Questions tagged [prepositions]
For questions concerning the usage of prepositions in Esperanto.
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How do you say that something is "on a website"? Which preposition to use?
For saying that something is on a website, I have seen at least four different prepositions:
La demando estas je Stack Exchange
La afiŝo estas en Reddit
La pepaĵo estas ĉe Twitter
Ĝi estas ...
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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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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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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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What is the difference between "per", "por", "pri" and "pro"?
What is the difference between per, por, pri, and pro?
All these words look and feel sort of similar to me. What are the possible uses for each of them? How do I decide which to use?
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"Dankon POR via respondo" or "Dankon PRO via respondo"?
Both can be translated to "Thanks for your answer". Which one is correct, and if both are, when?
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The use of the preposition "po"
I still don't get the meaning of the preposition po
Could you give me some examples where it is used ?
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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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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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Ĉu oni estas "en" aŭ "sur" foto?
Mi volus diri "sur foto" sed aliulo pensus ke tio signifus ke vi fizike staras sur printita foto. Tiu do dirus "en la foto" por priskribi la fotitojn. Ĉu estas regulo en Esperanto aŭ ĉu oni simple ...
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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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3
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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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"Krom" can mean "except from" or "in addition to". How can one replace "Krom" in order to remove ambiguity?
Sometimes, it is not easy to identify the correct meaning of krom:
Krom Petro, la tuta familio vojaĝis. Ĉu Petro vojaĝis? Did Petro travel?
So it is better to know some alternatives to krom, one for ...
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4
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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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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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What's the meaning of "ol"?
I seem to get ol mixed up with al a lot. There's probably an awesome explanation out there. I think I try to think of it as than, but it doesn't work exactly right in contexts like antaux ol.
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5
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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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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 ...
anon
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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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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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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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Kiom ofta estas la uzo de "en" kun temposubstantivoj?
Mi pli ofte vidis tempoesprimojn en adverba formo aŭ enhavantajn dum ol enhavantajn en. Ekzemple ĉirkaŭ la radikoj tag, nokt, semajn, semajnfin, monat, jar.
De lernu.net:
En la tago ni vidas la ...
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Is it "Mi lernas kun Duolingo" or "Mi lernas per Duolingo"?
The prepositions kun and per can both be translated in English with with.
In this case, which one should I use?
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Is "dum" missing in the sentence "Mi atendis pli ol horo"?
One can say "Mi atendis horon", where horo has the accusative mark as an indication of a time-length. However, we usually don't use the accusative after ol. Can we directly transform the sentence into ...
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How do I say "to vote for someone"/"voĉdoni por iu" without using the preposition "por", if the vote is not in favour of this person?
The standard way to say "to vote for someone" is "voĉdoni por iu / voĉdoni iun". But if the vote is against that person, for exemple for banning this person from a community, the use of "por" can lead ...
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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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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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Can "ĉi" be used as a postposition?
One can say "ĉi tiel", or "tiel ĉi".
It's also common to use "ĉi" on its own, mentioned in this PMEG page and also on the PIV entry for "ĉi". An example of this appearing on both pages is "ĉi ne ...
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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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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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Objective use of "de"
Can "de" be used in the same way as an objective use of "of" - that is, in an example, "the fear of death," where "fear" is the noun form of a verb that would normally act upon "death." Would we ...
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Is there a difference between "Mi havas tekston por korekti" and "Mi havas tekston por esti korekt(a/i)ta"?
I have a text to correct seems to be often translated into Mi havas tekston por korekti by English Esperanto speakers. I find the translation weird and confusing since a correction is not a goal of ...
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1
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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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What is the difference between temporal "en" and "dum"?
It seems that I slept during the holiday can be translated into two ways:
Mi dormis en la festotago.
Mi dormis dum la festotago.
Do they both mean the same?
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How do I translate "The state of California"?
If I want to translate a phrase like the state of California, how would I translate it? It feels like a literal translation of it with de would be impractical.
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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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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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<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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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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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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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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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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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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"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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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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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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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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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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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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