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How to say in esperanto last but three, last but four and so on?

by levi, February 6, 2009

Messages: 6

Language: English

levi (User's profile) February 6, 2009, 5:42:08 AM

Hi! I am learning esperanto and I have a question if you could please let me know. If I say the last girl, I would translate it to la lasta knavin. If I say the last but one girl, I would say that in esperanto, la antaxulasta knavino. To say the last but twoI would say praantaxulasta knavino. But
how I could keep going backwards to say last but last but three, last but four, last but five, and so on. Thanks for all.cheers.

ceigered (User's profile) February 6, 2009, 6:23:18 AM

levi:Hi! I am learning esperanto and I have a question if you could please let me know. If I say the last girl, I would translate it to la lasta knavin. If I say the last but one girl, I would say that in esperanto, la antaxulasta knavino. To say the last but twoI would say praantaxulasta knavino. But
how I could keep going backwards to say last but last but three, last but four, last but five, and so on. Thanks for all.cheers.
In Esperanto it is 'knabino', but I understand your error, I sometimes do the same for other words lango.gif.

I would say it like this:
la lasta knabino (the last girl)
la dua ĝis lasta knabino (the second until last girl)
la tria ĝis lasta knabino (the third until last girl).

Others may want to build upon or correct what I have said, but I hope this helps you.

Gariko_Skeptika (User's profile) February 6, 2009, 9:23:50 AM

The ordinary Esperanto word for 'second-to-last', 'last but one', 'penultimate' is 'antaŭlasta' and provides the best basis on which to build adjectives describing greater degrees of removal from being last. Thus for 'third-to-last' or 'antipenulitimate' I would suggest 'trieantaŭlasta'. Likewise, 'fourth-to-last' would be 'kvareantaŭlasta' and so on.

Miland (User's profile) February 6, 2009, 9:59:11 AM

Benson has lasta, antaŭlasta, praantaŭlasta, tria antaŭ la lasta, etc.

Another possibility might be dua lasta, tria lasta etc.

I can think of another possible solution: malunua, maldua, maltria etc. After all mal is being used for 'opposite to'.
But in practice it might be well to use it only if other clues are provided to the meaning.

levi (User's profile) February 7, 2009, 3:22:06 AM

Hi all!!! Thanks for your answers. Cheers Ivan.

Rogir (User's profile) February 9, 2009, 11:42:27 AM

Malunua ktp, I really like those!

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