Skip to the content
Reply

Daft question?

by richardhall, July 31, 2007

Messages: 5

Language: English

richardhall (User's profile) July 31, 2007, 9:39:25 AM

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 (User's profile) July 31, 2007, 9:57:30 AM

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

mnlg (User's profile) July 31, 2007, 12:41:43 PM

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 (User's profile) July 31, 2007, 12:56:42 PM

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

EL_NEBULOSO (User's profile) July 31, 2007, 3:45:44 PM

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

Back to the top