Esperanto lexicon
Pronunciation
In Esperanto, individual letters are pronounced according to the list below. Each letter is pronounced (there are no silent letters), and the emphasis is always placed on the second to last syllable in a word.
- a - as in “ah”
- b - as in “boy”
- c - as ts in “cats”
- cx - as ch in “chew”
- d - as in “dog”
- e - as in “there”
- f - as in “foot”
- g - g in “go”
- gx - as in “gem”
- h - as in “hat”
- hx - as ch in “Bach”
- i - as in “machine”
- j - as y in “yes”
- jx - as s in “measure”
- k - as in “king”
- l - as in “like”
- m - as in “mat”
- n - as in “now”
- o - as in “old”
- oj - oy (in boy)
- p - as in “pan”
- r - rrolled!
- s - as in “see”
- sx - as sh in “shoe”
- t - as in “tap”
- u - as in “rude”
- ux - as w in “wet”
- v - as in “very”
- z - as in “zoo”
Nouns
- birdo - bird
- libro - book
- knabo - boy
- pano - bread
- frato - brother
- kuko - cake
- kafo - coffee
- taso - cup
- tago - day
- vespero - evening
- ekzerco - exercise
- patro - father
- amiko - friend
- knabino - girl
- horo - hour
- insekto - insect
- limonado - lemonade
- leciono - lesson
- viro - man
- lakto - milk
- papero - paper
- plumo - pen
- minuto - minute
- mateno - morning
- patrino - mother
- nokto - night
- butiko - shop
- filo - son
- sukero - sugar
- teo - tea
- instruisto - teacher
- akvo - water
- semajno - week
- jaro - year
Noun endings
- single subject noun - o
- single object noun - on
- plural subject noun - oj
- plural object noun - ojn
Gender of nouns
Adding an “-in-” to an Esperanto noun makes it specifically female. “Father” is “patro”; “mother is patrino”. Adding a “vir-” prefix makes a noun specifically male. It’s rare that you have to mark sex, but it’s advisable to avoid using the root form of a word as the male form if there’s going to be a chance of ambiguity.
Plural nouns
Nouns are made plural by adding a “-j” ending on to them. So “sons” is “filoj”, “pens” is “plumoj”, and “girls” (as an object noun) is “knabinojn”.
Pronouns
- mi - I
- vi - you
- li - he
- sxi - she
- gxi - it
- ni - we
- vi - you
- ili - they
- oni - one
Verbs
All verbs are in their infinitive form.
- respondi - answer
- peti - ask
- demandi - ask a question
- esti - be
- proti - carry
- kapti - catch
- fari - do
- trinki - drink
- forgesi - forget
- havi - have
- demandi - inquire
- fari - make
- vivi - live
- ami - love
- renkonti - meet
- legi - read
- peti - request
- kuri - run
- sati - be satisfied
- vidi - see
- vendi - sell
- fumi - smoke
- promeni - stroll
- soifi - be thirsty
- atendi - wait for
- lavi - wash
- porti - wear
- skribi - write
Verb tenses
- past tense - is
- present tense - as
- future tense - os
Negation of verbs
Verbs in Esperanto are negated by putting “ne” in front of them. So “don’t have” is “ne havas” and “doesn’t do” is “ne faras”.
Adjectives
- bela - beautiful
- granda - big
- pura - clean
- seka - dry
- bona - good
- sana - healthy
- nova - new
- varma - warm
Colors
- nigra - black
- bruna - brown
- rugxa - red
- flava - yellow
- verda - green
- blua - blue
- griza - grey
- blanka - white
Possessive adjectives
- my - mia
- your - via
- his - lia
- her - sxia
- its - gxia
- our - nia
- your - via
- their - ilia
- one’s - onia
Negation of adjectives
Adjectives in Esperanto are negated by prefixing them with “mal-”. So “bad” is “malbona”, “cold” is “malvarma”, and “dirty” is “malpura”.
Adjective agreement
The adjective ending must agree with the noun it describes. So, if the noun is an object (-n), the adjective must also be an object. If the noun is plural (-j), the adjective must also be plural.
Determiners, conjunctions, prepositions, etc.
- kaj - and
- la - the
- kun - with
- sen - without
Numbers
- 0 - nulo
- 1 - unu
- 2 - du
- 3 - tri
- 4 - kvar
- 5 - kvin
- 6 - ses
- 7 - sep
- 8 - ok
- 9 - naux
- 10 - dek
…
- 20 - dudek
- 21 - dudek unu
…
- 30 - tridek
- 31 - tridek unu
…
- 100 - cent