Messages: 6
Language: English
Skully101 (User's profile) May 9, 2018, 4:56:52 AM
kiel estas vi fartas
be the same as
kiel vi fartas?
thank you!
sergejm (User's profile) May 9, 2018, 5:17:15 AM
kiel vi fartas? - means: how do you do?
Skully101 (User's profile) May 10, 2018, 1:06:39 AM
don't you need to add how "are" you doing
to the sentence?
sergejm (User's profile) May 10, 2018, 4:19:12 AM
tommjames (User's profile) June 11, 2018, 9:33:59 AM
Skully101:"don't you need to add how "are" you doing"As noted, no, and I would add that you need to try and avoid the tendency to translate things word-for-word from English into Esperanto like that. The use of auxiliary verbs like are ("how are you doing") and do ("how do you do") is an aspect of English that you will not necessarily see replicated in the 'equivalent' expressions employed in other languages.
Some similar examples:
What is he doing? → Kion li faras? (not "kion estas li faras?")
When is he coming? → Kiam li venos? (not "kiam estas li venos?")
What did she say? → Kion ŝi diris? (not "kion faris ŝi diris?)
Metsis (User's profile) June 13, 2018, 6:08:12 AM
Hear, hear. Tommjames is right. You need to understand, that certain constructs are specific to English and as such not used in other languages. Tommjames points out two such constructs: be + -ing and the need for auxliary "do" because of the inflexible word order of English. A third common case is the formal subject (again caused by the inflexible word order): It is raining (what is this "it"?). There are others.