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used to do something

de dukemasuya, 2012-novembro-27

Mesaĝoj: 15

Lingvo: English

dukemasuya (Montri la profilon) 2012-novembro-27 06:35:15

I am not sure whether this discussion has already taken place so please forgive me if it has. I have been thinking for a while about how to express the concept of "I used to " in Esperanto. It shouldn't sound too clumsy or leave people guessing.

For example, the sentence "I used to study Esperanto for 5 hours every day".

Would you say something like:
Mi estis studanta Esperanton dum 5 horoj ĉiutage.
Mi (ofte/regule) studis Esperanton dum 5 horoj ĉiutage. -- The only issue with this option is that it doesn't carry that inherent nuance of having done something regularly unless you put in the words ofte or regule. Not that I mind or anything but still.

Any thoughts about this? I guess the main thing is that it's important that, however you express it, the meaning needs to be understood straight off without much thought.

dmsexton88 (Montri la profilon) 2012-novembro-27 06:49:18

I'm still in the komencanto stage myself, but I believe you can use the verb kutimi, meaning "to be in the habit of, or to be used to," so you would structure a sentence like this:

Mi kutimis

dukemasuya (Montri la profilon) 2012-novembro-27 06:50:40

Had a quick think about it and came up with another alternative:
Mi antaŭe studis Esperanton dum 5 horoj ĉiutage. -- That seems more similar to the German way which I am familiar with where the imperfect tense and an adverb like früher (formerly, prior, earlier etc.) is used. Thoughts?

dukemasuya (Montri la profilon) 2012-novembro-27 06:51:28

dmsexton88:I'm still in the komencanto stage myself, but I believe you can use the verb kutimi, meaning "to be in the habit of, or to be used to," so you would structure a sentence like this:

Mi kutimis
Interesting alternative. I like that one.

Chainy (Montri la profilon) 2012-novembro-27 07:43:32

dukemasuya:Had a quick think about it and came up with another alternative:
Mi antaŭe studis Esperanton dum 5 horoj ĉiutage. -- That seems more similar to the German way which I am familiar with where the imperfect tense and an adverb like früher (formerly, prior, earlier etc.) is used. Thoughts?
Yes, this is a good way of putting it. Sometimes you'll see 'Antaŭe mi studis...'. The regularity is clear due to the fact that you say 'dum 5 horoj ĉiutage'.

J_Marc (Montri la profilon) 2012-novembro-27 10:43:41

As well as the other ones offered:

Pasintece mi lernis Esperanton po 5 horoj por tago. En la pasinteco, mi lernis Esperanton 5-horojn ĉiutage. Antaŭ la lastatempeco mi lernis Esperanton dum 5 horoj ĉiutage. Dum mia universitata tempo, mi lernis Esperanton por 35 horoj ĉiusemajne. Mi ekslernis Esperanton por 5 horoj ĉiutage. Iam mi lernis Esperanton tre diligente - 5 horojn ĉiutage!

By the way, are we saying 'studi' for learning languages now? ReVo suggests it's more for academic-type study to acquire some kind of scientific knowledge. Ekz. Mi studas ĥemion.

sudanglo (Montri la profilon) 2012-novembro-27 14:48:52

I suspect that there isn't a single translation that always fits the nuance of English 'used to'.

In 'I used to love the way she laughed at my jokes', perhaps the implication is not a strong one that you would not now still enjoy this (if you could)

But in 'The buses used to be more frequent', I think there is strong implication that they aren't now.

Because the simple past in Esperanto does not carry in itself the implication that something is no longer the case, this idea has to be made explicit, if appropriate (ie is not obvious from context).

When the idea is just one of past habit, an unadorned simple past may be sufficient. Mi tre ŝatis ŝian aprecon de miaj spritaĵoj.

There would be a variety of ways of conveying in Esperanto that things are different now.

Iam la busoj estis tre oftaj, I think clearly implies that they aren't now.

T0dd (Montri la profilon) 2012-novembro-27 16:06:58

dukemasuya:Had a quick think about it and came up with another alternative:
Mi antaŭe studis Esperanton dum 5 horoj ĉiutage. -- That seems more similar to the German way which I am familiar with where the imperfect tense and an adverb like früher (formerly, prior, earlier etc.) is used. Thoughts?
I used to study Esperanto five hours a day.
I formerly studied Esperanto five hours a day.
Some years ago, I studied Esperanto five hours a day.

The three sentences are pretty close in meaning; the third is a bit more specific, but not much. So you could translate either the second or third to get the sense of the first, using antaŭe or antaŭ kelkaj jaroj. I think you could also use pasintece.

Pasintece mi studis Esperanto po kvin horojn ĉiutage.

Edit: I think I need -N after po.

tommjames (Montri la profilon) 2012-novembro-27 16:34:35

T0dd:Edit: I think I need -N after po.
It's often omitted, even for the accusative of time/measure. Out of curiosity I searched Tekstaro and found "po kvardek kilometroj hore" in Ĉu li? and "po dek horoj ĉiutage" in Marta, as well as similar usage in other works, so I would think it's not really worth worrying about.

T0dd (Montri la profilon) 2012-novembro-27 18:47:25

tommjames:
T0dd:Edit: I think I need -N after po.
It's often omitted, even for the accusative of time/measure. Out of curiosity I searched Tekstaro and found "po kvardek kilometroj hore" in Ĉu li? and "po dek horoj ĉiutage" in Marta, as well as similar usage in other works, so I would think it's not really worth worrying about.
I searched and found it both ways. I seldom use po, for some reason, but felt like using it here.

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