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Imperative help?: "esti" --> "estu"

de Rota, 2009-oktobro-10

Mesaĝoj: 11

Lingvo: English

Rota (Montri la profilon) 2009-oktobro-10 02:15:27

Hey,
I'm another one of those Americans that show up with only a basic knowledge of Esperanto and ask really low-level questions. Sorry if that's not supposed to go here.

Is there some help with imperatives on lernu.net? I grasp most of the grammar, but- as could be predicted- I'm not sure exactly how to translate imperatives. For example, one of the most basic of verbs, in the title: Esti; to be.

What would that translate as, into English, if someone said "Estu!" to me? I've made some guesses, and maybe it's a word that can't accept the -u suffix without a modifier of some sort ("Estu libera"?), but it's interesting to me.

Thanks,
-rowtuh

RiotNrrd (Montri la profilon) 2009-oktobro-10 03:33:26

"Estu" is a perfectly acceptable word, although probably not one that gets a LOT of use all by itself.

It is simply a command to "be!"

Perhaps something a magician might command as he conjures something out of thin air (just as one example).

ceigered (Montri la profilon) 2009-oktobro-10 04:05:21

Hey Rota, this is the right place to ask these kind of things so don't worry. Regarding 'Estu', this one is kind of hard to translate because in many cases where it's used in English (e.g. be good), it's not just a simple word for word translation (be good could be translated as a number of things, e.g. 'agu bone, gxuste, juste' etc. (see here for a similar discussion)).

In the case of 'be free', I guess it'd be ok to have 'estu libera', maybe 'estu libere' could be a better way to say it, I'm not entirely sure.

Miland (Montri la profilon) 2009-oktobro-10 18:49:38

It seems to me that only divinity as the ultimate source of being can say to us simply Estu! On the other hand, estu followed by an adjective should be fine, e.g. 'Be good', Estu bona. You might use an adverb if you wanted to say 'May it be clear that ..', Estu klare, ke.., because in this case 'it' is not a defined subject.

Frankouche (Montri la profilon) 2009-oktobro-10 20:49:04

Estu esperantisto ! rideto.gif

Miland (Montri la profilon) 2009-oktobro-10 23:55:06

Frankouche:Estu esperantisto ! rideto.gif
Mi provos. Yes, that's another good example!

jan aleksan (Montri la profilon) 2009-oktobro-11 12:47:36

To the contrary, it's rather easy to understand. Refers to the bible: Let there be.

"Let there be light: and there was light."

Other reference: Star Wars:

La forto estu kun vi = may the force be with you (is it the correct english sentence?).

But pay attention to the fact that the -u form is not only imperative, but also volitive. So "mi estu" is able.

Mi mangxu=mi devas/volas mangxi : I need/want to eat.

ridulo.gif

Rota (Montri la profilon) 2009-oktobro-11 14:37:59

Hey,
Thank you, all posters, for the help! I read the first two responses two days ago, but was unfortunately somewhat too busy to respond either then or the next day.

Your help is appreciated. I feel educated, and I'm more able to understand Esperanto now. Thank you.
-rowtuh

ceigered (Montri la profilon) 2009-oktobro-11 18:51:28

Iĉo:It's called the jussive mood
Well, I feel like I've learnt something today, along with the Finnish word 'suojelu'. rideto.gif

Momomomomo (Montri la profilon) 2009-oktobro-12 19:12:01

Iĉo:2. Nenion. Nur estu. Io okazos.
Wow, that sounds so deep

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