Introduction to Esperanto: Lesson 2
The Esperanto word for I is mi.
It is just like me in English so you shouldn’t have any problems remembering this word. If you want to say I am, you still say mi estas (or I is) because the word estas in Esperanto never changes in a way that it changes to I am, you are, and he is in English. Think of estas as the word can: you always say I can, you can, he can, we can, etc. and the word can never changes: in Esperanto, all words work in that way.
The Esperanto word for a human is homo.
It is the same as in Latin therefore the similarity to English. How would you say:
?I am a human.|Mi estas homo.
You can add things to words in Esperanto to have them have different meanings in a similar way that you can make act into actor, teach into teacher or lingua into linguist in English and unlike in English where you have or, er, ist and probably some others, In Esperanto is always ist, so:
The Esperanto ending which shows a profession or a hobby is ist.
Let’s try this. Remember how to say a language (which is pretty close to lingua in lingua franca):
?Language|Lingvo
If you wanted to make it into a linguist, you would add this ist in the end right before o. So, how would you say:
?A linguist|Lingvisto
The Esperanto word for a dentist is the same as in English except it has o in the end (like all nouns in Esperanto do). What is a dentist?
?A dentist|Dentisto
From that, you can guess the word for a teeth by simply removing that ist. What is a teeth?
?A teeth|Dento
As I said, ist it could mean a profession or a hobby. If you speak Esperanto, your hobby is Esperanto, so you can add this ist to say an Esperanto speaker or a person who has Esperanto as their hobby or, as a direct English loanword from Esperanto states, an Esperantist. How would you say:
?I am Esperantist.|Mi estas esperantisto.
Esperanto for work is laboro (think labour).
How would you say:
?I am worker.|Mi estas laboristo.
There is another ending that is very similar to ist:
The Esperanto ending an denotes an inhabitant or a member of a group.
This one is used to tell where you are from. For example:
Esperanto for America is Ameriko.
How would you say by adding an:
?American|Amerikano
?I am American.|Mi estas amerikano.
Another example is Nederlando which means the Netherlands (in Esperanto you simply say Netherlands and not The Netherlands like you do in English in this case). Say:
?I am Dutch.|Mi estas nederlandano.
You don’t need to use this an if you don’t want to because you can get around it.
The Esperanto word for from is de.
So, you could say:
?I am from the Netherlands.|Mi estas de Nederlando.
The Esperanto word for The United States of America is Usono. How would you say:
?I am from the USA.|Mi estas de Usono.
France is Francio.
Say:
?I am not from France.|Mi ne estas de Francio.
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