{"id":3102,"date":"2018-06-25T13:37:33","date_gmt":"2018-06-25T13:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/esperanto\/?p=3102"},"modified":"2018-06-25T13:37:33","modified_gmt":"2018-06-25T13:37:33","slug":"where-are-you-from-are-you-one-of-us-de-vs-el","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/esperanto\/where-are-you-from-are-you-one-of-us-de-vs-el\/","title":{"rendered":"Where are you from? Are you one of us? De vs El"},"content":{"rendered":"

A big thanks to my student \u015cano for this question. When do you use el<\/em> and when do you use de<\/em>?<\/p>\n

\"Where

Where are you from? Gulls image from pixabay.com<\/p><\/div>\n

De vs El — different kinds of “from” in Esperanto<\/h2>\n

Prepositions are very much the heart of a language. To master a language, it is essential to know both how to use them and which one to use when. This is true of Esperanto as well. I’ve written about prepositions here before:\u00a0Keys to understanding Esperanto pepositions<\/a>, Je<\/em> the “wildcard<\/a>” preposition, How to say a glass of water<\/a>. This last one touched on confusion between de<\/em>\u00a0and da<\/em>… but what about de<\/em>\u00a0and el<\/em>?<\/p>\n

If you look up “from” in a bilingual dictionary, you’ll see both de<\/em>\u00a0and el<\/em>. So, which one do you use? The confusion doesn’t seem to be limited to native English speakers, but there are differences.<\/p>\n

De – attachment or belonging<\/h2>\n

First, let’s recap what we learned about de<\/em>\u00a0in our discussion about glass of water.<\/p>\n

It can show attachment or belonging.<\/p>\n