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Double negatives

de curious_s, 2009-septembro-27

Mesaĝoj: 16

Lingvo: English

curious_s (Montri la profilon) 2009-septembro-27 17:03:30

Im new to esperanto, and im already hooked onto its simplicity. After trying out the first few courses i have a few questions. I don't know if they have already been asked so here goes...

1. Double Negatives.

We know bella = beautiful. Add a "mal" in front of it and it becomes the opposite. that is malbella = ugly. Now what if we add two "mals". Does malmalbella mean beautiful?? Or is there a rule against double negatives???

2. My second question is? We know adding an "et" as suffix makes it small. Plurals end with "oj". Objects with "-n". So in Esperanto, "I love small cats" will be " Mi estas catetojn" Right??

cheers

Oŝo-Jabe (Montri la profilon) 2009-septembro-27 17:21:36

1. There is no rule against adding mal- as many times as you like. In general, you would only use the root and mal+root, but if you had a joke or something that was supposed to confuse the listener you could do something like that.

2.It would be "mi ŝatas/amas katetojn." Amas is usually used for the kind of love you feel for humans. Ŝatas on the other hand is the kind of love/enjoyment you feel for a hobby. "Mi estas katetojn" would be "I am small cats."

RiotNrrd (Montri la profilon) 2009-septembro-27 17:22:09

1)
Technically, "mal-" isn't a negative - it makes a word into its opposite rather than negating it. There is a rule against double-negatives, but "mal-" doesn't enter into it.

You CAN put one "mal-" after another in front of a word, but there's really no reason to do so as they would simply cancel each other out. So I would consider doing so to be more playing with the words than anything else. I certainly wouldn't use a multi-mal word in ordinary conversation.

2)
Love = "ami", not "esti"
Cat = "kato", not "cato"
So: Mi amas katetojn.

Rogir (Montri la profilon) 2009-septembro-27 17:47:43

Also, it's bela, not bella.

Pharoah (Montri la profilon) 2009-septembro-27 19:54:22

So, a related question I've had for a while, is whether we should or can use double negatives to answer questions (like they do in Spanish for example).

Let's say somebody asked me if I am a college student:

--Ĉu vi estas universitata studento?

Can I/should I respond with this?

--Ne, mi ne estas universitata studento?

Miland (Montri la profilon) 2009-septembro-27 20:43:45

Pharoah:Let's say somebody asked me if I am a college student:
--Ĉu vi estas universitata studento?
Can I/should I respond with this?
--Ne, mi ne estas universitata studento
That sounds fine to me. I wouldn't say that you are using a double negative here, but rather adding an explanation to the answer Ne.

Rogir (Montri la profilon) 2009-septembro-27 23:04:09

The comma is crucial there, it separates two sentences that each have one negative in them.

Pharoah (Montri la profilon) 2009-septembro-28 00:27:33

R2D2!:
Pharoah:(like they do in Spanish for example)
Actually a Spanish-like usage would be something like
*“Mi ne faras nenion” (No estoy haciendo nada / I'm not doing nothing).
Although it is “correct” in Spanish, it is incorrect in both English and Esperanto.

—Ilhuıtemoc
I think that was also a part of what I was wanting to ask, but didn't think of it. Thanks!

jchthys (Montri la profilon) 2009-septembro-28 01:33:48

Oŝo-Jabe:"Mi estas katetojn" would be "I am small cats."
“Mi estas katetoj”, actually…not that it makes sense anyway.

Oŝo-Jabe (Montri la profilon) 2009-septembro-28 03:30:57

jchthys:
Oŝo-Jabe:"Mi estas katetojn" would be "I am small cats."
“Mi estas katetoj”, actually…not that it makes sense anyway.
I was simply quoting the original poster (with the minor correction of "catetojn" to "katetojn.") I wasn't saying that "I am small cats" becomes "Mi estas katetojn," I was trying to say that "Mi estas katetojn" becomes "I am small cats." English lacking the accusative, my example seemed to read "I am small cats" when I was really trying to say "I am small cats." okulumo.gif

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