To say the following esperanto sentence:

Estas ebleco ke li studu,

which sentence is better in english?

1.-There is a possibility for him to study

2.-There is a possibility of his studying

La ideo ke li mangxu,

1.-The idea for him to eat

2.-The idea of his eating

Are both sentences good?, which is better?

Thank you very much!

Francisco Garcia

Estas ebleco ke li studu.
There is a possibility, that he would study.
I don't now English well to select best translation.
La ideo ke li manĝu.
This sentence is not full:
La ideo estas en tio, ke li manĝu.
The idea is that he should eat.

I am trying to work out when you would say this in Esperanto. I wouldn't say it, personally.

"There is a possibility that he should study"?

The thing is, the -u ending is usually expressing either a command or a suggestion, and to put that with a "maybe" or a "possibility" is a bit strange.

If it were "would study" it would be "studus" and not "studu".

La ideo ke li mangxu -- the idea that he should eat.

Francisko, the difference between eble, ke -u, and eble, ke -as/os/is/ will often be the difference between a suggestion and some factual matter. The same goes for la ideo, ke imperative and la ideo ke indicative.

When it comes to suggestions in English the language offers a number of alternatives

Ĉu eble ke vi ne fumu en la aŭto - Could you not smoke in the car, Would you mind not smoking in the car, Would it be possible for you not to smoke in the car.

La ideo ke oni manĝu 5 porciojn de legomoj ĉiutage - the idea that we should eat 5 portions of vegetables every day, the idea of eating 5 portions ...

But ebl(ec)o, ke and ideo, ke could also be used when what follows is suppositional, or speculative (which opens up the possibility of using -us in Esperanto as well as -u, -os)

Ĉu estas ebleco ke li studu/os en Oksfordo - is there a chance of him going to Oksford.

You would find it instructive to see the verb forms use after ideo ke in the Tekstaro. Type in ideon?,? ke

Here are three examples:

..kaj la ideo, ke danĝeraj homoj povus fari ion al ŝi
Mi ne ŝatas la ideon, ke mi devos venigi ripariston ..
Verŝajne estis lia ideo, ke mi presigu ĝin en mil ekzempleroj ...