Viestejä: 24
Kieli: English
Alkanadi (Näytä profiilli) 3. elokuuta 2015 9.47.17
Malstreĉi
If you want to tell someone to relax, you could say malstreĉu.
sudanglo (Näytä profiilli) 3. elokuuta 2015 11.50.27
DuckFiasco (Näytä profiilli) 3. elokuuta 2015 19.43.21
Esperanto has two kinds of verbs, transitive and intransitive. Transitive is a verb where A acts on B. Intransitive is A acts by itself, or becomes, etc.
We can often use the same word for both in English: I close the door, The door closes. I boil the water, The water is boiling.
This is rarely the case in Esperanto, except for a very small handful of verbs.
When we have a verb like "fermi" that is transitive, it must mean "A fermas B". If we wish to say "the door closed" on its own, we need to add the suffix -iĝ to show this. La pordo fermiĝis. In your case, streĉi behaves like fermi, A streĉas B. So we must add -iĝ, "Mi malstreĉiĝas" - I'm relaxing, or "Malstreĉiĝu!" - Relax!
Without -iĝ, "streĉi" means to make longer, wider, or strain: Mi streĉas la cerbon, I'm straining my brain. Li streĉas la kolon, He's stretching his neck.
Some other examples:
Mi komencas la lecionon. La tago komenciĝis.
La spektaklo ĉesis. Ili ĉesigis la spektaklon.
La akvo bolas. Mi boligas la akvon.
Mi ŝanĝis la respondon. La vetero ŝanĝiĝis.
You can find more information, including a comprehensive list of common transitive/intransitive verbs, here: http://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/eo/colloq/colloq12...
This is one of the few areas of Esperanto that simply requires rote learning, though most verbs do seem to follow the instincts of people who speak European languages.
Alkanadi (Näytä profiilli) 4. elokuuta 2015 6.16.21
DuckFiasco:When we have a verb like "fermi" that is transitive, it must mean "A fermas B". If we wish to say "the door closed" on its own, we need to add the suffix -iĝ to show this. La pordo fermiĝis. In your case, streĉi behaves like fermi, A streĉas B. So we must add -iĝ, "Mi malstreĉiĝas" - I'm relaxing, or "Malstreĉiĝu!" - Relax!Interesting. Thank you. This is a little hard for me to grasp but I think I get it.
Is this right?
The dog is relaxing me:
La hundo malstreĉas min.
I am relaxed:
Mi malstreĉiĝas
Now I can relax:
Nun, mi povas malstreĉi.
sudanglo (Näytä profiilli) 4. elokuuta 2015 10.40.03
Now I can relax:This would have to be malstreĉiĝi
Nun, mi povas malstreĉi.
Alkanadi (Näytä profiilli) 4. elokuuta 2015 13.31.24
sudanglo:This would have to be malstreĉiĝiOh, okay. I guess transitive verbs must have a subject. If there is no subject in the sentence then it must have the iĝ affix.
This seems a little more complex and confusing than the accusative thing.
Tempodivalse (Näytä profiilli) 4. elokuuta 2015 14.03.40
Alkanadi:Do you mean "object"?sudanglo:This would have to be malstreĉiĝiOh, okay. I guess transitive verbs must have a subject. If there is no subject in the sentence then it must have the iĝ affix.
Generally speaking, transitive verbs have (direct) objects, and intransitive verbs don't have objects.
But note that a verb could be intransitive even if there is no iĝ. The default transitivity of a verb changes with each verb.
There isn't anything particularly confusing about the concept of transitivity, once you've understood some abstract principles.
The difficulty is only in remembering which verbs are transitive and which are intransitive.
Alkanadi (Näytä profiilli) 4. elokuuta 2015 16.57.25
DuckFiasco:When we have a verb like "fermi" that is transitive, it must mean "A fermas B". If we wish to say "the door closed" on its own, we need to add the suffix -iĝ to show this. La pordo fermiĝis. In your case, streĉi behaves like fermi, A streĉas B. So we must add -iĝ, "Mi malstreĉiĝas" - I'm relaxing, or "Malstreĉiĝu!" - Relax!Are there any ways avoid it. For example:
Now I will relax:
Nun, mi malstreĉos min.
Tempodivalse (Näytä profiilli) 4. elokuuta 2015 17.45.11
Alkanadi:Are there any ways avoid it. For example:That's fine. It might not work equally appropriately for all verbs, though.
Now I will relax:
Nun, mi malstreĉos min.
DuckFiasco (Näytä profiilli) 4. elokuuta 2015 21.42.23
So for instance, you might have "boli - to boil, be bubbling and boiling" or "cxesi - to stop doing, come to an end". That way, you'll know you wouldn't say "Mi bolas* akvon" because "mi" is not "bubbling and boiling"! So you must write "Mi boligas akvon".
Thinking of an example sentence can also be helpful too, so you'll think "la fajro brulas... ah, bruli is what fire does. So if I burn something, I must bruligi it." This becomes second nature as you learn the words, it's not a constant battle
![ridulo.gif](/images/smileys/ridulo.gif)
There are lots of examples in that page I linked to, such as:
kolekti = to collect (= to gather something up)
veki = to awaken (= to rouse somebody)
droni = to drown (= to die by trying to breathe under water)
And so on. If you use flashcards for vocab, this is easy peasy.
In many instances, you can say something like "Mi malstrecxas min" or "Mi vekis min" but what about things like "I'm bored with reading"? It's the reading that's boring, not "mi tedas min"! So we'll say "Mi tedigxas legante."
Just take a little time to learn this smallish handful of common verbs (~40) where the transitivity isn't what English speakers expect. Then you'll be speaking bonegan Esperanton instead of merely kompreneblan Esperanton
![ridulo.gif](/images/smileys/ridulo.gif)
Hope that helps!