xdzt:

Chainy:Mi kudras sufiĉe bone - I can sew quite well.

..wouldn't "I [can] sew well enough" be a better translation for this?

Either may be suitable, depending on the context. Sufiĉe is often used in Esperanto where speakers of English would say "quite" before an adjective. The renderings of "quite" in Wells are tute, sufiĉe, and pli-malpli.

xdzt:Quite can have the same meaning as sufficiently, but in the sentence "I can sew quite well" I would take it to mean exceptionally or very.)

Yes, I know what you mean here. "Quite" certainly does have two possible meanings which makes things rather confusing! Although, to my ear 'quite good' in the sense of 'exceptionally or very good' sounds rather an outdated use of the word (or perhaps it depends where exactly you're from...) - If someone were to say to me that they are 'quite good at tennis', then my first reaction would be to interpret this as 'good to a certain/fairly significant degree' (or 'pretty good') - I probably wouldn't think they meant 'exceptionally/very good'....

Metio - Manual trade/craft, handicraft.

Manlabora profesio, precipe hejme aŭ etindustrie praktikata - A manual profession, mainly practised at home or in small industry.

Li volis lerni metion de ŝufarado - He wanted to learn the (or 'a'?!) trade/craft of shoemaking. (Not sure why 'la' was omitted here, as in "Li volis lerni la metion de sxufarado". Without 'la', the meaning seems to be "He wanted to learn a shoemaking trade", which I suppose is ok if there are many different types of the shoemaking trade... I'm no expert on this matter!).

Ĉiu klopodu nur en sia metio, tiam al la urbo mankos nenio - Everyone should make an effort (work hard) in their own trade, (and) then the city won't be lacking in/short of anything.

Tro da metioj - profitoj neniaj. - Too many trades (bring) no profits (benefits) - I suppose the idea here is that if you're trained in too many trades then it will probably mean that you're not expert enough in any of them and so the results aren't so good... Something similar to ""Jack of all trades, master of none"

Tiu urbo iam estis metia kaj kultura centro de nia lando - That city was once the centre of manual trades and culture in our country.

Lia metiejo troviĝas malantaŭ tiu monto - His workshop is (lit. 'finds itself', as in 'is situated') behind that mountain.

Ĉiuj metiistoj volis vendi siajn faritaĵojn - All the craftsmen wanted to sell their goods (lit. the things that they had made)

Mi estas nemetiulo kaj okupiĝas pri kudrado nur en mia libera tempo - I'm not a craftsman and I sew (lit. 'occupy myself with sewing') only in my free time.

Note: a useful word is "metiolernanto" - an apprentice. (when talking about manual crafts/trades)

ORFO - orphan

Knabo, kies gepatroj, aŭ nur unu el ili, mortis - a boy whose parents, or only one of them, have/has died. (I suppose 'boy' is used here as it refers to 'orfo', rather than 'orfino'. Still, it would seem better to use the word 'infano')

Ni decidis loĝigi tiun orfon en nia hejmo - We decided to take that orphan into our home (to live with us).

De edziĝo tro malfrua orfoj naskiĝas - Orphans are born from a wedding that is too late.

Tiu infaneto estas orfa - That little child is an orphan (ok, not a literal translation, as the noun form sounds better in English).

Liaj laboriloj kuŝas orfe (forlasite) sur la tablo - His tools are lying/lie neglected on the table.

Ĝoju, ke vi ne spertis la orfecon - Be happy that you didn't experience being an orphan. (lit. orfeco = orphaness, if you don't mind me making a word up there!)

Multaj infanoj loĝas en orfejoj - Many children live in orphanages.

La katastrofo orfigis multajn infanojn - The catastrophe made many children orphans.

La orfino perdis ĉion: gepatrojn, amikojn kaj hejmon - The orphan lost everything: parents, friends and home.

ORDINARA - ordinary, usual

1. Konforma al la ĉiutaga uzado, al la kutimo; ne diferencanta de la plimulto el la okazoj - Conforming with the everyday usage, with the custom, not differing from the majority of events.

Pantalono kaj pulovero estas miaj ordinaraj vestoj - Trousers and a pullover are my usual clothes.

Ĉi tiu vesto pro sia ordinareco ne taŭgas al la festo - This item of clothing is not suitable for the celebration because of its ordinariness.

2. Ne superanta la komunan nivelon, ne diferencanta de la normala grado - Not surpassing the common level, not differing from the normal grade.

Li estas tute ordinara knabo - He is a completely ordinary boy.

Mi dormis neordinare longe - I slept for an unusually long time.

Mi ne ŝatas esti ordinarulo, ĉar mi volas distingiĝi de la ceteraj - I don't like being an ordinary person because I want to distinguish myself from the others.

Via talento estas eksterordinara! - Your talent is extraordinary!

Ĉi-somere estas eksterordinare varme - This summer it is extraordinarily warm.

Chainy, let me just say, great work! Adding the explanations from PMEG and ReVo is going above and beyond the call of duty!

FARBO - paint

Miksaĵo de likvo (ordinare oleo) kaj pigmento, uzata por ŝmiri surfacon kaj ĝin kolorigi - A mixture of a liquid (usually oil) and a pigment, used for spreading on a surface and colouring it.

Ĉi tiu farbo jam estas tro malnova kaj ne taŭgas por farbado - This paint is already too old and is not suitable for painting.
Ni aĉetis la domon kaj nun farbas ĝin - We bought the house and we are now painting it.
Atentu! La benko estas farbita! - Caution! Wet paint on the bench (lit. The bench is painted!)
Ni ne bezonas farbistojn, ĉar ni mem povas farbi la barilon - We don't need painters (decorators) because we can paint the fence ourselves.
Mi bezonos du farbskatolojn por ĉi tiu pordo - I'll need two cans of paint for that door.
Infanoj desegnis per akvofarbo - Children drew with water colours (paints).

Some notes:

farbo - paint (for decorating and painting pictures)
koloro - colour
inko - ink
tinkturo - dye

farbi muron - to paint a wall
pentri bildon - to paint a picture (pentrajxo = painting)

So, a 'farbisto' is a painter in the sense of a decorator who paints walls etc. A 'pentristo' is a painter in the sense of an artist...

desegni bildon - to draw a picture.
desegni aviadilon - to design an aeroplane...
desegnisto - (professional) designer

Oŝo-Jabe:Chainy, let me just say, great work! Adding the explanations from PMEG and ReVo is going above and beyond the call of duty!

Thanks. I'm trying to be accurate, but if you see anything wrong, then please comment. The nuances are important. The word 'sxovi' was interesting in this regard...

Songxo- a dream (during sleep)

"Serio da bildoj kaj scenoj, aperantaj al dormanta persono" - A series of pictures and scenes appearing to a sleeping person.

"Ĉi-nokte mi havis tre strangan sonĝon." - Last night I had a very strange dream.

NOTE: Тhis might sound a bit odd that 'cxi-nokte' means 'last night'. I've also come across this in Russian, too (and been confused by it!) - I suppose it's due to the fact that when we say 'last night' we are actually refering to the 'early hours of this morning', which clearly belong to 'this day today'. And anyway, the fact that the verb is in the past tense makes it clear.

In English, we sometimes say things like 'Last night I went out to the pub' - In this case "Last night" is actually refering to 'yesterday evening' (and the 'going out' might well have spilled over into 'the early ours of this morning') In this case, I think you'd say 'Hieraux vespere mi iris al trinkejo'. But maybe someone else has some thoughts on this?!

'Cxi-' can also be used to the future parts of 'today' (which is more understandable for native English speakers!). For example, cxi-vespere = this evening.

"Sonĝo teruras, sonĝo forkuras" - The dream terrifies, the dream runs away (very odd sentence!)

"Tio estis nur sonĝa fantomo" - That was just a ghost/phantom of a dream.

"Mi sonĝis kvazaŭ mi kuŝas apud la maro en bela insulo" - I had a dream as if I was lying by the sea on a beatiful island. (notice the simplified use of tenses in the Esperanto there!)

"Ne esperite, ne sonĝite" - Not hoped for, not dreamed of

"Subite ŝi vekiĝis pro la premsonĝo (songxacxo)" - Suddenly she woke up because of a nightmare.

Note: I've come across a few words for 'nightmare':

Songxacxo - this is the word featuring in Vikipedio and probably the best one to use. (lit. 'a nasty dream').
Premsongxo - (as above, which seems to translate as something like 'dream of oppression'!)
Inkubo - comes from "Incubus", the nasty demon that attacked people (mainly women) in their sleep...(Incubus)
Kosxmaro - very similar to the French and Russian words, but ReVo says this is a poetic word and so not used often...

Has anyone got a Wells dictionary? - It would be interesting to see what word he decided on for 'nightmare'.

Revi - be careful not to confuse this with 'songxi'. "Songxi" refers to dreams during your sleep. "Revi" refers to other types of dreams, such as 'daydreaming', or to dream of something better in life, for example:

"Tian sukceson ni ne esperis, ecx ne revis" = We didn't hope for such success, we didn't even dream of it"

"De lia juneco li revis pri la solvado de tiu problemo" - From his youth he (had) dreamt of solving that problem.

Chainy:[NOTE: Тhis might sound a bit odd that 'cxi-nokte' means 'last night'. I've also come across this in Russian, too (and been confused by it!) - I suppose it's due to the fact that when we say 'last night' we are actually refering to the 'early hours of this morning', which clearly belong to 'this day today'. And anyway, the fact that the verb is in the past tense makes it clear.

In English, we sometimes say things like 'Last night I went out to the pub' - In this case "Last night" is actually refering to 'yesterday evening' (and the 'going out' might well have spilled over into 'the early ours of this morning') In this case, I think you'd say 'Hieraux vespere mi iris al trinkejo'. But maybe someone else has some thoughts on this?!

'Cxi-' can also be used to the future parts of 'today' (which is more understandable for native English speakers!). For example, cxi-vespere = this evening./quote]Very nice job of explaining that to learners, Chainy!
Maybe another way of explaining it could be that "ĉi" refers to nearby things, and "nokte", so it effectively means the "nearest" night. Because it's past tense that night obviously must have passed, so it's clearly not referring to the other nearest night (the one that the speaker is about to have). (Of course, if one doesn't feel comfortable with that I guess "hieraŭ nokte" works).

Note: I've come across a few words for 'nightmare':

Songxacxo - this is the word featuring in Vikipedio and probably the best one to use. (lit. 'a nasty dream').

I agree - for the common meaning of a nightmare in English this is probably best.

Premsongxo - (as above, which seems to translate as something like 'dream of oppression'!)

I think another way of translating "Premsonĝo" is as a troubling dream, or a heavy dream, not necessary scary or nasty. I guess it depends on the speaker's experiences and what variety of dreams they're had!

Revi - be careful not to confuse this with 'songxi'. "Songxi" refers to dreams during your sleep. "Revi" refers to other types of dreams, such as 'daydreaming', or to dream of something better in life, for example:

This is a very good explanation too - you've done heaps good work here Chainy!
I originally personally found that I confused revi and sonĝi's meanings a fair bit, but I think one way to remember which one refers to day dreaming is that English has a similar looking root (but quite probably unrelated, see bottom of post*), "revere", which means to be in awe of something, or venerate it as an idol - so something you "daydream" about .

Extremely good word of the day posts Chainy!

*Revere seems to come from Latin, and revi comes from the French "rêver", which comes from a Germanic root (rêver < resver < raswjan < ræsjan/ræswan).
Also important: While French has "songer" and "rêver", the meanings are sort of reverse to Esperanto's in Modern French (I believe). Sonĝi's meaning is more similar to the original Latin "somniare" (to dream), and Revi's meaning is also more similar to the original Proto-Germanic "ræswan" (to think, suppose, consider),