for one i posted this in the esperanto forum, unaware that you're supposed to post it in the language forum of the language you're typing it in.

i'll copy-paste what i wrote in the other thread:

I've been an 'eternal beginner' for probably a decade now and i've finnally become determined to fix this. I thought all i needed to do was improve my vocabulary, but now i'm not so certain.

I was doing the ana pana lessons and doing fine (save for the fact that i kept forgetting or misusing the accusative) until i got to lesson 6. I cant even make sense out of most of the sentence, i know what the words mean but the sentences make no sense to me. I tried to just do the following excercise, but that failed hopelessles because i couldnt figure out for the life of me what the right answer could possibly be for anything.

What can i possibly do if the sentences make no sense at all to me? The site doesnt appear to be too interested in teaching grammar. All i could find was basic stuff i had already known for years (thus my short-lived confidence that i already knew the grammar well enough).

You should have a language helper with Ana Pana. Mine was very helpful. That being said, can you give us a sentence that we might help you with.

Amike!

well i cant figure out how to send him a message besides of course doing the lesson thing.

as for what i cant understand? everything.

the first sentence:

Mi nun estas en la lasta jaro antaŭ ol mi povos studi ĉe universitato

to me translates as:

now i am in the last year more before i will be able to study at university.

the second sentence is even more baffling:

Estas iom malfacile scii kion mi ŝatus studi tie

that makes no sense at all.

I suppose you could find your helper in the users list and send him mail from there...maybe.

Translations are usually not directly word for word. I translate the first sentence as "I am now in my last year prior to studying at the university."

The verb povos is future tense, so "mi povos studi" I would translate as "I will study...".

The second sentence is more like "It is somewhat difficult to know what I would like to study there."

Iom here I think means "some quantity" (of difficulty).

I hope that helps. Let me know if there is more I can do for you.

xBlackWolfx:Estas iom malfacile scii kion mi ŝatus studi tie
that makes no sense at all.

Mi estas ankaŭ komencanto,tamen mi penas helpi vin.

I am also a biginner, however I will try my best to help you.

Frazo:
Estas iom malfacile scii kion mi ŝatus studi tie

Angle laŭvorte:
Is some amount of difficulty to know what I would want to study there

So to me it means:
Its hard for me to know what I want to study there

I'm guessing this is in reference to your previous university sentence.

Regarding "antaŭ ol", I would have just put "antaŭ" in there, would that have been wrong?

e.g.

Mi nun estas en la lasta jaro antaŭ mi povos studi ĉe universitato.

"ol"s use in that sentence doesn't make sense to me in the slightest (an exaggeration, I can see how it could be seen as a case that's somewhat comparative in nature but at the same time I don't see the overwhelming necessity when there are no conflicts with just using antaŭ alone that I know of)
Unless there's a rule I'm missing somewhere, in which case I concede that rule is stupid but I'll be happy to know it exists regardless so I can follow it . So cheers on any clarifications in that regard, more so if there is a difference between using "antaŭ ol mi povos" and "antaŭ mi povos".

Regarding the second sentence, "-iom" words can often translate to either amount or extent, e.g. kiom could mean what amount or what extent (to what degree).

So "Estas iom malfacile scii kion mi ŝtatus studi tie"
= "(It) is to some extent difficult ("-e" is used here because there's nothing it can be used as an adjective with) to know what I would like to study there".

@ The main poster:
If it helps, you can often ignore the endings of EO words and still get a basic meaning. Example:
"mus kat manĝ" - you don't even need the endings and you can get the crux of the sentence's meaning, that being "the cat eats the mouse". I believe that you are probably more capable of understanding these EO sentences by yourself if you know the meaning of these words, but maybe the problem is that you're trying to translate them into legible English, rather than understand the meaning itself.
Think about understand the language as if you're speaking to some tribal leader in something barely recognisable as pidgin English - there's no way you can properly restructure the sentence into proper English in your head, but if you just go with the basic meanings of the strange words he's saying you should be good. Ultimately, the core roots of words are more important than their endings and prefixes in most cases, and can often give the the basic meaning of a sentence straight away. If you need clarification on details, just do what most people do in native conversation and ask for clarification or try and rephrase what you heard back to the other person so they can confirm whether you're understanding the same thing.

Ultimately, relax, if you think outside the square and keep your mind in a liquid like state, you'll find things easier to understand

ceigered: but maybe the problem is that you're trying to translate them into legible English, rather than understand the meaning itself.
Think about understand the language as if you're speaking to some tribal leader in something barely recognisable as pidgin English - there's no way you can properly restructure the sentence into proper English in your head, but if you just go with the basic meanings of the strange words he's saying you should be good. Ultimately, the core roots of words are more important than their endings and prefixes in most cases, and can often give the the basic meaning of a sentence straight away. If you need clarification on details, just do what most people do in native conversation and ask for clarification or try and rephrase what you heard back to the other person so they can confirm whether you're understanding the same thing.

Ultimately, relax, if you think outside the square and keep your mind in a liquid like state, you'll find things easier to understand

i'm aware of that from learning german, along with some japanese (i was very indecisive about which language i wanted to learn as a kid so i know some basic stuff from like 10 different languages, and i've also been studying linguistics and even attempted to make my own conlang) but i'm having a hard time getting a grasp of the semantics of esperanto, in particular the prepositions despite their indo-european design.

Ah ok, sounds like myself - in which case then just practice is the only thing I've found to help.

While many of the prepositions can having meanings that parallel that of natural languages, I wouldn't try and focus too much on the indo-europeanness/latinate origin of them. Sometimes Esperanto uses its prepositions like in majority of Indo European languages, other times we're not so lucky, and sometimes it uses the "accusative" -n to mirror the use of case in things like Latin to show different meaning (e.g. the thread about duonmetron longa - 1/2 metre long). I suspect those magical 12 rules that we're all introduced to don't really help with this aspect of the language .

ceigered:Regarding "antaŭ ol", I would have just put "antaŭ" in there, would that have been wrong?

I have seen some disagreement about this among speakers but in my view "antaŭ ol" is the right way to say it, because "antaŭ" is a preposition not a conjunction. There is some discussion of this at PMEG here. The relevant sentence appears to be this one:

PMEG:En iuj okazoj oni uzas antaŭ kune kun ol:
* Antaŭ subfrazo. Antaŭ mem ne estas enkondukilo de subfrazo, sed nur rolvorteto, kaj do bezonas helpon de vera frazenkondukilo.

This is how I see things but I know some people take a different view.

Presumably your tutor on the course Ana Pana has a lernu name? If so, you can use the messaging service within lernu, by using the menu Communication/Messages/Send Message.

For now, I will try to answer your question. Ol is not used only to translate "than". When saying that one action will be performed before another we use antaŭ ol. (For the second action we would use post kiam). Thus the sentence means "I am now in the last year before I will be able to study at university." In English we might say more simply "before I go to university", but different languages have different styles of expression, which shows sometimes in the Esperanto used by speakers of those languages. It is therefore a good idea to read Esperanto written by speakers of national languages other than one's own.