Today's word of the day has this example sentence:

"Kun vero severa komercajxo forvelkos".

I can't figure out what this means. I sent a message in esperanto, ke mi ne komprenas, but I can't understand the answer either.

To me it reads:

With truth severa (=compliant or conformant or proper or legal from the definition that was being given) wares will fade away/abort/die/become no more. It just doesn't make sense. Who or what is the subject of this sentence even?

The answer started "severa estas vero". Right there I stopped understanding the clarification. How can a noun describe an adjective? How can you have a sentence "adjective is noun".

Can someone help please...

Nick

The phrase is a proverb, taken from Zamenhof's very extensive Esperanta proverbaro, which, as it happens, is available on lernu! in a searchable form - you can find it here.

I agree that it's not the clearest proverb in the world I'd translate it as, "With severe/strict truth, merchandise withers away." My guess is that that refers to how a product looks a lot less attractive when you stop exaggerating about all the features it has, why it's better than all the other products etc.

Turning to the answer you were sent: remember that Esperanto word order is quite free, and does not necessarily have to be in the subject-verb-object pattern, although that is the most common word order in practice. "Severa estas vero" means exactly the same thing as "vero estas severa", and indeed the same "vero severa estas" or "estas severa vero", although the last two would only really turn up in poetry.

I'm guessing the person who wrote the answer to you was getting across the point that "severa" describes "vero" and not "komercaĵo" in this sentence. If I were Zamenhof, I would have put in a comma to make things clear, like this: "Kun vero severa, komercaĵo forvelkos."

Kwekubo:I agree that it's not the clearest proverb in the world.

You bet. I'd have probably understood it if I were looking at the web site of a Hindu guru or similar. Being hit with that sort of sentence in vorto de la tago as an example of how to to use "severa" completely threw me.

Kwekubo:Turning to the answer you were sent: remember that Esperanto word order is quite free, and does not necessarily have to be in the subject-verb-object pattern, although that is the most common word order in practice. "Severa estas vero" means exactly the same thing as "vero estas severa", and indeed the same "vero severa estas" or "estas severa vero", although the last two would only really turn up in poetry.

I'm guessing the person who wrote the answer to you was getting across the point that "severa" describes "vero" and not "komercaĵo" in this sentence. If I were Zamenhof, I would have put in a comma to make things clear, like this: "Kun vero severa, komercaĵo forvelkos."

Well, yeah, you're right there. As both nouns are nominative singular it is factually ambiguous whether severa is supposed to apply to the truth or to the merchandise. I took it that it should apply to the merchandise - which clearly makes the sentence into complete gibberish.

Thanks for your help.

Nick

I would translate "vero severa" into English as "strict truth". I actually find "komercaĵo" more surprising in this proverb. I'd find it more transparent (if a bit cynical) if it were just "komerco".

Todd