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Some Esperanto Questions

od SPX, 07. avgust 2012

Sporočila: 95

Jezik: English

tommjames (Prikaži profil) 17. avgust 2012 14:14:19

Smartyy:But, what if I want to ask "What is eating Marko?"
That would be "Kio manĝas Markon?"

Smartyy:the only thing it gives is "Kiun manĝas la pomon?" - What is the apple eating?
This one's wrong, as you have the n-ending on both "kiun" and "pomon". But also because "kiu" means "which/who", not "what". To ask "What is the apple eating" it would be "Kion manĝas la pomo?"

Smartyy:I also wonder if it's proper to instead say "Mark manĝas kion?"
Yes, that would be fine.

creedelambard (Prikaži profil) 17. avgust 2012 15:19:11

Smartyy:But, what if I want to ask "What is eating Marko?"
Kion prizorgegas Marko?

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Sorry, the first thing I thought of when you said "What's eating Marco?" was the idiomatic usage here in Usono, perhaps most famously manifested in the name of the old Johnny Depp film, What's Eating Gilbert Grape?.

sudanglo (Prikaži profil) 17. avgust 2012 21:31:53

Assuming we are not talking about homophagy. I think I might say Kio zorgigas Markon - kio estas lia problemo?

Maybe Kio agacas Markon? is good too

erinja (Prikaži profil) 18. avgust 2012 02:27:38

Smartyy:I also wonder if it's proper to instead say "Mark manĝas kion?" ... I know word order doesn't matter too much in Esperanto, but I have read that.. there's generally an accepted way, and a less accepted way. Is this acceptable? To my mind, this makes more sense, since it's in the order that English is.
English isn't in the order "Mark eats what?"; English's order is "What is Mark eating?", which would be something like "Kion Marko manĝas?" in Esperanto. Which would also be fine.

Basically alternate word orders are acceptable in Esperanto, but a change in word order usually brings with it a small change in emphasis, so you should be aware of that.

Word order is sometimes changed to increase the clarity of meaning as well.

sudanglo (Prikaži profil) 18. avgust 2012 10:11:23

I believe that in French, in ordinary conversation, they do sometimes shift the question word out of normal position - C'est quoi, ton problème, Marc?, literally Estas kio, via problemo, Marko?

As Erinja says, statistically unusual word orders do create a slightly different emphasis in Esperanto. I'm not sure though to what extent Esperanto has embraced the theoretically possible question word shift.

Vi manĝas kion? sounds to me like the speaker is outraged or surprised at somebody eating something, can't believe his ears, or didn't hear properly the first time.

Getting back to 'What's eating you?' in the sense of 'What is your problem?' I think on reflection that a similar metaphor might work in Esperanto, but I'd change from manĝi to mordi. Kio mordas Markon?

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