Why is Kio always singular?<\/h2>\n![\"Why](\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/esperanto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2018\/08\/KioPlural-350x219.png\")
Why is “Kio” never plural? Photo courtesy Esperanto Variety Show<\/p><\/div>\n
When I teach the correlatives, I usually start with the questions, but it applies equally well to the answers. Why are\u00a0kio<\/em> (what),\u00a0tio<\/em> (that),\u00a0io<\/em> (something),\u00a0\u0109io<\/em> (everything), and nenio<\/em> (nothing) always singular? Many of the correlatives are unchanging (kiel, nenies<\/em>, and iam<\/em>, for example) but the following question words can take grammatical endings like -j and -n. (Again, this applies to the answers too.)<\/p>\n\n- kia -j, -n<\/li>\n
- kie -n<\/li>\n
- kio -n<\/li>\n
- kiu -j, -n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Note that these happen to be the correlatives that end in vowels. It’s easy enough to see why kie<\/em> can’t be plural (it’s like an adverb) and if you understand the motion rule explained in\u00a0Keys to understanding Esperanto prepositions<\/a>, the same rule applies to adverbs, hence the -n. If you take kie<\/em>\u00a0off the list, it might seem surprising that kio<\/em>, which asks about nouns, can’t be plural like nouns can be. This contrasts with\u00a0\u00a0kiu\u00a0<\/em>and kia.<\/em><\/p>\nSandio<\/em> wanted to know why<\/em>.<\/p>\nMy usual answer is that kio\u00a0<\/em>is asking about something unknown. If it’s unknown, how can you know whether it’s plural or singular? Therefore, in Esperanto, we treat it as singular. At this point, a learner might say something like “What if I hold up a bowl of lumpy objects and ask ‘what are these?’ – that certainly sounds plural to me, even if I don’t know what they are.”<\/p>\nAt that point, I usually punt. “The reason it can’t be plural is … just ‘cos.”<\/p>\n
Why is “Kio” never plural? Photo courtesy Esperanto Variety Show<\/p><\/div>\n
When I teach the correlatives, I usually start with the questions, but it applies equally well to the answers. Why are\u00a0kio<\/em> (what),\u00a0tio<\/em> (that),\u00a0io<\/em> (something),\u00a0\u0109io<\/em> (everything), and nenio<\/em> (nothing) always singular? Many of the correlatives are unchanging (kiel, nenies<\/em>, and iam<\/em>, for example) but the following question words can take grammatical endings like -j and -n. (Again, this applies to the answers too.)<\/p>\n Note that these happen to be the correlatives that end in vowels. It’s easy enough to see why kie<\/em> can’t be plural (it’s like an adverb) and if you understand the motion rule explained in\u00a0Keys to understanding Esperanto prepositions<\/a>, the same rule applies to adverbs, hence the -n. If you take kie<\/em>\u00a0off the list, it might seem surprising that kio<\/em>, which asks about nouns, can’t be plural like nouns can be. This contrasts with\u00a0\u00a0kiu\u00a0<\/em>and kia.<\/em><\/p>\n Sandio<\/em> wanted to know why<\/em>.<\/p>\n My usual answer is that kio\u00a0<\/em>is asking about something unknown. If it’s unknown, how can you know whether it’s plural or singular? Therefore, in Esperanto, we treat it as singular. At this point, a learner might say something like “What if I hold up a bowl of lumpy objects and ask ‘what are these?’ – that certainly sounds plural to me, even if I don’t know what they are.”<\/p>\n At that point, I usually punt. “The reason it can’t be plural is … just ‘cos.”<\/p>\n\n