Does every question in Esperanto have to be formed with ĉu or one of the ki- words (kie, kio, kiam,... etc) ?
The answer is no. This is discussed in PMEG, section 22.3, Demandoj sen demandovorto.
They normally take one of two forms:
- Sentence fragments, usually 2-3 words: Via nomo? Efektive? Sed la teo?
- Declarative statements with doubtful nuance: Do vi ne deziras teon? Kaj pro tio vi perdis la bileton?
In these situations the question-word is being omitted for the sake of conversational neatness: they could be rephrased as Kio estas via nomo? Ĉu efektive? Sed kiel estu la teo traktata? etc.
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1How about the following? Would this be incorrect: "Ŝatas lerni? Volas lerni alian lingvon?" I saw someone post something similar to this on Facebook a while back. It seems the subject "You" is implied. – Chris McDowell Oct 5 '16 at 17:21
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1It is permissible if the intended subject is really obvious. However, it cannot be done all the time, as the absence of a subject can change the meaning of the sentence: for example, Ŝi estas infano means "She is a child" but Estas infano means "There's a child." – Andrew Woods Oct 5 '16 at 17:44
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I understand. The person who posted that way had mentioned elsewhere that he was fluent in Esperanto, so I thought maybe he knew something I didn't. – Chris McDowell Oct 5 '16 at 17:47
