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Voting

by richardhall, June 4, 2009

Messages: 10

Language: English

richardhall (User's profile) June 4, 2009, 3:10:00 PM

I've just come back from voting in the Euro elections (very quiet at the polling station: the turnout will be appallingly low it seems)

The act of voting raised an E-o issue for me. In English: I vote for a candidate, but if I'm talking about a party, I can say 'I vote Labour'

How does this work in Esperanto. Would "Mi voĉdonis la Verdojn" be correct? Or should there be a preposition in there?

jchthys (User's profile) June 4, 2009, 3:21:06 PM

There should probably be a preposition; I would use "por". The English seems to be an ellipsis.

Rogir (User's profile) June 4, 2009, 3:30:53 PM

But then again, phrases with a preposition can usually be replaced with an accusative phrase, and I don't believe this to be an exception. Both clearly convey the intended meaning.

richardhall (User's profile) June 4, 2009, 3:59:15 PM

Thanks for that.

russ (User's profile) June 5, 2009, 11:55:45 AM

"Por" indeed seems the most commonly used preposition in such voting expressions, but "al" also shows up sometimes (it makes sense if you consider the literal meaning of "voĉdoni", and indeed in some national languages you "give your voice/vote to a candidate" instead of "voting for a candidate").

richardhall (User's profile) June 5, 2009, 3:35:50 PM

Put that way, voĉdoni al seems better than voĉdoni por, but I'm not sure my preference for how things seem is a reliable guide. okulumo.gif

Miland (User's profile) June 5, 2009, 4:04:00 PM

In my opinion al and por are equally good here, but you could always use
je if you're not sure!

Filanator (User's profile) June 5, 2009, 10:48:01 PM

I think that Labour would technically be an adverb in your example sentence, so you could say "Mi voĉdonas Verde", although that might sound weird.

richardhall (User's profile) June 5, 2009, 11:11:50 PM

Esperanto likes adverbs, doesn't it, so I suppose voting greenly or labourly makes sense. rideto.gif

LyzTyphone (User's profile) June 6, 2009, 1:40:44 AM

From pure grammatical view point,
I think "voĉdoni" is actually short for "doni voĉon", isn't it?

If so, because one will probably say "doni voĉon al iu", I think "al" is more preferable.

Of course, with "doni voĉon" incorporated into "voĉdoni", one can say "voĉdoni iun".
Here the "-n" is a substitute for "al..."

Therefore, "my-opinionly", both "voĉdoni al iu" and "voĉdoni iun" can be used.

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