Lesson 11 - Questions & answers

You may have noticed the similarities between the words like kio that are used to make questions, and related words like tio and io which can be used as answers to these questions. These similarities are no coincidence; each "question word" (with only one exception) starts with ki- and is associated with several other words that start with different letters but end with the same ones as the question word. These similarities can best be shown in a table:

ki-	ti-	chi-	neni-	i-
kia (what kind of)	tia (that kind of)	chia (every kind of)	nenia (no kind of)	ia (some kind of)
kial (why)	tial (therefore)	chial (for every reason)	nenial (for no reason)	ial (for some reason)
kiam (when)	tiam (then)	chiam (always)	neniam (never)	iam (ever)
kie (where)	tie (there)	chie (everywhere)	nenie (nowhere)	ie (somewhere)
kiel (how)	tiel (thus, that way)	chiel (in every way)	neniel (in no way)	iel (in some way)
kies (whose)	ties (that one's)	chies (everyone's)	nenies (no one's)	ies (someone's)
kio (what)	tio (that)	chio (everything)	nenio (nothing)	io (something)
kiom (how much)	tiom (that much)	chiom (everything)	neniom (nothing)	iom (something)
kiu (which, who)	tiu (that one)	chiu (each, everyone)	neniu (none, no one)	iu (some, someone)

Take care not to confuse chio and chiom! Both words mean everything in English, but chiom refers to everything of a certain quantity (it can be the answer to How much of it?) while chio is everything in a more general sense (it can be the answer to What?). A similar difference in meaning exists between the words chio and chiom, and between io and iom.

At first you may get confused at times because all words in a single column are so much alike. I advise that you concentrate on learning only one column thoroughly (e.g. the "ki-words") and derive the words in the other columns from these words. The ideas that are associated with each first syllable (e.g. i- for indefiniteness) should be obvious from the table.

In English we sometimes use an entirely different word in the singular than we do in the plural, but in Esperanto we just attach the ending -j to the singular form.

Chiu viro laboris = Every (each) man was working.
Chiuj viroj laboris = All men were working.

Kiel also means like or (such) as, and it is also used in exclamations.

Kiel bela shi estas! = How beautiful she is!

Mi traktis lin kiel filo = I treated him like a son.
Li parolis tie kiel prezidento de Usono = He spoke there as president of the USA.

Sometimes tiel corresponds to English so, and the combination tiel ... kiel can be translated as as ... as.

Shi estas tiel bela = She is so beautiful.
Mia auto estas tiel rapida kiel la via = My car is as fast as yours.

There is one Esperanto question word that does not start with ki-, and it can be used to turn any statement into a question. This word is chu and it is usually placed at the beginning of a sentence. This particle is comparable to the French expression qu'est-ce que and the Polish particle czy which are used in the same way to create questions. In some respects using chu is comparable to the English use of the verb do to form questions, although since chu is a particle and not a verb it does not change according to tense and person like do.

Li achetis pomon = He bought an apple.
Chu li achetis pomon? = Did he buy an apple?

Vi estas hejme = You are at home.
Chu vi estas hejme? = Are you at home?

You must realize that changing the word order as in English "You are at home" which becomes a question by putting are before you does not change a statement into a question in Esperanto. Neither is it enough to use a questioning tone in speech; you must use a question word in an Esperanto question, even if the question without the question word would consist of only a single word!

Chu vere? = Really?
Chu auto? = A car?

**Vocabulary**
Esperanto	English
bela	beautiful
bona	good (cf. bonus)
filo	a son (cf. affiliate)
jes	yes
koni¹	to know, be acquainted with
morgau	tomorrow
ne²	no, not
persono	person
prezidento	a president (of a state)
trakti	to treat
Usono	the USA
vera	real, true (cf. veritable)

¹ Do not confuse koni with scii. Both can be translated by to know in English but koni is used in the sense of to be familiar with something or to be acquainted with someone while scii means to possess knowledge about something. The difference between koni and scii is comparable to that between German kennen and wissen. Another Esperanto word for to know is scipovi (from scii and povi) which means to know how something is done.

² Ne means both no and not in English. But note that it can never be used as an adjective! "I have no money" can be translated as "Mi havas ne monon" which at a first glance seems to be a literal translation of the English sentence. But here ne is an adverb telling something about the verb that precedes it (instead of following it, which is more usual).

With regard to using ne in questions my advice is to avoid negative questions in Esperanto because there is no consensus about how they should be answered. If you ask a greengrocer "Chu vi ne havas bananos?" and if he does not have them, he might either answer Ne (Ne, mi ne havas ilin) or Jes (Jes, mi ne havas ilin). There is no consensus about how negative questions should be answered among Esperantists!

My second advice is that if somebody nevertheless asks you a negative question in Esperanto you should not answer with just jes or ne, but use a complete sentence instead to avoid being misunderstood.

Exercise 11-1

Translate into English:

1. Kiel oni traktis vin tie? 2. Oni traktis min vere tre bone. 3. Chu vi konas la prezidenton de Usono? 4. Mi ne konas lin persone. 5. Kiam ili vojaghos al Europo? 6. Kie ili nun estas? 7. Ili nun estas tie chi sed morgau ili vojaghos al Europo. 8. Chu vi scias ke li persone konas la usonan^* prezidenton? 9. Ne, mi ne sciis tion. 10. Mia auto ne estas tiel rapida kiel lia auto. 11. Ili loghos tie chiam. 12. Kia arbo estas chi tiu? 13. Chi tiu estas pirarbo. 14. Chu shi vere estas tiel bela? 15. Kies automobilo tiu estas? 16. Kiel belaj tiuj chi autoj estas! 17. Kial li ne iris al sia patro kiam li estis en Usono? 18. Mi ne scias kial li ne iris al lin. 19. Chio estas tre bela tie chi. 20. Chu vi chiam dormas en tiu chambro? 21. Jes, mi chiam dormas tie. 22. Morgau chiuj iros al mia onklo. 23. Kies hundo ludas en la ghardeno de via patro? 24. Kion vi achetos? 25. Chu nova auto au nova domo? 26. Mi ne scias kion mi achetos. 27. Chu lia auto estas tiel bona kiel via auto? 28. Ne, lia auto ne estas tiel bona kiel la mia.

^* Adjectives that are derived from proper names (in this case Usono) are generally not written with a capital letter in Esperanto.

Exercise 11-2

Translate into Esperanto:

1. He was speaking very loudly to us. 2. We were sleeping in this room. 3. I do not know where his uncle lives. 4. He lives in that house. 5. The dog drank a lot of water. 6. This is an apple and that is a pear. 7. And this is a banana. 8. I must go to my father now. 9. What did you give to John? 10. I gave him an apple. 11. They saw John in his father's house? 12. I did not see him there, but I saw him in the garden. 13. He was working there. 14. In which house do you live? 15. Where is my car? 16. I know where you car is. 17. We must buy new chairs. 18. They were very angry. 19. He spoke in anger to them. 20. What will happen now? 21. Who knows what will happen? 22. Something will happen soon, but we do not know what. 23. I know what will happen. 24. Those who are not rich have to work. 25. They forgot something. 26. They forgot that I had to work. 27. Who is going to do this?

Key to the exercises