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I say "okay" quite often, both when speaking English and my native language, which is Swedish. Here are some examples of how I use it:

To describe something, replacing words like fine, good enough, so-so or alright:

"It was... okay."

To show that one agrees, understands or accepts:

"OK"

To console someone when they feel guilty or sad:

"It's okay"

What can I say in Esperanto?

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    There’s also the meaning of “I heard you.” Confusion of this meaning with that of “To show that one agrees, understands or accepts” was the immediate cause of the worst accident in aviation history, at Tenerife, Canary Islands, in March of 1977. The captain said, “We’re ready for takeoff.” and the tower answered “OK”, meaning, “I heard you.”, but the captain took it to mean “I agree.”, and the captain began to take off, and ran into an oncoming plane taxiing back. 583 people died. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster
    – Mike Jones
    Commented Dec 7, 2016 at 4:18

8 Answers 8

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"OK" is a rather nebulous English word with no one-to-one Esperanto equivalent, so you'll have to translate it on a case-by-case basis. This is not an exhaustive list, but it should work to answer the question you're asking.

For the first one:

Ĝi estis... sufiĉe bona.

It was... good enough.

On the second, the examples you provided are all different meanings:

Agreed:

Konsentite!

[roughly] Agreed!

Understood:

Mi komprenas.

I understand.

Accepted:

Mi akceptas tion.

I accept that.

For your third one, I'm not exactly sure how to translate this (in my opinion, it can't be) but here's my best translation:

Vi bonfartos.

You'll do well.

There are many more definitions of OK than this, and all depend on context, so you really just need to use your best judgement.

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    Probably also worth pointing out that "OK" has been borrowed by a lot of languages, but not all English meanings have been borrowed along with it.
    – Tomaso Alexander
    Commented Oct 4, 2016 at 13:27
  • Far too complex.
    – Arne Evertsson
    Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 10:04
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As a filler word, when someone (or you) has just finished saying something, you can use this in the sense "I heard correctly":

Bone.

It is much easier to place than "mi komprenas" and it gives the impression you are still listening. Sometimes you might want to avoid "bone" if what the person is telling you is not good or not a good action. At that moment "okej" (as "I heard correctly") can be useful and it is internationally understood.

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17

Also in the sense of "alright":

... is okay = ... estas en ordo

Which has parallels in other languages:

  • [bg] ... наред (Всичко е ~)
  • [fr] ... en ordre
  • [nl] ... in orde
  • [pl] ... w porządku
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    На ред should actually be written as one word: наред. Another similar phrase is в ред, that is written as two words. But наред is more common. However, both don't make much sense alone You'll most likely hear: Всичко е наред. :)
    – Lyubomir Vasilev
    Commented Oct 4, 2016 at 6:54
  • [fr] ... en ordre
    – aloisdg
    Commented Sep 24, 2018 at 14:44
  • [pl] ... w porządku
    – Miztli
    Commented Apr 26, 2019 at 9:18
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I simply say, "Okej." It is the Esperant-ized version of "okay" and it gets the point across.

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    In PMEG this appears as “o kej” (with a space) because otherwise it would have to have the stress on the first syllable. I write “okej” quite a lot but I always feel guilty about it because it’s a bit lazy. It probably would be better to use one of the alternatives suggested in the other answers.
    – Neil Roberts
    Commented Oct 5, 2016 at 8:08
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    You can not use it for the all the usages the English word has. It is an error to translate "I am okay" with "Mi estas okej".
    – Vanege
    Commented Oct 5, 2016 at 17:42
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    As an interjection, I use 'okej' without feeling guilty, but as @Vanege points out, it does not work for all of the elaborate cases in the popular answer above.
    – sshine
    Commented Dec 9, 2016 at 3:10
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I use enordas in the most cases, which is an equivalent but shorter variant of the answer from @Joop-Eggen

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I think “OK” is a widely used “word” across many languages, therefore I believe it is perfectly ok to use it in an esperanto conversation.

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    Multaj dirus ke oni kokodrilas kiam oni diras "Ok" kiel en la angla...
    – Karlomanio
    Commented May 8, 2019 at 20:37
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For the 'quality' use of 'OK', I've use the diminutive form of bona, 'boneta', It's a 'little good', just ok, alright, (not great) - boneta. It's simple, and the meaning is usually quite clear in context. Just as 'bonega' means better than good, i.e. great!

For the sympathetic 'It will be OK' form: 'OK' here is a stand-in for 'well' or 'good', so bone or bona would be simplest here 'Gxi estos bone..'

For the acknowledgement 'OK' - just about any interjection would do, as audio acknowledgement is all it is for - My kids have simply grunted or sighed at me after receiving a directive (negative 'OK's' there) So for Esperanto, Ho, Jes, Ja, Je, Ne, whatever you think is appropriate

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Mi dirus pli volonte jesume aŭ tutjese.

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    La demandinto demandas pri tri sencoj de la vortoj kaj ĉi tiu respondo ne klarigas al kiu senco tiuj vortoj korespondas. La vorton «jesume» mi neniam aŭdis, eble estus bone havi referencon por tio. «tutjese» ŝajnas al mi pli forta ol «jes». Mi kredas ke «OK» estas malpli certa versio de «yes», do mi ne vidas kiel tiu vorto rilatas.
    – Neil Roberts
    Commented Oct 14, 2018 at 15:27

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