13
votes
Accepted
Why is Esperanto a noun, but other languages are adjectives?
There are other languages like this too, such as Latino, Tokipono etc.
The difference comes from the fact that the names of most languages are derived from root words which have a different meaning, ...
- 17.3k
12
votes
Is it correct to translate English noun adjuncts into adjectives?
Esperanto is an international language already in use, so the correct way is not to look only at the English form of the term, but to:
first check whether a suitable Esperanto term is already in use ...
- 3,663
10
votes
Accepted
How do I translate a name?
When transliterating names you always have two choices: Do you want to approximate the way the name sound as closely as possible, or do you want to closely match the way the name is written? You ...
- 4,663
9
votes
Why do adjective share their noun's ending?
As mentioned in Lyubomir’s answer, presumably the reason is just because that’s how it’s done in many other languages. However I’d add to that that the adjective doesn’t always match the noun, it ...
- 17.3k
7
votes
Why do adjective share their noun's ending?
Adjectives agree with nouns in case and number (that is, they share the -j and-n endings) because the rules of Esperanto require it. Not making your nouns and adjectives agree would mark a speaker as ...
- 21.3k
7
votes
Is it correct to translate English noun adjuncts into adjectives?
When I encountered this use of ”adjectivized” nouns I also found it a little bit strange. If you keep in mind that adding an -a to a noun root means ”related to...” I believe you will get the hang of ...
- 12.4k
6
votes
Accepted
Describing a collective noun
I would say here La grupo timas or La grupanoj timas and not even use an adjective. Note here that with -an- you still have a very similar effect without using membroj de.
- 1,456
6
votes
Accepted
Why do adjective share their noun's ending?
Kial ne?
Vere, kial ne?
Mi supozas, ke tiun decidon faris Zamenhof kaj mi ne scias ĉu li respondis al ĝi en iu de liaj lingvaj respondoj, sed se mi devus supozi, mi dirus, ke unu el la kialoj estus ...
- 6,078
6
votes
Converting verbs to nouns
It's called the gerund form. In Esperanto it's generally done with the "-ad-" affix (means continual action). Sometimes the affix isn't necessary and you can just use the noun form ("-o") of the root. ...
- 375
6
votes
Accepted
Converting verbs to nouns
Yes, there is, and the reason you found it to be hard find by keywords may be that this is actually a trivial task in Esperanto that goes beyond the specific case of verbs and nouns. Any word is ...
- 3,403
6
votes
Accepted
What are examples of Esperanto-given names?
Here are all the given names that appear in the Fundamento de Esperanto. I list them in the form in which they appear there, i.e. sometimes with contracted ending (e.g. Henriet' instead of Henrieto), ...
- 8,349
5
votes
Why do adjective share their noun's ending?
It eliminates ambiguity. Humor is often based on ambiguity, but is deadly in various other venues, especially travel.
To illustrate, there is a famous joke from the movie “Mary Poppins” which would ...
- 1,195
5
votes
What are examples of Esperanto-given names?
Any name can be 'esperantised', usually by adding an -o, and transliterating the sounds with the respective Eo approximations. Double letters seem to be dropped.
I'm just looking at Chris Gledhill's ...
- 3,194
5
votes
Accepted
Using the plural for uncountable nouns
Yes. The examples you give, neĝoj and akvoj, are quite common, and you will also encounter ĉieloj, sabloj, eternoj.
- 13.7k
4
votes
Why is Esperanto a noun, but other languages are adjectives?
This adjectiveness is taken from various national languages and is short for la angla/franca lingvo. And anglo is Englishman. English and French are adjectives too.
As "Esperanto" is a sufficient long ...
- 3,988
4
votes
Accepted
Are there any true homonyms in Esperanto?
Sendube estas multaj. Jen listo el Vikipedio.
eno (tio kio estas ene de io) - eno (japana monunuo)
kubo (matematika figuro) - Kubo (lando)
gama (rilate al gamo) - gama (greka litero)
ĉar' (= ĉaro) - ...
- 21.3k
4
votes
How do I translate a name?
I think you are free to use the original spelling name, use a transliteration as commented by Joffysloffy or use the most common variant in Esperanto. You can find variants of some names on Wikipedia.
...
- 976
4
votes
Why do adjective share their noun's ending?
The others mentioned legacy from other languages that Zamenhof spoke. I'd like to point out and clarify, that just like the other elements of the language, this one is useful. It makes it possible to ...
- 12.4k
4
votes
Why do adjective share their noun's ending?
This is the general way inflecting languages work: Inflection is there to create coherence and redundancy, not only a meaningless decoration. So even in the very mildly inflecting language Esperanto, ...
- 2,011
3
votes
Accepted
In which context can I use "gea"?
Although you could use it to describe a single person having mixed gender, I think that would be a pretty unusual usage and it would be more common to describe a mixed group of people or a location ...
- 17.3k
3
votes
Kiel oni mallongigas tempajn unuojn?
Mi scias ke almenaj kelkaj el tiuj ja havas kutimajn mallongigojn.
Oni povis indiki la aĝon de infano tiel:
Mi havas tri infanojn, Adamo (5j), Karlo (4j), kaj Gretil (3j).
Jaro (j.) kaj jarcento (...
- 21.3k
2
votes
Accepted
Ĉu Esperanto havas substantivojn, kiuj povas nur esti pluralaj?
There are quite a few words that are always or nearly always plural in Esperanto. Not only are there nouns that are always plural, but there are adjectives that are always plural.
izomorfaj
Marŝalaj
...
- 21.3k
2
votes
Accepted
Should proper nouns be transcribed with Esperanto letters or not?
The tradition within UEA is to transscribe the names of towns where UKs are held. Also the names of famous esperantists are usually transcribed or they have taken an Esperanto name.
I would say that ...
- 4,129
2
votes
Are there any true homonyms in Esperanto?
There are a few:
Kubo and kubo the country Cuba and a cube respectively;
golfo the sport and a gulf;
vato cotton and the unit watt;
piĉo vulgar word for female genitals or pitch.
There are probably ...
- 4,663
2
votes
Describing a collective noun
I think you're falling victim to L1 interference here. While it is possible in English to use both singular and plural with certain nouns (team, group, but also data), this is not necessarily the same ...
- 3,194
1
vote
What is ”size” in Esperanto?
As you clarified the system yourself, the correct pair is
grando - size / grandeco - bigness
If you don't want to express that your shirt is big, but that it has the right size, your sentence should ...
- 5,550
1
vote
What is ”size” in Esperanto?
According to several non-English translations in ReVo grando means both magnitude and size.
Here are some examples from the Spanish-Esperanto Dictionary by F. de Diego:
Kiun grandon havas la ŝuoj? ...
- 3,449
1
vote
Kiel oni mallongigas tempajn unuojn?
PIV donas nur s por ”sekundo” kaj min por ”minuto”. Do eble ni inventu la ceterajn?
Jen ideo: s, min, h, sem, mon, j.
Aŭ eĉ: s, min, hr, sem, mon, jr.
- 1,998
1
vote
Why do adjective share their noun's ending?
This is called redundancy, which according to linguists, is used to prevent miscommunication. There are some people that complain that Esperanto doesn't have enough redundancy.
- 4,672
1
vote
Why do adjective share their noun's ending?
Tio okazas ankaux en la franca kaj hispana lingvoj.
Mi ne tajpis "la francaj kaj hispanaj lingvoj", pro tio ke mi skribis pri nur unu franca kaj unu hispana. Do tio ne cxiam okazas. Kaj gxuste cxi ...
- 111
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