Questions tagged [prepositions]
For questions concerning the usage of prepositions in Esperanto.
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Terms for orientation?
I can't find ANY info on this. Everything is about cardinal directions, and basic prepositions.
What I'm looking for is how to express orientation towards something. Some of the English phrases that ...
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Confusions about "kiel"
I noticed that kiel in Esperanto can mean both "as" and "like", so there may be confusions about the meanings of the word.
Kiel la administranto de la korporacio, mi pensas, ke li ...
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Kiel oni analizas "antaŭ ol", "post kiam" k.s.?
En mia lasta demando, mi lernis, ke teorie nur substantivo povas aperi post prepozicio. Sed tiam, kiel oni klarigas esprimon "antaŭ ol", "post kiam" k.s.? (En la vortaro, kiun mi ...
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Kial oni evitas "prepozicio + infinitivo aŭ KE"
Mi aŭdis, ke la esprimoj "prepozicio + infinitivo" kaj "prepozicio + ke" ne estas rekomendindaj ekskluzive de kelkaj esceptoj (por, sen, krom kaj anstataŭ). Ĉu oni evitas tiajn ...
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"Kiaj" or "kiuj novaĵoj ĉe vi"?
Which one is correct, or better, or more often used to simply ask "what's new with you" "what's up"? In my Esperanto textbook I can see "kiaj novaĵoj ĉe vi", but isn't &...
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How to mark accusative for correlatives of quantity? Kiel marki akuzativon ĉe "...iom"-aj tabelvortoj?
If I'm not mistaken, the two distinct English questions
(a) How many workers need that much work?
and
(b) How many workers does that much work need?
would in Esperanto both be rendered as
Kiom da ...
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Kial "el de" kaj ne "el" nur?
La transdono el de unu generacio al la sekva estas la renoviga
procezo de la lingvo... (Lindstedt, J. Lingvo - rimedo aŭ resurso?, p52)
Kial la aŭtoro ne simple skribis: "La transdono el unu ...
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How to translate the expression "in which"?
By in which I mean the saying to connect two sentences
I destroyed the house in which I was born
How should it be translated?
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Should accusative be used after "forpreni <ion> el …"?
What is the best translation for the following English sentence?
"Those sly bad men took the money out of the pockets of the courageous young man."
I offer this suggestion but would like to ...
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Can pro be followed by an infinitive verb?
For example:
Dankon pro helpi min
I know that it is grammatically incorrect to say “Dankon pro vi helpis min”, because a complete fraze cannot follow a preposition. You would need to say “Dankon pro ...
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accusative after po
"We each ate two cakes." = Ni manghis po du kukojn.
OR Ni manghis po du kukoj. ?
(Zamenhof: "Inter la esprimoj 'doni po 2 pecojn' kaj 'doni po 2 pecoj' estas ankoraŭ malfacile diri, kiu ...
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Difference between morpheme and prefix for prepositions
I was looking the pages of the prepositions in the PIV, like el, tra or kun, and a question came to my mind. How the difference is made between morphemes and prefixes? My hypothesis is that if there ...
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Can a prepositional phrase act as the direct object?
I'm new to Esperanto and starting to use transitive verbs. The book I'm using, A Complete Grammar of Esperanto (Ivy Kellerman, 1910), states that "a transitive verb expresses an act of the subject ...
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Omission of prepositions with movement verbs
The image below is a section from A Complete Grammar of Esperanto (Ivy Kellerman, 1910), outlining the use of accusatives with verbs expressing motion. I've marked the relevant parts in red.
To my ...
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Vortordo - kvantadverbo ne rekte apud «da»
Ĉiuj komprenus tiun frazon.
Mi havas multe da X.
Sed ĉu ankaŭ tiu havus sencon?
Mi multe havas da X.
Kaj ĉu ankaŭ ambaŭ el tiuj ĝustas?
Ĉu da X? Mi havas multe.
Ĉu da X? Mi multe havas.
La ...
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«Kuiri ĝis mola» kaj «bati ĝis morta»?
Ĉu oni povas traduki tiujn anglajn frazojn:
Cook until soft.
Hit until dead.
Kiel:
Kuiri ĝis mola.
Bati ĝis morta.
La PoMEGo
tian uzon ne mencias, sed eble ĝustas tamen?
(Mi komprenas, ke oni ...
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Kiel esprimi moviĝon de unu flanko de objekto, kiu troviĝas super vi, al la alia flanko?
Mi serĉas esprimon por la jena tipo de transa moviĝo.
Estas du aŭtovojoj: unu pasas per ponto super la alia. Vi veturas sur la malpli alta vojo. Kiam vi preterpasas la ponton, vi unue iras sub ĝin kaj ...
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Dua objekto rekta post «kompare al» kaj simile
Post vortoj, kiel «anstataŭ» kaj «ol», substantivo povas esti akuzativigita se ĝi estas dua/alia objekto rekta (mi ne konas la nomon realan). Ekzemple...
Mi volas tiun anstataŭ tiun!
Mi volus tiun ...
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Kial ne ekzistas "post ol <verbo>"?
Jen estas paĝo de PMEG. Ĉe la parto pri "aliaj rolvortetoj", estas dirite, ke oni povas diri "antaŭ ol <i-verbo>", sed ial ne "post ol <i-verbo>". Speciale ...
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<prepozicio>e de io
Jen kelke da frazoj sufiĉe simplaj.
Li venas al la butiko.
La monado estis ĵetita el la fenestro kaj falis sur la grundon.
La unua umo staras post la dua umo.
Antaŭ ri ruliĝas monado tre granda.
Mi ...
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How to translate "Centuries before World War I, soldiers often used swords and scabbards." grammatically correctly?
Duolingo translates
Centuries ago, soldiers often used swords and scabbards.
as
Antaŭ jarcentoj, soldatoj ofte uzis glavojn kaj glavingojn.
Inspired by the question, whether "Jarcentoj antaŭ, ...
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Mood of subordinate clause after "sen"/"per"
Jen the following example sentences.
Mi povas venki la <kion ajn>, sen tio, ke vi min {helpas,helpus,helpu}!
Mi povas venki la <kion ajn>, per[e de] tio, ke vi min {helpas,helpus,helpu}!
...
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"Too big for X to eat"
I once translated the sentence
Is a duck too big for a monad to eat?
to
Ĉu anaso estas tro granda por monado manĝi?
According to an expert friend, it seems that this is incorrect. My next ...
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When multiple objects could be the direct one, may I choose none and use prepositions for all?
With some transitive Esperanto verbs, one can choose between two or more object roles to take the position of the direct object (accusative object). (A Q&A of the Konsultejo mentions demandi and ...
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«antaŭ tio, ke» anstataŭ «antaŭ ol»
Is it grammatically valid to say «antaŭ tio, ke» in place of «antaŭ ol»? For example, instead of this.
La monado ŝtelis mian kukon antaŭ ol mi povis rimarki [tion].
Could one say this instead, ...
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Why accusative in duration before "antaŭ"?
Why does "monatojn" carry the accusative marker "-n" in the following sentence?
Ĉiu diskutota demando estas ja publikigita tri monatojn antaŭ la kongreso.
(Seen in PMEG, which in turn attributes ...
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"I have nothing about which to think"
If sentences like
I have something to eat.
are translated as
Mi havas ion por manĝi.
as it would be in French, then what about sentences like
I have something about which to think.
I have ...
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How do I say "until" in Esperanto?
The difference that I am looking for is one that I use in German like this: bis einschließlich Freitag — "until, including, Friday".
How is this handled in Esperanto? Until in English can be a bit ...
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"da", "el", or nothing?
Suppose I want to say something like "all/each/some/many of something". Which preposition should be used to represent the "of" here? "Da", "el", or nothing? Secondly, what preceding preposition should ...
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Expressing vague rates
Normally, "po" is used to express frequency or rates. For example, "Mi manĝas po unu durianon ĉiutage" (or "Mi manĝas ĉiutage po unu durianon"). But then what if the "rate" is not very specific? For ...
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Why did "kiom", "tiom", "iom" etc. without "da" fall out of fashion?
Nowadays, when an amount tabelvorto ("kiom", "tiom", "iom", "ĉiom" or "neniom") is followed by the thing(s) or category to which the amount refers, there's always a "da" between them. (See also Why is ...
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To bump into something
What is the usual pattern for expressing bumping into something? From what I can tell, to walk into something is "promeni en ion", to fly into something is "flugi en ion", and so on. What about "to ...
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How do you say "as old as you are"? How to know when to use the correct as?
I am a bit confused about which "as" to use in this sentence:
"as old as you are"
my attempt: "kiel maljuna lau estas vi"
I'd also like to know when you use each translation for the word as.
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Can you say "sur la reto" for something you found in the Internet?
Is Mi trovis ion sur la reto a valid way to say that you found something in the Internet? Should prepositions such as en and per be prefered?
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traduko: Die Mutter wäscht dem Kind die Haare
Is one of the two following sentences good Esperanto?
La patrino lavas al la infano la harojn.
La patrino lavas la harojn al la infano.
Note that I am not keen on the word order here, but my main ...
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What is the difference between "ĝis" and "al?"
I understand that ĝis means "up to", or "as far as", and al means "to", but when must one change between the two? Take Duolingo's example:
Mi vojaĝas tra Germanio ĝis Pollando.
Why would one use ...
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Kien meti prepozicion en frazo kun "unu la alia"?
Kie tauĝas la prepozicio kiam "unu la alia" estas nerekta objekto de frazo?
Ekzemple, kiu el ĉi tiuj frazoj estas ĝusta?
Ili sendis donacojn unu al la alia.
Ili sendis donacojn al unu la alia.
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what are the appropriate date and time prepositions
In English you can meet
at a time (We will meet at 4pm.)
on a date (We will meet on the 4th.)
or be on time.
Esperanto doesn't seem to have quite the same rules.
Is it en a date and je a time? What ...
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Is there a preposition for "composed of"?
I'm writing a story where there's a federation of minor planets that uses Esperanto as its official language. I'm trying to call them something like "the federation of minor planets", because I'm not ...
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How many prepositions in a row are possible in Esperanto?
Sometimes I see two prepositions together in Esperanto (something I don’t know from other languages). A couple of examples taken from PMEG:
Kien ajn la luno povis lumi tra inter la arboj, li vidis ...
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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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What is "upside down" and "inside out" in Esperanto?
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? ...
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Playing with => ludi je?
This came up on Duolingo a while back and I'd like to get the community's consensus.
The phrase they give for We are playing cards is Ni ludas je kartoj. So would je be appropriate when you are ...
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Are prepositions with "ke" valid? ("pri ke", "pro ke", "por ke", ...)
To introduce a causal secondary sentence, I often saw pro tio, ke and ĉar.
Recently, I saw pro ke, without any tio to which I think ke is supposed to refer to.
Mi ne povas dormi pro ke tro ...
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Are there prepositions that cannot be replaced by "je"?
I have often heard that you can use je when doubting which preposition to use. Is this always the case?
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Why is "da" used in this question?
The following sentence comes from Duolingo:
Kiom da gekuzoj vi havas?
translates to:
How many cousins do you have?
da means of. Why is it used in this question? Is the question grammatically ...
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Ĉu estas ĝuste diri «ĝis» por signifi «iam antaŭ»?
Mi ofte aŭdas «ĝis» por signifi ke io okazos antaŭ iu specifa dato. Ekzemple, imagu la jenan situacion:
Ĉefo: Ĉu vi finis la raporton?
Dungito: Ne, sed mi donos ĝin al vi ĝis vendredo.
En tiu okazo «...
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What is the difference between "al la domo" and "en la domon"?
Both express an idea of movement (the first one with the preposition al, and the second with the -n for direction.) Do they mean the same thing, and is it always the case?
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Do you know an eloquent presentation of the differences between the miscellaneous locative prepositions?
To my mind, some locative prepositions make distinctions that are rather subtle, and I'm not sure I understand them well. So I'm looking for concrete examples where an explanation of the difference in ...
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Can I in principle replace any preposition by -n?
I wanted to ask for clarification in this matter for a long time. I think I read somewhere that any preposition can be replaced by -n, but I can't find that source again. What I can find, however, is
...
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