Tag Archives: vocabulary
Don’t Fear the Suffix Posted by Transparent Language on May 21, 2009
A pretty useful suffix to remember in Esperanto is “fobio.” On its own, it simply means “phobia.” It’s a little bit different than “timo,” which means “fear” (or “timi,” to fear) in that it denotes a more severe frightened response to a particular thing, and usually connotes irrationality. The difference is somewhat difficult to express…
Aprilaj Dusxoj Alportas… Posted by Transparent Language on May 20, 2009
…Majajn florojn! I haven’t been able to think about anything but flowers today. My neighbors across the street have a beautiful gxardeno that they’ve worked hard to cultivate. The results are wonderful…They have so many different types of flowers, all colorful and healthy. Similar to last week’s entry on insektoj, there are plenty of Esperanto…
La Printempaj Insektoj Posted by Transparent Language on May 16, 2009
The seasons where I live have been confusing as possible these past two months. My winter was about five months long, and only in mid-April did the last snows go away. In my mind, it’s more spring than summer. And it’s only reinforced by all the springtime insektoj! You can call most any bug on…
Household Chores Gone Overboard Posted by Transparent Language on May 13, 2009
Today my roommate, about to clean the carpet, said to me: “Donu a mi la vakuon.” I think he must have been using an Internet translation, but wasn’t as explicit as he ought to have been. You see, “vakuo” in Esperanto means “vacuum.” In English, sometimes we associate the word “vacuum” with “vacuum cleaner,” the…
Esperantujo Posted by Transparent Language on Apr 30, 2009
Another idiomatic expression that you might hear or see an Esperantist use is the term “Esperantujo.” If we break down the word, we find “Esperant-,” our root term for our favorite constructed language, and “-ujo,” which means “container” when used as a suffix. (You may recall seeing -ujo in such words as benzinujo, meaning gas…
Try, Try Again Posted by Transparent Language on Apr 30, 2009
In a continuing tradition of specific verbs, Esperanto has multiple different ways of saying things that would all be grouped under “to try” in English. Think of some of the vastly different contexts in which you use the verb “try” in your daily life, and you’ll begin to see why Esperanto has a few varied…
Fi- on ye! Posted by Transparent Language on Apr 26, 2009
Sometimes it can be tempting to throw down an Latin- or English- sounding word, tack a relevant Esperanto suffix on the end, and hope the word works properly. In some cases, it can be a viable strategy – think of the verb “halti,” which means “to halt,” or the preposition “kun” (with) which is remarkably…