Esperanto Viva! Via kvina leciono

Some people say that Esperanto can't be a living language because it hasn't got any native speakers.

It doesn't actually follow, but it's not quite true either. There are

It doesn't actually follow, but it's not quite true either. There are denaskaj [from-birth] Esperantistoj. denaskaj [from-birth] Esperantistoj.

Often this arises when the parents are from different nationalities, and they use Esperanto as their home language. Mia edzino estas denaska Esperantistino. S^ia patro estis nederlanda [Dutch] kaj s^ia patrino estis angla [English]. Ili log^is en Roterdamo. Ili parolis Esperanton en la hejmo [home]. Esperanto estis la unua lingvo [language] por mia edzino. La dua lingvo estis la nederlanda, kaj la tria lingvo estis la angla.

We carried the tradition on. Ankau^ niaj [our; ni = we] infanoj estas denaskaj Esperantistoj. We felt that a bilingual education was a good thing anyway, whatever the language. We brought them up speaking Esperanto in the home, introducing Esperanto before English. It is much easier to do it this way round than to try to introduce a minority language after they have started school.

Universala Esperanto-Asocio has set up a group known as Rondo Familia [Family Circle]. They have a circular, which is distributed to families in which Esperanto is spoken. One aim is to encourage Esperantists to bring up their own children speaking Esperanto.

La foto montras [shows] infanojn c^e Internacia Infana Kongreseto. Kelkaj [some] el ili [they] estas denaskaj Esperantistoj.

It's time to learn how to count.

To make the teens you add dek, so it's dek unu, dek du, dek tri etc. It's completely regular.

To get the multiples of ten (twenty, thirty, forty, etc) you put the dek last, and make it one word: dudek, tridek, kvardek, kvindek, etc.

Then come cent [hundred], and mil [thousand].

So if you want to say what year it is you say: mil okcent okdek sep [1887 - the year when Esperanto was published]. mil nau^cent nau^dek sep [1997 - the year when this course was first published], dumil [2000], dumil unu [2001], dumil dek kvin, etc.

You can make adjectives of the numbers: unua [first], dua [second], tria [third], etc. So this is the kvina leciono.

Try using these numbers as pronunciation practice. Pop back to the unua leciono if in doubt. Remember to keep the vowels pure, and to pronounce your r's.

Then, to get some familiarity, try counting in real life in Esperanto. If you play dice games, say the number every time the die lands. I remember counting pendulum swings in a physics experiment at school in Esperanto.

To say dates, you will need the months. They are: januaro, februaro, marto, aprilo, majo, junio, julio, au^gusto, septembro, oktobro, novembro, decembro.

To say "On the first of January" you would say "Je la unua de januaro". 'Je' is a useful little preposition with 'indefinite meaning'. It's used where no other preposition will fit, so that people don't start misusing prepositions (words like on, at, to, in). In practice, nowadays it's mainly used for time.

There is a rule that says you can leave out a preposition if the meaning is already clear, and replace it by the -n ending. So you could say either Je la unua de januaro or La unuan de januaro.

So now you can express any date: La dek-kvinan de marto, dumil dudek sep, etc.

You can also express any time, once you know a few more words. Horo is hour, so At five o'clock is Je la kvina horo. Minutoj is minutes, so you can say Je la kvina horo kaj tridek (minutoj). If you want to ask the time, you can say "Kioma horo estas?" Kiom means how much / how many. Note how easily you can turn it into an adjective.

You will also need days of the week. They are: dimanc^o [Sunday], lundo, mardo, merkredo, j^au^do, vendredo, sabato.

The letter j^ is pronounced as s in English pleasure. So now you can say, Mi venos je j^au^do, la dekan de marto. You will also meet en j^au^do or simply j^au^don for on Thursday.

Try reading this letter:

... and the reply:

When we got to the town, we stopped to phone for directions. Manfred anwered with his surname:

Tuj apud tiu parkejo estas mia domo.

Kirsch. - Saluton! Mi estas Ian Fantom. Ni alvenis en Schm"olln, kaj ni estas ekster [outside] Hotelo Baum. Kiel ni atingas [reach] vian domon? - Ho [Oh], tio [that] ne estas problemo. Vi jam [already] estas proksime al mia hejmo. Vi dau^rigas [continue] la vojon [way]g^is fino [end] de la placo [square] kaj veturas [travel (here you would say drive)] dekstren [to the right] - transveturas [trans = across] riveron [river] kaj poste relojn [rails - as in railway lines]. Sekvu [follow] la straton, kaj en unuan straton iru dekstren. Tie estas parkejo [car park], kaj tuj [immediately] apud tiu parkejo estas mia domo. - Do, mi iras dekstren el la placo, trans riveron, trans fervojon [railway - literally iron way], kaj tuj dekstren denove [again], kaj tio estas Branntstrasse. - Ekzakte [exactly]. - Dankon. Ni vidos vin baldau^. - Ni g^ojas [g^ojo: joy, so g^ojas: are pleased] je via vizito. - Dankon! G^is la! - G^is!

The word dekstren shows direction. The -n ending is the part that shows the direction, so dekstre means on the right and dekstren means to the right. Similarly, en (la) unuan straton means into the first road. Similarly, maldekstre is on the left, and maldekstren is to the left. Mal, of course, means opposite of.

Ni alvenas c^e la domo.

Did you notice Se vi ne povos ...? Povi means be able to, and so povas means can. You can't say will can in English; you have to say will be able to. So Se vi ne povos ... means If you will not be able to or in normal English If you can't.

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Your work will be marked and returned to you as soon as possible.

In the meantime, practise gaining fluency in everything you have just learned.

Two lists of words used in this course are available: Esperanto-English and English-Esperanto.

A list of the contents of the 'Esperanto Viva!' course is available. Next lesson / Previous lesson.