Questions,

When should I use 'tamen' and 'sed'? I know sed is but, however tamen can also mean but, plus it can mean a few other things. So basically I want to know when I should use each, and how to best distinguish.

And now question two, my understanding of ĉar and pro are as follows. When I want to say the English 'because' I should always use ĉar, unless the following sentence is just a noun statement such as "Mi ne venis, pro la malbona vetero" Is my understanding here correct?

Mi atendas viajn respondojn

Tamen = however. Sed = but. Use them the same as in English (e.g. "Mi amas bicikli sed (not usually "tamen") ne veturigi, tamen (could be sed as well) mia amiko ne amas bicikli, sed ŝi amas veturigi multe")
That's a very bad example sentence I think, but I can't think off of the top of my head how you can compare the two

Ĉar is only used with phrases (Mi volas manĝi, ĉar mi ne manĝis longatempe.) - note the verbs in both parts of the sentences. While pro is only used with noun phrases (it means "because OF" - Mi volas mangxi pro mia abstinado de mangxado) - note the absence of a verb in the second part of the sentence.

Evildela:
And now question two, my understanding of ĉar and pro are as follows. When I want to say the English 'because' I should always use ĉar, unless the following sentence is just a noun statement such as "Mi ne venis, pro la malbona vetero" Is my understanding here correct?

Would you say in English "I didn't come because the bad weather"?

darkweasel:Would you say in English "I didn't come because the bad weather"?

Ne, sed ĝi ankaŭ tradukas al "I didn't come because of the bad weather" aŭ "I didn't come on account of the bad weather"

Evildela:

darkweasel:Would you say in English "I didn't come because the bad weather"?

Ne, sed ĝi ankaŭ tradukas al "I didn't come because of the bad weather" aŭ "I didn't come on account of the bad weather"

You got the idea!
"Because" = ĉar
"Because of"/"due to"/"on account of" = pro

It really is that simple.

darkweasel:
You got the idea!
"Because" = ĉar
"Because of"/"due to"/"on account of" = pro

It really is that simple.

Linguistically speaking, ĉar is a subordinate conjunction and pro is a preposition, yeah?

ceigered:

darkweasel:
You got the idea!
"Because" = ĉar
"Because of"/"due to"/"on account of" = pro

It really is that simple.

Linguistically speaking, ĉar is a subordinate conjunction and pro is a preposition, yeah?

Yes.

Evildela:
Mi atendas por viajn respondojn

Ŝiru_Ĉi_Tie:

darkweasel:

ceigered:

darkweasel:
You got the idea!
"Because" = ĉar
"Because of"/"due to"/"on account of" = pro

It really is that simple.

Linguistically speaking, ĉar is a subordinate conjunction and pro is a preposition, yeah?

Yes.

These things get me so often. I guess I do not fully understand the difference between a subordinate conjunction and a preposition. Can anyone tell me the difference or point me to discussion of it?

This is also the first I've noticed the noun phrase thing as a means to tell the difference.

I'd lend you my linguistic's handbook for university if I could, it's great for learning these things

Basically, a conjunction is anything like "and", "because", "but", etc, and they separate bits of sentences. This is an example of a coordinating conjunction being used:
"I like sport, and I like music"
you can switch around the two parts of the sentence before and after the "and" and it still means the same thing:
"I like music, and I like sport"

A sub-ordinating conjunction (meaning "order below", e.g. of a lower status, subordinate) is used like this:
"I only like sport, because my dad taught me"
I only gained a liking for sport because my dad taught me about it

You CAN'T switch the two parts of the sentence before and after the "because" around though, because.......:
"My dad taught me, because I only like sport" <- and now the meaning has changed entirely!
My dad had to become my home-schooling teacher because I only like sport and nothing else

(You could however turn the first sentence into "Only because my dad taught me, I like sport". You can't do with with coordinating conjunction like "and" because "And I like sport, I like music" makes no sense )

So basically, a subordinating conjunction is "tied" to the bit directly after it (a one-way relationship), while a coordinating conjunction can be tied to the start of either the part before or after it, but it must be at least in between them (a two-way shared relationship).

Prepositions are things that come before noun/pronoun/adjective/verb/adverbial phrases, and describe their relation to things before hand. E.g. "Run fast to the fat cat!" - this shows that the relationship between the action (verb phrase) of "run fast" and the noun (noun phrase) "the fat cat" is one of direction, or aim.

Sorry if told you stuff you already know, or wrote illegibly!

Ŝiru_Ĉi_Tie:I find I am thinking about English in a whole new way because of Esperanto. It's things like this I never used consciously of their construct or meaning. What's funny is I often proofread for local writers and these have never been issues like agreement of nouns used with conjunctions, sentence fragments or misuse of words like effect/affect, there/their/they're, etc.

I even find I am paying more attention to actual meaning instead of the forms it takes in expression. I guess a lot of my proofreading has been more instinctual than I realized...

Ditto that, I'm finding the same thing. Was it in 'My Fair Lady' where they suggested that Audrey Hepburn's character study French in order to improve her English? I think it probably works for any language; Esperanto perhaps moreso because of its regularity.