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Verb, Noun, or what?

de Frakseno, 2007-novembro-26

Mesaĝoj: 14

Lingvo: English

Frakseno (Montri la profilon) 2007-novembro-26 22:51:43

Hello.
As part of my effort to become fluent in la internacia lingvo, I have begun keeping a journal entirely in E-o, in which I write a brief paragraph every day or so.
This has really shaken me a bit, as I find out exactly how large the gaps are in my (beginner's) knowledge of how to express myself correctly.

Here is a specific question I have, and it may just highlight how ignorance of my native language's (English) grammar is hindering my learning of a second language:

When referring to "writing" and "reading," as in saying that

"Writing in Esperanto is more difficult than reading it."

what forms do the words for writing and reading take? Would it be verbs (ie - skribas / legas)?

"Mi pensas, ke skribas Esperanton estas pli malfacila ol legas gxin." ???

Or some form of noun (ie - skribanto / leganto)? I'm really baffled in a manner to which I am unused.

Dankon! Thanks in advance!

mnlg (Montri la profilon) 2007-novembro-26 23:04:57

I am not a native speaker of English, but I read that as "the process of writing" and I would use "skribado" (skribado en esperanto estas pli malfacila ol legado)

However if I am not mistaken you could rephrase that into "To write in Esperanto is more difficult than to read it", which is more straightforward to translate: "skribi en esperanto estas pli malfacile ol legi gxin".

Which is closer to what I would say, "Estas pli malfacile skribi en esperanto ol legi gxin".

It is difficult for me to give proper advice to a native speaker of English. A general suggestion is to avoid translating literally, to try to capture the meaning of what you want to express and to use the tools that Esperanto provides. Reading and analyzing text, both in English and Esperanto, can help.

Frakseno (Montri la profilon) 2007-novembro-26 23:11:18

mnlg, what you say makes perfect sense. I think that is where my technical ignorance of English grammar may be hindering my efforts. I suppose when translating my thoughts into Esperanto, I should try to think of multiple ways to express what I am trying to translate.

I think I was also getting confused between malfacila and malfacile due to my confusion as to whether I would need to be using nouns or verbs.

"malfacile" in your sentence is in adverb form because it is referring to the act of writing, correct?

Frakseno (Montri la profilon) 2007-novembro-26 23:13:39

P.S. - what are the nuances of my original sentence:

"Mi pensas, ke skribas Esperanton estas pli malfacila ol legas gxin."

what would those fluent in E-o interpret that sentence to mean (if they didn't know what I was actually trying to express)?

Miland (Montri la profilon) 2007-novembro-26 23:48:49

Frakseno:"Mi pensas, ke skribas Esperanton estas pli malfacila ol legas gxin." what would those fluent in E-o interpret that sentence to mean (if they didn't know what I was actually trying to express)?
As it stands, it says 'I think that writes Esperanto is easier than reads it', which does not make sense. Someone with a little experience of Esperanto might well guess that you were trying to say 'I think that writing Esperanto is easier than reading it.' But, as mnlg has pointed out, to make it intelligible in this way, you would need to substitute the -i form for the -as form.

Frakseno (Montri la profilon) 2007-novembro-26 23:51:08

Thanks, miland. All of this feedback is very helpful. rideto.gif

mnlg (Montri la profilon) 2007-novembro-26 23:56:49

Frakseno:"malfacile" in your sentence is in adverb form because it is referring to the act of writing, correct?
Adverbs are used to define verbs, or adjectives. Adjectives define nouns. English might make this a little confusing, since many adjectives also work as adverbs. On the contrary, Esperanto categorically requires this distinction.

Solvi estas facile
It's easy to solve. (solving is easy)

La solvo estas facila
The solution is easy.

La solvo estas vere facila
The solution is truly (really) easy.

Li solvis [la problemon] vere facile.
He solved [the problem] truly (really) easily ("in a truly (really) easy way", perhaps?).

I hope it's clearer now!

Frakseno (Montri la profilon) 2007-novembro-27 00:27:50

Yes, I am going to have to become more diligent in this area.
I would tend to translate your first sentence above as "To solve is easily."
But now I will pay closer attention to the difference between how English and Esperanto use adverbs.

One favor: could you please share with me how we would translate "The problem is easy to solve" into E-o?

mnlg (Montri la profilon) 2007-novembro-27 00:39:13

Frakseno:One favor: could you please share with me how we would translate "The problem is easy to solve" into E-o?
Sure!

I would say "La problemo solveblas facile" (is easily solvable). Another possibility is "Estas facile solvi la problemon" (= "it's easy to solve the problem"). I am not sure I could convincingly describe the difference in English, however (I'm not even sure what it is exactly ridulo.gif). There may be other forms.

Frakseno (Montri la profilon) 2007-novembro-27 00:54:25

Once again, I should have just come up with alternate ways of phrasing the sentence in order to more effectively translate into E-o. In addition, it is not yet my first thought to use affixes to make comments about words (as you so aptly demonstrated with -eblas above).

Thanks again!

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