What is "upside down" and "inside out" in Esperanto?

Question

How can I say "upside down" and "inside out"?

I find it difficult to translate them – I don't know which grammar constriction I should use. Most often the expressions describes a state, right? Should I then use an adjective-ending?

It's upside down - Gxi estas supraflanksuba

That looks odd, but I can not think of a better adjective.

Maybe "Gxi havas la supron suben" is a better way to think of it.

Answer 1

”upside down” could be translated as renversita. PIV gives some examples, such as: li renversis la vinbotelon, por ĝui ĝis la lasta guto ”he turned the wine bottle upside-down in order to enjoy even the last drop”.

I’m not sure about ”inside out”, though. I guess it could be reversita – PIV mentions ”reversi” in the context of re-sewing clothes with the inside out.

BTW, it would be fun to see Diana Ross’ song ”Upside down” in Esperanto… :-)

Answer 2

I have trouble with this too, not because of confusion over what part of speech to use, but because Esperanto seems to have a few words with similar meanings - and it seems to divide the semantic space differently from how English does.

• Inversa means to be in the opposite position or direction.
• Renversita means turned upside-down or knocked over.
• La fundon supren is one suggestion from Wells for upside down. I've also said kapon malsupren. Benson has kun la kapo malsupra.

Similarly

• Reversi means to turn a garment inside out and then sew it to make it look like it was meant to be that way.
• Interno-ekstere or interno-ekstera is Benson's suggestion for inside out.