The most useful site I have found to learn Esperanto is Lernu.net. This is what I have been able to glean so far:
There are not exceptions to any grammar rules at all. Each letter is pronounced the same each time with no exceptions – very phonetic pronunciation.
Alphabet
The alphabet is sounded out just like English with a few new letters that, for me seem very Czech in nature (pronunciation is guidance is listed in brackets [ ]) :
a b c [ts] ĉ (ch) d e f g Ä [j] h Ä¥ [ch] i j [y] ĵ [zh] k l m n o p r [rr] s Å [sh] t u Å [w] v z
Nouns
Base Nouns end in ‘o’: libro – book
Sentence Objects end in n: libron – book
Make a noun plural by adding ‘j’ to the end: libroj – books
Adding ‘et’ at the end of a noun creates something smaller: libreto – booklet
Possession: ‘de’
Pronouns
Pronouns end in ‘i’:
Mi – I
Vi – You
Li – He
xSi – She
xGi – It
Ni – We
Ili – They
oni – indefinite pronoun
Verbs
Base verbs end in ‘i’: doni – ‘to give’
Present tense verbs end in: ‘as’: donas – give
Past tense verbs end in: ‘is’: donis – gave
Future tense verbs end in: ‘os’: donos – will give
Conditional tense verbs end in: ‘us’: donus – would give
Command tense verbs end in: ‘u’: donu – Give! (implied subject you)
Estas – Am/is/are (present)
Estis – Was/Were (past)
Estos – ‘will be’ (future)
Adverbs
Adverbs are verbs that end in ‘e’: done – ?generously?
Adjectives
Base Adjectives end with ‘a’: bela – beautiful
Adding ‘mal’ to the beginning creates the negative: malbela – ugly
When describing the sentence object add an ‘n’ to the end: malbelan
Add ‘pli’ to magnify description one level: pli very beautiful
Add ‘plej’ to magnify description more : plej most beautiful
Comparison:‘ol’: this is bigger ‘than’ that
Articles and Other
La – the (no associated gender)
Accent – on second to last vowel
OK,
so I have revised and corrected my previous Esperanto Primer (v1.0) and here is the new one An Esperanto Primer (v2.0).
Let me know if there are any corrections or suggestions.
