Questions tagged [infinitive]
The infinitive tag has no usage guidance.
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Infinitive form of compound tenses?
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. "...
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Is the Esperanto infinitive ambiguous?
Mi trovis vin manĝi
The most likely way to interpret this is I found you eating, meaning that it is you whom I found, it is you who was eating, and you were eating when I found you. Here, manĝi is a "...
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How free is word order in a sentence with infinitives
Infinitives do not have case markers. "Mi ŝatas lerni" is the typical order, and so is "egzameni asisti la detektivon".
But could "lerni ŝatas mi" work, noting that "mi" is not in accusative and is ...
- 443
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How do you translate a row of infinitive words in Esperanto?
The most obvious answer would be to just make a row of infinitive Esperanto words, but I wonder if you can not introduce more explicit relations.
Here is an example from Consecutive infinitives on ...
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Infinitive after komenci
How would you say He started to speak?
Would that be Li komencis paroli?
In other languagues there is normally a particle next to the infinitive form: he started to speak (English); comenzó a hablar ...
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Ĉu eblas subjekto kun infinitivo?
En alia demando, unu uzanto skribis la jenan frazon:
Mi pensas, ke gravas ekzisti komunumon kie oni nur parolas esperante
Mi kredas ke tio ne estas gramatike ĝusta, ĉar ekzisti ne povas havi ...
- 17.2k
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Why doesn't the infinitive take the -n suffix?
(This question springs from this one.)
In Esperanto, the -n suffix ending is usually used to mark the accusative.
Ŝi ŝatas fiŝojn.
Ŝi ŝatas la Italan.
Ŝi ŝatas ilin.
Ŝi ŝatas manĝi.
Why isn’t it Ŝi ...
- 1,988
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Can infinitives be subjects?
Infinitives are often used as direct objects:
Mi ŝatas danci. ( ≈ Mi ŝatas dancadon.)
I wonder if an infinitive could be used as a subject, too?
Would it be correct to say:
Danci plaĉas al mi.
...
- 1,988
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"Sen rigardi": Which preposition+infinitive combos are possible?
I often encounter prepositional phrases such as sen rigardi:
Mi forlasis ŝin sen rigardi dorsen. (From a story by J. Camacho.)
Are other preposition+infinitive combinations possible? For example: ...
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I-verbo kun relativa «kiu»
Ĉu eblas havi i-verbon en la subfrazo de relativa «kiu»? Ekzemple, ĉu la jena frazo estas gramatike ĝusta?
Mi volas trovi iun kun kiu iri al la kinejo.
Mi scias ke simila vortumo funkcius en la ...
- 17.2k
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3
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Can infinitives be used back-to-back in Esperanto?
For example, I just read an English sentence similar to:
What you need to know to be able to grow potatoes...
If I, at my early stage, try to translate this into Esperanto, I end up with three ...
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When should "por" be used before an infinitive (i-verbo)?
There are some cases where I'm not sure if I'm supposed to say the word por before an infinitive. What are the rules for this?
Here is an example of a situation where I'm not exactly sure what to do:
...
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