Common verb patterns: N with havas<\/em>; no N with estas<\/em><\/h2>\n![\""estas](\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/esperanto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2018\/07\/Screenshot-2018-07-16-at-7.05.36-AM-350x215.png\")
image courtesy of Esperanto Variety Show<\/p><\/div>\n
Esperanto is an “easy language” but no language is truly easy. Top on many learner’s lists of troublesome details is the accusative -n ending, used primarily to indicate the direct object – the thing that is “receiving the action” of the verb. When we’re starting out, I like to teach these as verb patterns, as in the image above.<\/p>\n
\n- __ estas __ .<\/li>\n
- __ havas __-n.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
With words like havas<\/em> (have), we need to put an -n on the end of the word in the second blank. If there are adjectives in the second blank, they need -n too.<\/p>\n\n- Mi havas amikon – I have a friend.<\/li>\n
- La instruisto havas bonajn lernantojn – The teacher has good students.<\/li>\n
- Arbo havas foliojn – A tree has leaves.<\/li>\n
- Birdo havas bekon – A bird has a beak.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
With words like estas<\/em> (is, are), the pattern is simply to plug the words into the blanks. No -n required.<\/p>\n\n- Li estas amiko – He is a friend.<\/li>\n
- Ili estas bonaj lernantoj – They are good students.<\/li>\n
- La arbo estas alta – The tree is tall.<\/li>\n
- Tio estas granda birdo. – That is a big bird.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
One thing to watch out for is that once you get used to the pattern with havas<\/em> (add the -n), that you don’t get so into it that you start adding -n in the pattern with estas<\/em> (no -n with estas<\/em>!)<\/p>\nThere is a third pattern for single-actor verbs like kuras<\/em> (run). You don’t run something. You just run (Mi kuras<\/em> – I run). Most verbs are like kuras\u00a0<\/em>or havas<\/em>. There aren’t a lot of verbs like\u00a0estas, <\/em>but we could include\u00a0fari\u011das<\/em> (become) in that category.<\/p>\nCommon verbs that follow the same pattern as havas<\/em> are vidas (see),\u00a0\u00a0man\u011das (eat), amas (love), and lernas (learn).<\/p>\nEsperanto has five vowels<\/h2>\n![\"five](\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/esperanto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2018\/07\/Screenshot-2018-07-16-at-7.54.04-AM-350x235.png\")
image courtesy of Esperanto Variety Show<\/p><\/div>\n
This sounds obvious when you say it, but I find many intermediate speakers who haven’t learned how to put this into practice. We spent a fair amount of time in the beginner class working on this. If you can develop these habits early, you will be ahead of the game in terms of having a good Esperanto accent as well as simply making it easy for people to understand you.<\/p>\n
As mentioned in a previous blog post<\/a>, this is especially important to practice at ends of words since –as<\/em> and –is<\/em> tell us when something happens. The important thing is to pronounce these vowels the same way whether they’re in the beginning, middle, or end of a word.<\/p>\nRather than trying to describe the sounds using text here, please see\u00a0this video<\/a>\u00a0in which I demonstrate the five vowels.<\/p>\nBut what did YOU learn, Tomaso?<\/h2>\n
For me personally, teaching at NASK was a great experience. On the last day, a student from the advance class said that he’d heard that people learn a lot by teaching and he wanted to know what I’d learned. I began to answer in terms of what I’d learned about teaching methods, class dynamics, some things I might do differently next time … but he clarified. “What did you learn about Esperanto?”. Although this was my first experience teaching Esperanto to such a large class (15 people), and my first experience teaching on a daily basis, I have been teaching Esperanto for a long time – 20 years for several hours per week. I learned a lot about teaching an in-person class, but what did I learn about Esperanto?<\/p>\n
Eventually I thought of something. I learned that\u00a0lo\u011dio<\/em> not only means “box seat”, but it can also mean Masonic lodge. Dear Esperanto learners. If you forget one thing from your basic Esperanto class, let it be that.<\/p>\nIn other news<\/h2>\n
The online Esperanto newsletter Libera Folio has written an article about this blog:<\/p>\n
baldau-dek-jaroj-da-angla-blogado-pri-esperanto<\/a><\/p>\n
image courtesy of Esperanto Variety Show<\/p><\/div>\n
Esperanto is an “easy language” but no language is truly easy. Top on many learner’s lists of troublesome details is the accusative -n ending, used primarily to indicate the direct object – the thing that is “receiving the action” of the verb. When we’re starting out, I like to teach these as verb patterns, as in the image above.<\/p>\n
- \n
- __ estas __ .<\/li>\n
- __ havas __-n.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
With words like havas<\/em> (have), we need to put an -n on the end of the word in the second blank. If there are adjectives in the second blank, they need -n too.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Mi havas amikon – I have a friend.<\/li>\n
- La instruisto havas bonajn lernantojn – The teacher has good students.<\/li>\n
- Arbo havas foliojn – A tree has leaves.<\/li>\n
- Birdo havas bekon – A bird has a beak.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
With words like estas<\/em> (is, are), the pattern is simply to plug the words into the blanks. No -n required.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Li estas amiko – He is a friend.<\/li>\n
- Ili estas bonaj lernantoj – They are good students.<\/li>\n
- La arbo estas alta – The tree is tall.<\/li>\n
- Tio estas granda birdo. – That is a big bird.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
One thing to watch out for is that once you get used to the pattern with havas<\/em> (add the -n), that you don’t get so into it that you start adding -n in the pattern with estas<\/em> (no -n with estas<\/em>!)<\/p>\n
There is a third pattern for single-actor verbs like kuras<\/em> (run). You don’t run something. You just run (Mi kuras<\/em> – I run). Most verbs are like kuras\u00a0<\/em>or havas<\/em>. There aren’t a lot of verbs like\u00a0estas, <\/em>but we could include\u00a0fari\u011das<\/em> (become) in that category.<\/p>\n
Common verbs that follow the same pattern as havas<\/em> are vidas (see),\u00a0\u00a0man\u011das (eat), amas (love), and lernas (learn).<\/p>\n
Esperanto has five vowels<\/h2>\n
image courtesy of Esperanto Variety Show<\/p><\/div>\n
This sounds obvious when you say it, but I find many intermediate speakers who haven’t learned how to put this into practice. We spent a fair amount of time in the beginner class working on this. If you can develop these habits early, you will be ahead of the game in terms of having a good Esperanto accent as well as simply making it easy for people to understand you.<\/p>\n
As mentioned in a previous blog post<\/a>, this is especially important to practice at ends of words since –as<\/em> and –is<\/em> tell us when something happens. The important thing is to pronounce these vowels the same way whether they’re in the beginning, middle, or end of a word.<\/p>\n
Rather than trying to describe the sounds using text here, please see\u00a0this video<\/a>\u00a0in which I demonstrate the five vowels.<\/p>\n
But what did YOU learn, Tomaso?<\/h2>\n
For me personally, teaching at NASK was a great experience. On the last day, a student from the advance class said that he’d heard that people learn a lot by teaching and he wanted to know what I’d learned. I began to answer in terms of what I’d learned about teaching methods, class dynamics, some things I might do differently next time … but he clarified. “What did you learn about Esperanto?”. Although this was my first experience teaching Esperanto to such a large class (15 people), and my first experience teaching on a daily basis, I have been teaching Esperanto for a long time – 20 years for several hours per week. I learned a lot about teaching an in-person class, but what did I learn about Esperanto?<\/p>\n
Eventually I thought of something. I learned that\u00a0lo\u011dio<\/em> not only means “box seat”, but it can also mean Masonic lodge. Dear Esperanto learners. If you forget one thing from your basic Esperanto class, let it be that.<\/p>\n
In other news<\/h2>\n
The online Esperanto newsletter Libera Folio has written an article about this blog:<\/p>\n
baldau-dek-jaroj-da-angla-blogado-pri-esperanto<\/a><\/p>\n