In deciding if you have enough elements in a word to convey your meaning, it is important to keep in mind what can happen in the real world.

Now, fumo means smoke (the gas-like substance).

What actions do we associate with smoke?

If you raise the temperature of something (eg paper) it can begin to smoke.

It seems reasonable to use fumi to cover this meaning.

But there is another common action in the world associated with smoke. It's what smokers do. For this it is felt adequate also to use fumi.

The risk of misunderstanding or confusion is low.

If I say la S-ro fumas you wouldn't normally understand that the poor sod is about to go up in flames.

If I said Mi fumigis la fajron this would be taken to mean I had put something on the fire to make it smoke (signalling a plane from a desert island).

In the meaning of Esperanto words there is a common sense pragmatism. BUT you have to learn the meaning of the word that you are deriving another word from.

Droni does not contain the idea of killing, but dying - so to kill by drowning has to be expressed as dronigi.

Interesting, again as an American I am not overly prone to making nouns into verbs, but I read that Shakespeare made thousands of them into common place verbs. It's perhaps something I should consider when using Esperanto.

komenstanto:Interesting, again as an American I am not overly prone to making nouns into verbs, but I read that Shakespeare made thousands of them into common place verbs. It's perhaps something I should consider when using Esperanto.

You're not? I think that Americans do strange things with verbs all the time.

"to grow your business" (grow used transitively, not intransitively)

"to task someone with something" ("task" as a verb instead of a noun).

Even something like "to black ball someone". That's a noun as a verb.

Only "outsource"! But I am sort of making fun of that word as well. I dont use any of the words you mention. I actually think that many times nouns used as verbs come from England. I hypothesize that the British invented "outsource".

In England there is even a holiday called "Noun to Verb Day". The Queen comes on TV and says the new word: "Everyone, The New Word is Outsource. Ive made it up on a hunting trip." The Queen herself made up the word!

Of course, K. That's why we call it the Queen's English.

komenstanto:Only "outsource"! But I am sort of making fun of that word as well. I dont use any of the words you mention.

Do you also never speak of things being carted from one place to another, something being carted off, etc? That's a noun to a verb. Or to frame an argument. Or to book a trip. Or a person being knifed in the back. Or a seal being clubbed. Or penciling in someone for an appointment. Or to egg someone's house. Do you really never hear these kinds of expressions, even if you don't use them?

I think that we have *many* nouns turned into verbs in American English, just as many as in British English (though perhaps we make different choices about the words who get these treatments in our respective versions of the language).

erinja:

komenstanto:Only "outsource"! But I am sort of making fun of that word as well. I dont use any of the words you mention.

Do you also never speak of things being carted from one place to another, something being carted off, etc? That's a noun to a verb. Or to frame an argument. Or to book a trip. Or a person being knifed in the back. Or a seal being clubbed. Or penciling in someone for an appointment. Or to egg someone's house. Do you really never hear these kinds of expressions, even if you don't use them?

I think that we have *many* nouns turned into verbs in American English, just as many as in British English (though perhaps we make different choices about the words who get these treatments in our respective versions of the language).

Look, the Queen invented house-egging on a particularly mischievous Mischief Night.

In any case, Esperanto nouns are more French than English. I was just watching a French movie, and saw use of the word 'cobaye'. I suspected the Esperanto equivalent would be very similar, and so it was: kobajo, but that is a noun that becomes another noun, a guinea-pig.

Can I then turn it into a verb: 'mi kobajas en malsanulejo'? I think it is intransitive.

komenstanto:Can I then turn it into a verb: 'mi kobajas en malsanulejo'? I think it is intransitive.

Sorry to bust your bubble, but what is that meant to mean. If your trying to say "My guinea-pig is in hospital" you would say:

Mia kobajo estas en (la) malsanulejo
Mia kobajo estas malsanuleje

But now were going to strange new doors, because malsanulejo is "a place for sick people" thus a "hospital" Did you release a guinea-pig in hospital to bite the staff's feet I think a vet is something like bestkuracistejo

Evildela:

komenstanto:Can I then turn it into a verb: 'mi kobajas en malsanulejo'? I think it is intransitive.

Sorry to bust your bubble, but what is that meant to mean. If your trying to say "My guinea-pig is in hospital" you would say:

I think it was meant as "I am a guinea-pig (a test subject) in a hospital.", and the question was whether it's okay to turn "estas kobajo" into "kobajas", which I would say is grammatically correct.

TatuLe:

Evildela:

komenstanto:Can I then turn it into a verb: 'mi kobajas en malsanulejo'? I think it is intransitive.

Sorry to bust your bubble, but what is that meant to mean. If your trying to say "My guinea-pig is in hospital" you would say:

I think it was meant as "I am a guinea-pig (a test subject) in a hospital.", and the question was whether it's okay to turn "estas kobajo" into "kobajas", which I would say is grammatically correct.

Strictly kobaji doesn’t mean "to be a guinea-pig", but "to act like a guinea-pig", however in this case it barely makes any difference.