Free Correspondence Course - Senkosta Kuresponda Kurso
The Free Esperanto Course begins simply, but by Lesson 10 you will understand sophisticaed Esperanto with complex syntax. Upon satisfactory completion of the series of ten lessons, you will receive a framable "Certificate of Completion".
Let's get started!
Language is all about things (nouns) and their actions (verbs) of energetic thing:
| One thing… | Acts on… | Another thing | ||
| birdo… | kaptas… | insekton. | ||
| a bird… | catches… | an insect | ||
| subject noun | verb | object noun | ||
Esperanto is “grammar-coded” - you can tell what part each word plays in a sentence from the word endings:
| -o | -on | |||
| single subject noun | single object noun | |||
| -oj | -ojn | |||
| plural subject noun | plural object noun | |||
To show when the action takes place, the verb tense (time) is changed by putting these endings on the verb roots:
| past tense | -is | shows an action completed | ||
| present tense | -as | describes it as it happens | ||
| future tense | -os | action still to begin | ||
| Birdoj | kaptis | insektojn. | ||
| Birds | caught | insects. | ||
| Birdoj | kaptos | insektojn. | ||
| Birds | will-catch | insects. | ||
Every noun and every verb follows the above rules without exception.
In Esperanto, things have no gender (they are not male or female, as in many other languages). There is only one word for “The”, no matter if the noun is singular or plural, object or subject. Therefore:
La birdoj kaptas la insektojn.
La birdo kaptis la insekton.
In Esperanto the word order matters less than in English. All the following sentences describe the same action (only the emphasis is changed):
| Viro legas libron. | Viro libron legas. | Libron legas viro. | ||
| Libron viro legas. | Legas viro libron. | Legas libron viro. | ||
| A man reads a book. | ||||
Here are some words in Esperanto (the apostrophe indicates an incomplete word, a root):
| Nouns | Verbs (roots) | More nouns | ||
| amiko(friend) | far’(do, make) | kafo(coffee) | ||
| filo(son) | forges’(forget) | kuko(cake) | ||
| frato(brother) | hav’(have) | lakto(milk) | ||
| instruisto(teacher) | trink’(drink) | pano(bread) | ||
| knabo(boy) | vend’(sell) | sukero(sugar) | ||
| patro(father) | vid’(see) | teo(tea) | ||
Each Esperanto letter has only one sound, always. Here is a guide to some of the sounds. The stress is always on the next-to-last syllable of a word.
| A | E | I | O | U |
| palm | there | three | glory | too |
c=ts (in lots); oj = oy (in boy); G = g (in go)
kn are always pronounced separately: k-nabo
Study Aid for Lesson One
Read lesson 1 thoroughly, but before trying the exercises on the back, try these translations and check your answers with ours.
1. The friend will-sell milk.
lakton.
2. Mother drinks coffee with milk and sugar.
Patrino -n kun kaj -n.
3. The teachers forgot the tea.
-j -n.
4. The boys will-make the cake.
-n.
5. La knabinoj vidos la instruiston. (knabinoj =
girls)
6. La instruiso vidis la knabinojn.
7. La filoj trinkas teon sen lakto. (sen = without)
8. La birdoj vidis la insektojn.
Answers to the above sentences
- La amiko vendos lakton.
- Patrino trinkas kafon kun lakto kaj sukero.
- La instruistoj forgesis la teon.
- La knaboj faros la kukon.
- The girls will see the teacher.
- The teacher saw the girls.
- The sons drink tea without milk.
- The birds saw the insects.
After checking these sentences, do the exercises of lesson 1, below. If there is anything you do not understand, be sure to ask your tutor.
Ekzercoj, Leciono Unu (Exercises, Lesson One)
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