All Questions

Jen la frazo sekvanta. Estas Mario! Normally, this would simply mean "It's Mario/Maria!" (name does not matter). However, what if one says it like this? Mario estas! To my understanding, this ...

Consider, in attempting to translate: Ah, you like sushi? Have you tried poke? Both have fish (usually raw) and rice. But sushi is Japanese, while poke is Hawaiian. ↓ Ha, vi ŝatas suŝion, ĉu? ...

A neologism, by definition, is probably not going to be as readily recognized or understood by a common speaker. However, they are (for the most part) created for a reason, and thus could see some use....

A: "You have such a cute monad!" B: "What monad?" One's first instinct may be to translate the latter phrase as "Kiu monado?". However, how would one distinguish between the following two meanings ...

En ĵusa demando oni skribis ion ĉi tian: Mi havis araneon kiel dorlotbesto. Mi opinias ke tio signifus: Mi havis araneon tiel, kiel dorlotbesto havus araneon. Sed, se oni aldonas -n al dorlotbesto:...

No translation is given in Benson, nor Wells, nor Vikivortaro. Here is the link to the entry in the free online dictionary of Merriam-Webster: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reiver

In English, there exists a construct which I do not quite understand. The monad rolled around the woods, careful not to fall into the river. The human was careful not to awaken the baby. She ...

There was a time when I said something like Mi havis monadon kiel dorlotbesto, kiam mi havas 12 jarojn. But then someone corrected me, saying that it should be havis, instead, and showed me a ...

It’s basic grammar that the duplicative aŭ…aŭ, nek…nek, and kaj…kaj forms change a simple “or”, “nor” or “and” into “either…or”, “neither…nor” and “both…and”, respectively. (There are more kombinitaj ...

No translation is given in Benson, nor Wells, nor Vikivortaro. Here is the link to the Wikipedia article on this item: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grook

The meaning of "social engineering" I am looking for is the one related to information security, as in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_engineering_(security) I could not find anything at all, ...

One can find many variations of "head office" in Esperanto. For example, from Tekstaro, Wikipedia, Tatoeba, Glosbe etc., we can find: ĉefoficejo ĉefa oficejo ĉefsidejo centra sidejo socia sidejo ...

How to express the idea of having something done for you? For instance: I have washed my laundry. I have my laundry washed. Can -igi be used for this? Mi lesivis miajn lesivaĵojn. Mi ...

What is the official expression in Esperanto for "Privacy Beach"? If not "the official", perhaps "the best" or "the most recognized". I am having troubles with this one. There are many ways, yet, I'...

Is there an idiomatic way to translate a phrase that begins with “imagine if…”? Ie, a phrase to introduce an imagined possibility. Something like: Imagine if I won the lottery. I could buy a house! ...

Are there any works of literature originally written in Esperanto, of which non-Esperanto translations have sold well or (for free online works) are popular among readers? (In comparison to other ...

Are there novels originally written in Esperanto that are considered relevant in literature in general (for their own merit, and not only as "curiosities" or playful experiments which would be ...

Artifika Ekzemplo La aĵo kunpuŝiĝis kun la alia aĵo, kiu kaŭzas ĝin pensi pri vivo. La Demando Kiel oni distingus... ...kiun aferon rilatas la "ĝin"? ...kiun rilatas la "kiu" (t.e. ĉu estas la ...

I am having trouble with the term, "platform", in the sense of an information technology infrastructure. PIV gives us four meanings, none of them close to IT: http://vortaro.net/#platformo Glosbe ...

How would one say the phrases "it's time for bed" or "it's time to eat" in Esperanto? Certainly "estas tempo por" wouldn't work as that sounds more like "there is a time for," so what would be the ...

Laŭ PIV kaj ReVo ju estas uzata kun pli kaj malpli. PMEG asertas, ke ju estas ĉiam uzata kune kun pli aŭ malpli. Tamen, mi trovis ekzemplojn pri uzado de ju kune kun plu, kiuj al mi ne ŝajnas ...

The expression "walking skeleton" as in: "Little more than a walking skeleton after weeks on the run..." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Dengler#Rescue). One could say, „marŝanta skeleto” (...

To tap one's foot to the beat of the music, what is the expression in Esperanto? PIV says „piedbatas la plankon”, but I'm not sure. Using „piedbati” seems more like "kicking the floor", not "taping ...

Laŭ PMEG: Nek signifas “kaj ankaŭ ne”, “kaj ankaŭ nenio“ k.s. Oni uzas nek, se oni jam uzis ne aŭ tabelvorton je NENI, kaj volas nei ankoraŭ ion. Ekzemple: Mi ne renkontis lin, nek lian ...

Ĉu la Terminologia Esperanto-Centro (TEC, vidu vikipedio) ankoraŭ aktivas? La ĉefpaĝo de ĝia retejo http://esperanto.net/tec/ diras, ke tiu ĉefpaĝo laste ŝanĝiĝis 2017-04-23, do antaŭ pli ol du jaroj....

I was looking at a post which said: "organo konsistanta el karnaj fibroj kaj servanta por movi la diversajn partojn de la korpo" I am a bit confused on why konsistanta was used instead of ...

What is the difference between "ŝanĝi" and "ŝanĝiĝi" and how would you use these verbs in a sentence?

I want to translate this sentence to Esperanto: You make rice and a side-dish. How can "side dish" be translated? Vi pretigas rizon kaj ???.

Normally, "po" is used to express frequency or rates. For example, "Mi manĝas po unu durianon ĉiutage" (or "Mi manĝas ĉiutage po unu durianon"). But then what if the "rate" is not very specific? For ...

Many books consist (on the inside, so apart from their cover) of three parts (cf. Wikipedia): The "front matter" a.k.a. "prelims", consisting of title page and if applicable, dedication(s), table of ...

In modern software development, it's customary and considered a best practice to keep track of open tasks and/or known bugs. This is usually done with specialized software: a bug tracker (a.k.a. bug ...

Suppose I want to say something like "all/each/some/many of something". Which preposition should be used to represent the "of" here? "Da", "el", or nothing? Secondly, what preceding preposition should ...

Verbs in subordinate clauses are "conjugated" relatively to the parent clause. "Li pensis (past) ke si ludas (present, relative to parent clause) bonan muzikon" But then what if there are nested ...

Bonan! Iu eniris malĝustan grupon de Telegram kaj komencis babili pri io ekstertema. Partoprenanto tuj klarigis ke la grupo temas pri io alia kaj la ĵus alveninto pardonpetis: Pardonu! kaj oni ...

I was trying to translate this sentence to Esperanto: Buying a present for him would be a nice gesture. My attempt (feel free to correct it): Âceti donacon al li estus agrabla gesto. But ...

Nowadays, when an amount tabelvorto ("kiom", "tiom", "iom", "ĉiom" or "neniom") is followed by the thing(s) or category to which the amount refers, there's always a "da" between them. (See also Why is ...

Is there an idiomatic way to translate “less and less”. I.e., I want to say that something happens less frequently than before and it is in continual decline. For example: People are using Facebook ...

If I've been asked to do something, or recognize something that ought to be done, but I'm neither obligated to do it, nor particularly eager to do it, but I am willing to help out doing it, how do I ...

What is the usual pattern for expressing bumping into something? From what I can tell, to walk into something is "promeni en ion", to fly into something is "flugi en ion", and so on. What about "to ...

Mi volas diri frazon kiel la jenan: Joan, perdite en siaj pensoj, forgesis ŝlosi la pordon. Tamen mi hezitas pri la vortoj perdite kaj siaj. Se mi bone komprenas, en ĉi tiu okazo oni povas uzi ...

The app, "Drops", translates "fruit press" as "fruktopresilo": https://languagedrops.com/word/en/english/esperanto/translate/fruit_press/ I can't find any other reference where "presilo" is applied ...

The British surreal sketch comedy TV series Monty Python's Flying Circus features the catchphrase And now for something completely different: … spoken by a continuity announcer / news anchorman ...

Which verb should is use to mean “to post” in the sense of posting to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc? The dictionary doesn’t really give a outright meaning that is close to what I’m trying to ...

Compound tenses are formed by combining the auxiliary verb "esti" with a participle (e.g. "mi estis leganta" -> "mi legantis"). Is there ever such a thing as an infinitive form of a compound (e.g. "...

I am a bit confused about which "as" to use in this sentence: "as old as you are" my attempt: "kiel maljuna lau estas vi" I'd also like to know when you use each translation for the word as.

What is the difference between "tial" and "do"? What difference in meaning do the following two sentences have, if any? For example, in translating "My question is thus whether it is valid or not"... ...

In Esperanto, there is no strict ordering in regards to adjectives and nouns. Saying "afero beleta" is just as valid as saying "beleta afero" in terms of the rules. However, the de facto convention ...

What is the difference between saying something like "ĝi estis turnita" vs "ĝi turniĝis"? My guess is that the former means that "it" has been turned by something, whereas the latter means that "it" ...

The image below is a section from A Complete Grammar of Esperanto (Ivy Kellerman, 1910), outlining the use of accusatives with verbs expressing motion. I've marked the relevant parts in red. To my ...

Suppose I would like to say "It does not take me long to do it well". Which of the following are correct, and what differences in nuances might each of them have? "Ne necesas ke mi longe fari ĝin ...