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Definite articles in esperanto?

fra alexbeard,2009 1 2

Meldinger: 17

Språk: English

alexbeard (Å vise profilen) 2009 1 2 21:17:39

Could someone explain to me when to use the definite article in esperanto? Is it before any noun? How does it work? Thank you.

edit:also are there indefinite articles in esperanto?

alexbeard (Å vise profilen) 2009 1 2 22:03:52

Thing is english omits omits "the" alot
For example, the word "english" omits "the"

And the use of the definite article is different in every language, I doubt the creater of esperanto would have based it completely on english.

Rodrigoo (Å vise profilen) 2009 1 2 22:06:27

alexbeard (Å vise profilen) 2009 1 2 22:12:03

Thank you rideto.gif but I don't speak esperanto very well. Can anyone give me a link so something that is in english?

Oŝo-Jabe (Å vise profilen) 2009 1 2 22:54:41

alexbeard:Thank you rideto.gif but I don't speak esperanto very well. Can anyone give me a link so something that is in english?
Does this help? http://donh.best.vwh.net/Esperanto/rules.html#ar...

alexbeard (Å vise profilen) 2009 1 3 00:58:57

Thank you, that helps a lot.

danielcg (Å vise profilen) 2009 1 3 02:03:27

In case of doubt, omit the article and see if the phrase is specific enough according to what you want to say.

For example:

Mi vidis viron = I saw a man (no matter who).

Mi vidis la viron = I saw the man (that one we are speaking about)

I think you could omit the article before "angla" (English):

"En Esperanto ne ekzistas nedifinita artikolo, male kiel en angla" seems correct to me. ("There is no indefinite article in Esperanto, unlike in English.")

However, with regard to languages we generally use the definite article because "la angla" is really an abbreviation of "la angla lingvo" (not any language, but "the" English language).

And why do we say Esperanto with no article and generally capitalized? Because originally it is not the name of a language, but his creator's alias (Doktoro Esperanto = La doktoro kiu esperas = The doctor who hopes).

Regards,

Daniel

alexbeard:Thing is english omits omits "the" alot
For example, the word "english" omits "the"

And the use of the definite article is different in every language, I doubt the creater of esperanto would have based it completely on english.

erinja (Å vise profilen) 2009 1 3 02:42:16

The "la" in "la angla" is not optional. If you were simply to call it "angla", it sounds weird, because the listener is still waiting for the noun that is being described as "English". By adding "la", we are telling the listener that we are talking about the language.

So if I were to say "Tio ne estas kiel en angla", I would understand this to mean "That's not like in an English..." and I'd be waiting to hear, "An English what?"

ceigered (Å vise profilen) 2009 1 3 05:28:00

erinja:The "la" in "la angla" is not optional. If you were simply to call it "angla", it sounds weird, because the listener is still waiting for the noun that is being described as "English". By adding "la", we are telling the listener that we are talking about the language.

So if I were to say "Tio ne estas kiel en angla", I would understand this to mean "That's not like in an English..." and I'd be waiting to hear, "An English what?"
On that note, what is the actual noun for the English language, or does it have to be an adjective-noun construction like 'Angla lingvo'? If there was a precise noun for the word 'English (language)', then you'd be able to write it without a definite article, right?

(Sorry If my typing is bad I am typing this while kneeling because I have too much stuff on my chair to sit on it :S)

danielcg (Å vise profilen) 2009 1 3 05:37:08

Thanks, Erinja.

I always say "la angla", but I thought the article was not mandatory. It seems that I was wrong.

Regards,

Daniel

erinja:The "la" in "la angla" is not optional. If you were simply to call it "angla", it sounds weird, because the listener is still waiting for the noun that is being described as "English". By adding "la", we are telling the listener that we are talking about the language.

So if I were to say "Tio ne estas kiel en angla", I would understand this to mean "That's not like in an English..." and I'd be waiting to hear, "An English what?"

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