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Word for "a" in Esperanto

de Bemused, 2011-decembro-18

Mesaĝoj: 17

Lingvo: English

Bemused (Montri la profilon) 2011-decembro-18 08:20:57

Hi
In the dictionary I am told that there is no Esperanto word for a(En).
However the word for an(En) is ano(Eo).
Would it be acceptable to use ano in Esperanto where one would use "a" in English?
Cheers

miropiro (Montri la profilon) 2011-decembro-18 08:35:04

Bemused:Hi
In the dictionary I am told that there is no Esperanto word for a(En).
However the word for an(En) is ano(Eo).
Would it be acceptable to use ano in Esperanto where one would use "a" in English?
Cheers
Yeah, it is because, that you do not have to use "a" or "an" in Esperanto. If you want to use "the", you will use "la" (e.g. the cat = la kato). However, if you want to say in Esperanto "a cat", say simply "kato", because Esperanto does not have "a" and "an".

darkweasel (Montri la profilon) 2011-decembro-18 09:30:40

demando.gif demando.gif demando.gif
What dictionary told you there was any relation between English-language "an" and Esperanto ano? Esperanto ano means "member".

Chainy (Montri la profilon) 2011-decembro-18 11:01:37

Yes, at the moment, when you type 'an' in the Lernu dictionary for English-Eo, you are told that the translation is 'ano'! It's just a random and very silly mistake in the dictionary.

I've now changed the dictionary entry to this:
an = There is no indefinite article in Esperanto. "An apple = "Pomo"; "The apple" = "La pomo"

erinja (Montri la profilon) 2011-decembro-18 14:07:43

I wonder if an made it into the dictionary as a quasi-suffix.

Like Christian - kristano; republican - respublikano, etc.

Chainy (Montri la profilon) 2011-decembro-18 16:33:21

erinja:I wonder if an made it into the dictionary as a quasi-suffix.

Like Christian - kristano; republican - respublikano, etc.
Maybe you're right. I can't think of any other explanation. Still, it's rather a bizarre thing to put in the dictionary with absolutely no explanation as to the fact that it's relating to such a 'quasi-suffix'!

I think we can safely leave that one out.

erinja (Montri la profilon) 2011-decembro-19 02:06:22

Chainy:I think we can safely leave that one out.
I fully agree.

And I doubt that anyone would look up the English -an suffix anyway. They would more likely look up the complete word - Christian, republican, etc.

Fenris_kcf (Montri la profilon) 2011-decembro-19 07:44:24

As already said there is no indefinite article in Esperanto. However in some situations one really want's to emphasize the "indefiniteness" and then he can use "iu"/io" or "unu".

Actually I'd prefer to have an indefinite article. I never really know how to express abstract things, where I would usually use no article. For example:

"Liberty is something worth fighting for"

Would it translate to "Libereco indas batali por ĝi." or should I place a "la" in front of "libereco"?

darkweasel (Montri la profilon) 2011-decembro-19 08:31:55

Fenris_kcf:
"Liberty is something worth fighting for"

Would it translate to "Libereco indas batali por ĝi." or should I place a "la" in front of "libereco"?
concerning the use of an article i think it's possible both with and without "la".
however your translation is somewhat strange, i would say: por (la) libereco indas batali, or if you want to conserve the english construction: (la) libereco estas io, por kio indas batali.

sudanglo (Montri la profilon) 2011-decembro-19 09:55:05

Does the use of 'iu' or 'unu' emphasize indefiniteness?

Unu tagon, dum mi butikumis en la urbo, iu strangulo haltigis min kaj komencis prediki al mi pri Esperanto.

I'd translate that into English as 'One day, when I was doing some shopping in the town, this weirdo stopped me and ..,'

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