Al la enhavo
Respondi

Daft question?

de richardhall, 2007-julio-31

Mesaĝoj: 5

Lingvo: English

richardhall (Montri la profilon) 2007-julio-31 09:39:25

At the risk of making myself look stupid (What do you mean, 'look'? rido.gif ), why do greetings like 'Good morning' etc take the accusative ending? I daresay that it's obvious, but it bugs me that I don't know!

Matthieu (Montri la profilon) 2007-julio-31 09:57:30

I think that “good morning” means “I wish you a good morning.”
So, in Esperanto, “[Mi deziras al vi] bonan matenon.”

mnlg (Montri la profilon) 2007-julio-31 12:41:43

Yes, that's correct. Other examples are "[Mi donas al vi] saluton", "[Mi ofertas al vi] miajn kondolencojn", "[Mi petas al vi] pardonon", etc.

richardhall (Montri la profilon) 2007-julio-31 12:56:42

Thanks -- I knew it would be obvious as soon as someone explained!

EL_NEBULOSO (Montri la profilon) 2007-julio-31 15:45:44

By the way, it's the same in German:

"Guten Tag" (good day) is accusative (nominativ would be "guter Tag") and it's also because it means "I wish you a good day". Strangely, (nearly) nobody in Germany knows, why we use the accusative.

Just another example, how Esperanto is able to also help you improve the knowledge of you own language! rido.gif

Gerald

Reen al la supro