Lesson 3 - Verbs

Verbs are the words that are used to express some sort of action (in a very broad sense). Examples of English verbs are to be and to work. In dictionaries Esperanto verbs are usually given in their infinitive form, which consist of the root followed by the ending -i. The infinitive is the form of a verb that is not associated with a particular tense or person. In English it consists of the root only, sometimes preceded by the word to.

Here are a few examples of Esperanto verbs:

esti (to be)

sidi (to sit)

labori (to work)

marshi (to walk)

skribi (to write)

In sentences verbs are usually used with a subject and sometimes with a direct and/or indirect object (e.g. "I (subject) gave him (indirect object) the book (direct object)". The subject and the two kinds of object must be a noun or a word that can replace a noun. One class of such noun replacements are the personal pronouns. The following table shows the Esperanto personal pronouns that can be used as the subject of a sentence:

Esperanto	English
mi	I
ci¹	you
li	he
shi	she
ghi	it
ni	we
vi	you
ili	they
oni²	one, you, they

¹ The word ci is rarely used. It can be used as a translation of English you when addressing a single person. This word is comparable in meaning to French tu, German du, Russian ty and similar words in many other European languages. And just like these words ci implies a certain degree of intimacy, informality or just rudeness, depending on the relation between the persons involved and their cultural background. To avoid these complications it is recommended that you use vi instead, which corresponds exactly to English you and which can be used to address anyone under all circumstances.

² There is no English word that corresponds exactly in meaning to Esperanto oni. It is in fact not a personal pronoun but an impersonal pronoun that is used in cases where you cannot or do not want to specify who is doing something. In French the equivalent word is on and in German it is man. The word oni is very useful for avoiding sentences in the more complicated passive voice.

Esperanto verbs have only one form for all persons, but they are conjugated according to tense. There is an ending for the present tense, one for the past tense, and one for the future tense. In this respect Esperanto differs from English, in which the future tense is constructed with auxiliary verbs (e.g. "He will go"). There is another important difference between English and Esperanto. In English the present tense forms are often used to express an action in the future (e.g. "We are going tomorrow"). However you should never do this in Esperanto!

The present tense ending is -as, the past tense ending -is, and the future tense ending -os. Since all persons (mi, li, ni, etc.) share the same verb form, the following table only shows examples of the conjugation of the verb esti (to be) with the personal pronoun mi.

Esperanto	English
mi estas	I am
mi estis	I was
mi estos	I shall be

All other verbs are conjugated exactly like esti. Apart from these simple tenses there exist other tenses that are made with esti as auxiliary verb. The phrase "Mi laboris" can be translated as "I worked", "I was working", "I have worked" or "I have been working". Only if a speaker thinks that it is necessary to stress the fact that is the action was continuous or that the action has finished, will he need to use another tense than the simple present, past or future.

**Vocabulary**
Esperanto	English
en	in
esti	to be
ghardeno	garden
labori	to work, to labour
loghi	to live (somewhere)
marshi	to walk (cf. march)
skribi	to write (cf. subscribe
sidi	to sit
tie	there
tie chi^* (or chi tie)	here
viro	man (cf. virile)
voli	want, will (cf. voluntary)

^* The particle chi indicates proximity.

Exercise 3-1

Translate into English:

1. La viro estis en la domo. 2. Mi loghas kaj laboras tie. 3. Shi laboras en la ghardeno. 4. La pomarboj estas en la ghardeno. 5. Ili marshos tie chi. 6. Ni volas skribi. 7. La viro sidis tie. 8. Mi volas labori en la domo. 9. Chi tie estas la ghardeno. 10. Ili sidis en la autoj.

Exercise 3-2

Translate into Esperanto:

1. People are working^*. 2. The apples are here in the house. 3. I want to work in the garden. 4. The men are working. 5. I shall be writing. 6. They were walking there. 7. Here is an apple. 8. Here are apples and potatoes. 9. He was working in the house and she was sitting in the garden. 10. It was a potato.

^* Use oni to translate people here..

Key to the exercises