tense, ''i'' the past, and ''o'' the future. The verbal forms may be illustrated with the root ''esper-'' (hope): esperi esperas esperis esperos esperu esperus A verb can be made emphatic with the particle ''ja'' (indeed): ''mi ja esperas'' (I do hope), ''mi ja esperis'' (I did hope). Mood The Conditional Mood is used for such expressions as ''se mi povus, mi irus'' (if I could, I would go) and ''se mi estus vi, mi irus'' (if I were you, I'd go). The Jussive Mood , called the ''volitive'' in Esperanto, is used for wishing and requesting, and serves as the Imperative . It covers some of the uses of the Subjunctive in European languages: Iru! Mi petis, ke li venu. Li parolu. Ni iru. Benu ĉi tiun domaĉon Mia filino belu! Aspect Although verbal Aspect is not grammatically required in Esperanto, the Slavic aspectual system survives in two Aktionsart affixes, Perfective (often inceptive) ''ek-'' and Imperfective ''-adi''. Compare: Tiu ĉi ekinteresis min kaj montris al mi, ke ... and: Tiu ĉi interesis min Various prepositions may also be used as aktionsart prefixes, such as ''el'' (out of), used to indicate that an action is performed to completion or at least to a considerable degree. In, Germanan kaj francan lingvojn mi ellernadis en infaneco the verb ''el-lern-ad-is'' is past tense (''-is''), on-going/imperfective (''-ad-''), and performed to significant completion (''el-''). Such distinctions are notoriously difficult to render in English, but perhaps a circumlocution may help: ''In childhood, I spent time soaking up German and French''. Here ''spend time —ing'' corresponds roughly to ''-adi'', and the ''up'' of ''soak up'' also a preposition conveys some of the meaning of ''el-''. The participles (see below) may also be used for aspectual distinctions. The copula The verb ''esti'' (to be) is both the Copula and the existential ("there is") verb. As a copula linking two Noun Phrase s, it does not cause either to take the accusative case. Therefore, unlike the situation with other verbs, word order with ''esti'' can be semantically important: compare ''hundoj estas personoj'' (dogs are people) and ''personoj estas hundoj'' (people are dogs). It is becoming increasingly common to replace ''esti''-plus-adjective with a verb: ''la ĉielo estas blua'' or ''la ĉielo bluas'' (the sky is blue). This is a stylistic rather than grammatical change in the language, as the more economical verbal forms were always found in poetry. Participles Participle s are verbal derivatives. In Esperanto, they retain the tense of the verb in their vowel. They may be Active (performing an action) or Passive (receiving an action). Adjectival participles The basic principle of the participles may be illustrated with the verb ''fali'' (to fall). Picture Wile E. Coyote running off a cliff. Before gravity kicks in (after all, this is a cartoon), he is ''falonta'' (about to fall). As he drops, he is ''fal'''a'''nta'' (falling). After he impacts the desert floor, he is ''fal'''i'''nta'' (fallen). Active and passive pairs can be illustrated with the transitive verb ''haki'' (to chop). Picture a woodsman approaching a tree with an axe, intending to chop it down. He is ''hakonta'' (about to chop) and the tree is ''hak'''o'''ta'' (about to be chopped). While swinging the axe, he is ''hak'''an'''ta'' (chopping) and the tree ''hak'''a'''ta'' (being chopped). After the tree has fallen, he is ''hak'''in'''ta'' (having chopped) and the tree ''hak'''i'''ta'' (chopped). Compound tense Compound tenses are formed with the Adjectival Participle s plus ''esti'' (to be) as the auxiliary verb:
These are not used as often as their English equivalents. For "I ''am'' go''ing'' to the store", you would normally use the simple present ''mi iras'' in Esperanto. The tense and mood of ''esti'' can be changed in these compound tenses: mi estis kaptinta mi estus kaptonta mi estos kaptanta The option of replacing ''esti'' + adjective with a verb holds for adjectival participles, with the verbal suffix reflecting the tense of the auxiliary: mi estas kaptinta mi estis kaptinta Adjectival participles agree with nouns, as any other adjectives do: ili ŝparis la arbojn hakotajn Nominal participles Participles may be turned into adverbs or nouns by replacing the adjectival suffix ''-a'' with ''-e'' or ''-o''. This means that, in Esperanto, some nouns may be inflected for tense. A nominal participle indicates ''one who participates'' in the action specified by the verbal root. For example, ''esperinto'' is a "hoper" (past tense), or ''one who had been hoping''. (In the early years of the language, such forms were assumed to be masculine, but that is no longer the case.) Adverbial participles Adverbial Participle s are used with subjectless clauses: Kaptinte la pilkon, li ekkuris golen Conditional and tenseless participles (unofficial) Occasionally, the participle paradigm will be extended to include conditional participles, with the vowel ''u'' (''-unt-, -ut-''). If, for example, in our tree-chopping example, the woodsman found that the tree had been spiked and so couldn't be cut down after all, he would be ''hakunta'' and the tree ''hakuta''. (These don't translate well into English.) This can also be illustrated with the verb ''prezidi'' (to preside). Just after the recount of the 2000 United States Presidential Election :
Note that this example is somewhat artificial, since the customary word for 'president' (of a country) is the tense-neutral word ''prezidento'', which is officially a separate root, not a derivative of the verb ''prezidi''. However, ''prezid'''a'''nto'' is typically used for the presidents of organizations other than sovereign countries, and ''prezid'''i'''nto'' is used for former presidents in such contexts. The conditional forms are infrequent, but their regular derivation ensures that they can be readily understood, even if rarely needed. No European language has conditional participles; in English, words like ''prezidunto'' must be expressed periphrastically. Likewise, some Esperantists have proposed a tenseless participle, though only for active-participle role. The element ''-ento'' is not officially a participle or even a separate morpheme, but it is very common and is sometimes regarded as a suffix. It frequently occurs in words for occupations where one would not wish to specify tense, such as ''prezidento'' or ''studento'' (student). Since there is often a verb derived from the same Latin root, in these cases ''prezidi'' (to preside) and ''studi'' (to study), this ''-ento'' has occasionally been proposed as a tense-neutral active participle by analogy with the temporal participles ''-anto, -into, -onto''.
NEGATIVES A statement is made negative by using ''ne'' or one of the negative ''(neni-)'' Correlatives . Only one negative word is allowed per clause: : ''Mi ne faris ion ajn.'' I didn't do anything.
The word ''ne'' comes before the word it negates, with the default position being before the verb: : ''Mi ne skribis tion'' (I didn't write that) : ''Ne mi skribis tion'' (It wasn't me who wrote that) : ''Mi skribis ne tion'' (It wasn't that that I wrote) The latter will frequently be reordered as ''ne tion mi skribis'' depending on the flow of information. QUESTIONS ''Main article: Interrogatives In Esperanto '' "Wh" questions are asked with one of the interrogative/relative (''ki-'') Correlatives . They are commonly placed at the beginning of the sentence, but different word orders are allowed for stress: Li scias, kion vi faris Kion vi faris? Vi faris kion? Yes/no questions are marked with the conjunction ''ĉu'' (whether): Mi ne scias, ĉu li venos Ĉu li venos? Such questions can be answered ''jes'' (yes) or ''ne'' (no) in the European fashion of aligning with the polarity of the answer, or ''ĝuste'' (correct) or ''malĝuste'' (incorrect) in the Japanese fashion of aligning with the polarity of the question: Ĉu vi ne iris? — Ne, mi ne iris — Ĝuste, mi ne iris Note that Esperanto questions may have the same word order as statements. CONJUNCTIONS Basic Esperanto Conjunction s are ''kaj'' (both/and), ''aŭ'' (either/or), ''nek'' (neither/nor), ''se'' (if), ''ĉu'' (whether/or), ''sed'' (but), ''anstataŭ'' (instead of), ''krom'' (besides, in addition to), ''kiel'' (like, as), ''ke'' (that). Like prepositions, they precede the phrase or clause they modify: Mi vidis kaj lin kaj lian amikon Estis nek hele nek agrable ĉu pro kaprico, ĉu pro natura lingvo-evoluo Li volus, ke ni iru However, unlike prepositions, they allow the accusative case, as in the following example from Don Harlow: Li traktis min kiel princon Li traktis min kiel princo INTERJECTIONS Interjection s may be derived from bare affixes or roots: ''ek!'' (get going!), from the perfective prefix; ''um'' (um, er), from the indefinite/undefined suffix; ''fek!'' (shit!), from ''feki'' (to defecate). WORD FORMATION Main article: Esperanto Derivational Morphology uses a large number of lexical and grammatical affixes ( Prefix es and Suffix es). These, along with compounding, decrease the memory load of the language, as they allow for the expansion of a relatively small number of basic roots into a large vocabulary. For example, the Esperanto root ''vid-'' (see) regularly corresponds to several dozen English words: ''see (saw, seen), sight, blind, vision, visual, visible, nonvisual, invisible, unsightly, glance, view, vista, panorama, observant'' etc., though there are also separate Esperanto roots for a couple of these concepts. NUMBERS Numerals The cardinal Numerals are: nul unu du tri kvar kvin ses sep ok naŭ dek cent mil These are grammatically numerals, not nouns, and as such do not take the accusative case suffix. However, ''unu'' (and only ''unu'') is sometimes used adjectivally or demonstratively, meaning "a certain", and in such cases it may take the plural affix ''-j'', just as the demonstrative pronoun ''tiu'' does: unuj homoj :"certain people"; ili kuris unuj post la aliaj :"they ran some after others". In such use ''unu'' is irregular in that it doesn't take the accusative affix ''-n'' in the singular, but does in the plural: ian unu ideon :"some particular idea", but unuj objektoj venis en unujn manojn, aliaj en aliajn manojn :"some objects come into certain hands, others into other hands". Additionally, when counting off, the final ''u'' of ''unu'' may be dropped, as if it were a part-of-speech suffix: Un'! Du! Tri! Kvar! Higher numbers As in other languages, there are several systems for numbers above a million. A '' Billion '' in the US and Russia is different from a ''billion'' in France and Germany (109 ''vs.'' 1012 respectively; that is, a thousand million ''vs.'' a million million), and Esperanto ''biliono'' is likewise ambiguous. However, there is an additional unambiguous system: :106: ''miliono'' :109: ''miliardo'' (or ''mil milionoj'') :1012: ''duiliono'' :1015: ''duiliardo'' (or ''mil duilionoj'') :1018: ''triiliono'' :1021: ''triiliardo'' (or ''mil triilionoj'') etc. Note that these are not numerals but nouns, and behave as such. An additional unambiguous system is provided by the international set of metric prefixes, and occasionally the nonce numerals ''meg'' (miliono) and ''gig'' (miliardo) are derived from them. Compound numbers and derivatives Numerals are written together as one word when their values are multiplied, and separately when their values are added (''dudek'' 20, ''dek du'' 12, ''dudek du'' 22). Ordinals are formed with the adjectival suffix ''-a'', quantities with the nominal suffix ''-o'', multiples with ''-obl-'', fractions with ''-on-'', collectives with ''-op-'', and repetitions with the root ''-foj-''. sescent sepdek kvin tria trie dudeko duobla kvarono duope dufoje The particle ''po'' is used to mark distributive numbers, that is, the idea of distributing a certain number of items to each member of a group. Consequently the Logogram @ is not used (except in email addresses, of course): mi donis al ili po tri pomojn Note that particle ''po'' forms a phrase with the numeral ''tri'' and is not a preposition for the noun phrase ''tri pomojn'', so it does not prevent a grammatical object from taking the accusative case. COMPARISONS Comparisons are made with the adverbial correlatives ''tiel ... kiel'' (as ... as), the adverbial roots ''pli'' (more) and ''plej'' (most), the antonym prefix ''mal-'', and the preposition ''ol'' (than): mi skribas tiel bone kiel vi tiu estas pli bona ol tiu tio estas la plej bona la mia estas malpli multekosta ol la via Implied comparisons are made with ''tre'' (very) and ''tro'' (too {Link without Title} ). Phrases like "The more people, the smaller the portions" and "All the better!" are translated using ''ju'' and ''des'' in place of "the": :''Ju pli da homoj, '''des''' malpli grandaj la porcioj'' (The more people, the smaller the portions) :''Des pli bone!'' (All the better!) NON-INDO-EUROPEAN ASPECTS Although it is billed as an international language, Esperanto vocabulary, Syntax , and Semantics are predominantly European. Roots are Romance , Slavic , and Germanic in origin, with a bit of Classical Greek . But some elements of the grammar are not found in these language families. Most noticeably, Esperanto has no Ablaut (internal inflection of its Roots ), something which is nearly universal in the Indo-European languages. Examples of ablaut in English are ''mouse'' vs. ''mice'' for nouns, ''less'' vs. ''least'' for adjectives, and ''run'' vs. ''ran'' for verbs. However, European languages also have many words without ablaut, such as ''cat'' vs. ''cats,'' ''fewer'' vs. ''fewest,'' and ''walk'' vs. ''walked.'' (This is the so-called Strong - Weak dichotomy.) Indeed, for many European languages the majority of words inflect without ablaut; Esperanto extends this tendency. The closest Esperanto comes to ablaut is in a few sets of related root words such as ''pli, plu, plej'' (more, more, most), ''tre, tro'' (very, too much), and the verbal morphemes ''-as, -anta, -ata; -is, -inta, -ita;'' and ''-os, -onta, -ota.'' Some allegedly non-Indo-European features are derived through regular and Turkish grammar in its mechanics. A more clearly non-Indo-European feature is the future participle. Many European languages have three tenses, past, present, and future, but only two participles, past and present. Esperanto extends this system to a pair of future participles, ''-onta'' and ''-ota,'' which are transparently related both to the future verbal tense ''-os'' and to the other participles (''-anta, -ata; -inta, -ita,'' which reflect the vowels of the present and past verbal tenses ''-as, -is''). This system can be extended further, with conditional participles ''-unta'' and ''-uta'' derived from the conditional mood in ''-us.'' In none of these cases were the non-Indoeuropean elements of Esperanto grammar taken from non-Indoeuropean language families. SAMPLE TEXT The Paternoster , from the First Esperanto Publication in 1887, illustrates many of the grammatical points presented above, and should be readable without translation: :''Patro nia, kiu estas en la ĉieloj, :''sanktigata estu via nomo. :''Venu via regno, :''fariĝu via volo, :''kiel en la ĉielo, kaj sur la tero. :''Panon nian ĉiutagan donu al ni hodiaǔ. :''Kaj pardonu al ni niajn ŝuldojn, :''kiel ankaǔ ni pardonas al niaj ŝuldantoj. :''Kaj ne konduku nin en tenton, :''sed liberigu nin de la malbono. :''(Ĉar via estas la regno kaj la potenco :''kaj la gloro eterne. Amen.) (A slightly different version .) The morphologically complex words (see Esperanto Word Formation ) are: EXTERNAL LINKS A fairly good overview of Esperanto's grammar and word-building system can be gained by viewing "The Sixteen Rules of Esperanto" , "The Esperanto Correlatives" and "Word Building With Esperanto Affixes" |
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