Hello! And welcome to my Esperanto Class! I’m Carlos
Saluton! Kaj Bonvenon al mia Esperanta Klaso! Mi estas Carlos
This is a course for begineers, who doesn't know a word in this International Language, and who wants to know it.
Let's start.... What is Esperanto?
Esperanto is a language thought up to facilitate the comunication between different cultures, made by a Polish Doctor named Ludwig Zamenhof, in 1887. He lived in a town named Bialystok, in which a lot of inmigrants lived. So, someone who wanted to talk with the whole town had to master German, Yiddish, Polish, English, French, Russian, and more. So, he began to create a language based on romanic, germanic and baltic languages, named ESPERANTO (Who's got Hope).
A famous linguist described Esperanto as :"a language who possess italian's phonetic beauty, English's succint grammar, Spanish's Richness, German's formative structure and French's Expresivity.
In fact, is a suitable language for comunication.
Now, let's write some things in this beautiful language :
"Simpla, fleksebla, belsona, vere internacia en siaj elementoj la lingvo esperanto prezentas al la mondo civilizita, la sole veran solvon de lingvo internacia".(Simple, flexible, of beautiful sound, really international in their elements, Esperanto language presents to the civilized world, the unique true solution of an international language).
Well, this was the introduction, now, let's learn!
I'm going to explain now my teaching's method :
1.- Read the lesson completely.
2.- Read the excersises I'll give.
3.- Do the excersises and send them as a forum message.
Thus, I'll explain all your mistakes. Sorry if my English isn't very well.
**************** Lesson one - Leciono unu *********************
I. The pronunciation / La prononco
In Esperanto, each letter has its own sound and pronunciation ALWAYS.
The alphabet consists of 28 letters (5 vowels and 23 consonants).
ABCĈDEFGĜHĤIJĴKLMNOPRSŜTUŬVZ
To spell the consonants, you must pronounce each sound with an "o" sound.
Here is the pronunciation of each vowel :
A : like u in custody.
E : like e in they
I : like i in machine.
O : like o in control.
U : like u in rule.
Ŭ : It's like a mix of U and O. In Spanish, the dipthong Eu in Europa.
J and Ŭ works as dipthongs :
PruJno / Frost = pruJ-no
AŬgusto /August = AŬ-gusto
Now, the consonants :
C : like TS in Pittsburg, the german Z.
Ĉ : like Ch in Championship.
D : like TH in That.
G : always as G in Go.
Ĝ : like G in George, General. Catalan Tg in Viatge.
Ĥ : it's a strong pronunciation, like in the beginning of the throat. Spanish j in Alejandro and jota.
J : pronounced as a y.
Ĵ : like s in usual.
R : Spanish R in murmurar, soft R. It's not English R.
Ŝ : Sh in shower
T : T in tea, even though it is softer.
The other ones have the same pronunciation as English.
Wow! A long explanation, but I hope you could understand it!
II. Personal Pronouns / Personalaj Pronomoj
Singular
Mi = I
Vi = You
Li = He
Ŝi = She
Ĝi = It
Plural
Ni = We
Vi = You
Ili = They (plural for he, she and it)
Specials
Oni = One, they, people (Indefinite personal pronoun, meaning “people, some people, somebody unknown”, used when you don’t want to or cannot say who was involved.
Si = Self (Third person reflexive pronoun (both singular and plural). Refers back to the
SUBJECT of the sentence. SI cannot be the subject.
III. The Verbs / La Verboj
The verbs end in –i . The past tense ends in –is , The present tense in –as, and the future tense in –os . This is ALWAYS.
Now, two important verbs : povi kaj esti (can and to be)
Mi estas / Mi povas = I am / I can
Li estos / Li povos = He will / He will be able to
Ni estis / Ni povis = We were / We could
Oni estas / Oni povas = They, someone is/are / can
Can you understand it? If you can’t, just write me a forum message.
There are two tenses I forgot :
Imperative –u , and subjuntive –us.
ManĜu ! = Eat!
Mi estus instruisto = I’d be teacher.
IV. Adjetives / Adjektivoj
The adjetives ALWAYS end in –a.
Bela = Beautiful
Varma = Hot
Sana = Healthy
And here’s the order :
Mia patrino estas tre bela = My mom’s very beautiful
And it’s first than the subject in these case :
The green elephant.
La verda elefanto.
Understood??
Nouns end in –o : AŬto , Zoo , Filo , Biskvito
V. Plural form
The plural is very easy, it ends with a –j .
The car / La aŬto = The car / La aŬtoj
The modern car / La moderna aŬto = The modern cars / La modernaj aŬtoj.
VI. The Possesive Pronouns / La posesivoj pronomoj.
Just adding an –a in the personal pronoun. If it’s a plural one, just add a –j.
Mia = My, mine Mia(j) trajno(j) / My train(s)
Via = Your, yours Via(j) trajno(j) / Your train(s)
Lia = His
Þia = Her, hers AND THE SAME FOR THE REST
Ĝia = Its
Nia = Our, ours
Via = your, yours
Ilia = Their, theirs.
VII . The Articles / La artikoloj
Esperanto hasn’t an indefinite article, and there’s only the article La, which is equivalent to The.
La pano = The bread
Pano = a bread
Panoj = breads
Sentences :
My friends are your friends.
Mia amikoj estas viaj amikoj.
The bread is hot.
La pano estas varma.
A car is fast.
AŬto estas rapida.
Vocabulary / Vortaro : The Family – La Familio
Father/Mather : Patro/Patrino
Grandfather/Grandmother : Avo/Avino
Brother/Sister : Frato/Fratino
Son/Daughter : Filo/Filino
Uncle/Aunt : Onkelo/Onkelino
Brother-in-law/Sister-in-law : Bofrato/Bofratino
Father-in-law/Mother-in-law : Bopatro/Bopatrino
Cousin : Kuzo (male) /Kuzino (female)
Nephew/Niece : Nevo/Nevino
As you relized, the female form ends in –ino and male in –o. But this will be explained in the next lesson if you didn’t understand.
Things / Aferoj
Flower : Floro
Sun : Suno
Chocolate : Ĉokolado
Water : Akvo
Excercises / Ekzercoj
Translate this sentences in ESPERANTO : (Send me your answers in a forum message)
a)The water is hot
b)She is my mother-in-law
c)The train is fast
d) My nieces are your friends
e) The Class is good
f) Someone is your friend
Bye! C’ ya in the next class
Strigo/Carlos.
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