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Esperanto Viva!
Your first lesson!
A free correspondence course
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This free correspondence course of 10 lessons will enable you to explore the easy-to-learn, easy-to-use international language Esperanto.
Esperanto is five to ten times easier to learn than national languages. Once
you have learned a rule, you can apply it generally - and there are no
exceptions!
Esperanto does not aim to replace national languages, but to be a politically
neutral, effective alternative for international communication. In the century
since it was created, Esperanto has grown from a language project into a living
language, spoken by about a million people around the world.
You too can gain fluency in this remarkable language. This course will get
you started in easy stages.
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| Young people enjoying a meeting in Russia
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Notes:
Let's jump in with some conversation:
| Saluton! | [Hello!] |
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| Mia nomo estas Ian. | [My name is Ian.] |
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| Kaj via? | [And yours?] |
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There are just five vowel sounds in Esperanto:
a e i o u
as in English:
Are there three or two?
Now try saying honoro in front of a mirror. If your lips don't move you've got rid of your English pronunciation. (Otherwise you are probably saying hownowrow).
Incidentally, the stress is always on the last vowel but one (always!
) - so it's honOro.
You now just need to know that j is pronounced as an English y, so kaj [and] is pronounced k-eye - and the r is best lightly rolled.
If you are reading this online, then you can listen to the sounds of the Esperanto alphabet.
Now try reading the snippet of conversation above out loud.
Well done! You can now read Esperanto. There are just a few letters that are different from English, but we'll deal with these when we come to them.
Let's look at the text a little more closely.
Mia means my or mine. It's made up of Mi + a. Mi means I, and a is an ending (actually it's the adjective ending - we'll meet it later).
So if I want to simply say "I am Ian", I can say: "Mi estas Ian".
Nomo means name, and is made up of nom + o. The o is the ending to show that the word is a noun - i.e. what something is called. All nouns end in o.
Estas here means am, but it could equally mean are and is. It's made up of est + as. Est means be, and as shows that it's present tense - i.e. it means now.
Just as mia meant my or mine, via means your or yours, and it's made up of vi + a. So vi means - you've guessed it - you.
So now read out the snippet of conversation a few times and you'll start to get the pattern - even if you're not too sure what nouns, verbs and adjectives are.
Let's try expanding our little conversation:
| Mi: | Saluton! Mia nomo estas Ian. Kaj via?
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| Vi: | Saluton! Mi estas _______.
| [Put your own name in.]
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| Mi: | Dankon.
| [Thanks]
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| | Ĝis la revido.
| [Cheerio]
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| Vi: | ___ __ _______. | [You answer!]
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"Ĝis la revido" literally means "Until the re-seeing". The letter Ĝ (orĝ) is a soft g as in George. The normal g is always hard, as in get.
The word la means the and never changes. The word revido is interesting. Re means again, o is the noun ending, and vid means see.
So, how do you say "I see"? You met the as ending earlier in estas, so it's "Mi vidas". Get it?
Often "Ĝis la revido" is shortened to "Ĝis la", and sometimes even to "Ĝis". If you want to say "See you soon", you can say "Ĝis baldaŭ". (baldaŭ = soon). The letter ŭ is pronounced as an English w.
Now let's hold little conversations with Majra and Renato:
| - | | Mi venas de Newbury en Britio. | [I come from Newbury in Britain] |
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| | | De kie vi venas? | [From where (do) you come?] |
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| - | | Mi venas de Uralsk / Palestrina. | [I come from ___] | |
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| - | | Ĉu Uralsk / Palestrina estas en
Uzbekio / Kazaĥio / Hispanio / Italio? | [Is Uralsk / Palestrina in
Uzbekistan / Kazakhstan / Spain / Italy?] |
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| - | { | Jes, ___ estas en ___. | [Yes, ___ is in ___] | }
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| | { | Ne, ___ ne estas en ___. | [No, ___ is not in ___] | }
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Make up your own replies!
The letter ĉ is pronounced as "ch" in church, and the letter ĥ is pronounced as "ch" in Scottish loch.
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| Majra venas de Uralsk en Kazaĥio.
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| Renato venas de Palestrina en Italio.
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So, you're getting the hang of verbs like venas, vidas, estas, are you? De is a useful word; it means from or of. Make sure you say the e properly. Kie, meaning where, is a question word. You'll find that all words like where, what, who, when, whose in Esperanto begin with ki-.
Ne means no or not. So now you can say anything in the negative.
Ĉu turns a statement into a question. Note that in English you usually turn the word order round. For example: "Oxford is in Britain." becomes "Is Oxford in Britain". This is not necessary in Esperanto: "Ĉu Oxford estas en Britio?" When used on its own, "Ĉu?" means Is it?, Are they? etc. Note, though, that you don't use Æu if there's already a question word present, such as Kie. Ĉu is only for yes/no type questions.
Jes is self-explanatory. Get the pronunciation right!
You can now make elementary conversation in Esperanto.
Try these exercises.
If you forget a word, try using the Search facility on your browser.
Translate into Esperanto:
If you have problems when you click on the above submit button, advice is available.
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. Ideally, get a friend to practise with you!
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)
