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Vi konsideras vin feliĉa aŭ Vi konsideras vin feliĉan

I am rather confused what case to use between the nominative and the accusative. In Russian you use the instrumental: ты считаешь себя счастлив-ым/ой. But since there's no instrumental in Esperanto, it's not possible. I'd appreciate it if you can explain me what to use and why.

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You use the nominative case here: Ĉu vi konsideras vin feliĉa?
Here feliĉa is a predicative, which is always expressed using the nominative case in Esperanto. There are more examples of this in PMEG: Perverba priskribo de la subjekto, Perverba priskribo de la objekto.

On the Esperanto Wikipedia page predikativo is also an example with the word konsideri: “oni ne povas konsideri neekzistantaj tiujn faktojn”.

See also this answer for more examples and clarification.

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When adjectives and nouns agree (i.e. when they have the same -j and -n endings) they usually go together. Consider the following examples.

  • Ĉu vi konsideras vin feliĉa - Do you consider yourself happy?
  • Ĉu vi konsideras vin feliĉan - Do you consider a happy you?

In the second example, feliĉan is part of the object.

Another way to look at is is

  • Ĉu vi konsideras vin (esti) feliĉa - Do you consider yourself (to be) happy?

Like other compliments of esti, feliĉa doesn't take an -n.

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  • Question: Couldn't both be correct? Feliĉa(n) could describe either the subject or the object, right?
    – Karlomanio
    Commented Aug 9, 2017 at 15:41
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    No. Mi konsideras la novan ideon stulta -vs- mi konsideras la novan ideon stultan. The second one means you're considering the new stupid idea.
    – Tomaso Alexander
    Commented Aug 9, 2017 at 16:59
  • Mi konsideras la novan ideon has clearly two separate entities- "Mi" and "ideon" . In the case of "Ĉu vi konsideras vin feliĉan?" the two entities are the same person- vi(n). One is only different from the other grammatically, not in "reality". It seems a bit like arguing that happy is modifying yourself INSTEAD OF you in the English sentence- "Do you consider yourself happy?" I would more tend to think that it is modifying you, but that is just my take on it.
    – Karlomanio
    Commented Aug 10, 2017 at 20:25
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    @Karlomanio The word ‘consider’ simply doesn't work that way. If you change the object to someone else, then clearly it described the object: “Do you consider him happy?” Here ‘happy’ obviously describes ‘him’ and not ‘you’. So, no, it cannot describe the subject. From the New Oxford dictionary: “regard (someone or something) as having a specified quality”. So the quality (in the example ‘happy’) always relates to the object, not the subject. In Esperanto konsideri works the same way in this context.
    – Joffysloffy
    Commented Aug 12, 2017 at 8:46
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    @Karlomanio - I meant you should find an example of someone saying this in Esperanto. It should be an example written by someone else (not you or me) in a text which is considered by a large number of Esperanto speakers to be good Esperanto. You won't find it because this is not how Esperanto works.
    – Tomaso Alexander
    Commented Aug 12, 2017 at 10:27

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