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Daft question?

de richardhall, 31 juillet 2007

Messages : 5

Langue: English

richardhall (Voir le profil) 31 juillet 2007 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 (Voir le profil) 31 juillet 2007 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 (Voir le profil) 31 juillet 2007 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 (Voir le profil) 31 juillet 2007 12:56:42

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

EL_NEBULOSO (Voir le profil) 31 juillet 2007 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

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