I am new to Esperanto and I am on part 19 of La Puzlo Esperanto and needed help on the word about "pli". What are the rules for when it is attached to a word and when it is not. I was a little confused by it.
THanks,
thirddaykid

Hello

Good luck with learning Esperanto. Here's my opinion on this question.
1. pli can have mal as a prefix, meaning the opposite. Thus malpli bona means 'less good', and of course malplej bona means 'worst'.
2. pli can be used as a verbal root that can be combined with other words. So plimulto means 'majority'. For example Barack Obama gajnis la plimulton el la voĉdonoj kaj prezidentiĝis. 'Barack Obama won the majority of the votes and became president'.
3. Adding the adjectival a we get plia = 'another'.
4. Adding the adverbal e we get plie which can be either 'besides' or 'to a greater degree'.
5. Adding the substantival o we get plio = 'excess'.

But one more thing: you can get all this information from a good dictionary like Butler. So, if you do end up making Esperanto a serious hobby (which I am sure other readers would be happy to give you friendly encouragement to do!), I would suggest investing in a copy. Good luck.