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How do you pronounce km (kilometers) in an Esperanto sentence?

kelle poolt yonosami, 11. mai 2011

Postitused: 6

Keel: English

yonosami (Näita profiili) 11. mai 2011 18:22.25

The entire sentence is:

Nitra (pri Nitra en Vikipedio) estas bela kaj historia urbo, situanta nur 90 km de Bratislavo kaj 50 km de Trnava.

How do I say the "km?"

Is it kilometroj or kilometrojn? I'm not sure, I'm still pretty fuzzy with the adding the 'n' and whatnot.

Hispanio (Näita profiili) 11. mai 2011 18:29.32

Hello.

I think it's kilometrojn, because the accusative takes the place of a preposition. For example, "Mia urbo situas 30 kilometrojn / al 30 kilometroj de la plej proksima urbo".

ceigered (Näita profiili) 12. mai 2011 3:09.40

The -n is normally used as the accusative (and that's the easy way to describe what it does) but it also acts as an "oblique case", e.g. it just replaces prepositions when it makes sense or when it's convenient.

(je is also sort of a "catch-all", but je is dangerous as it's only used for things people expect should be hard to find the right way to phrase)

erinja (Näita profiili) 12. mai 2011 11:30.41

Note that if you did want to use the preposition it shouldn't be "al" (meaning to, toward)

It would usually be "je 50 kilometroj"

Hispanio (Näita profiili) 12. mai 2011 11:45.57

erinja:Note that if you did want to use the preposition it shouldn't be "al" (meaning to, toward)

It would usually be "je 50 kilometroj"
Thanks, I thought that the preposition was "al" rideto.gif

erinja (Näita profiili) 12. mai 2011 12:02.20

"al" is a false friend to speakers of many Romance languages.

The word "a" in Spanish and Italian (and "à" in French) means both "to" and "at" in English. That is, it covers both going TO a place (being in motion) and being AT a place (staying at rest)

In Esperanto, "al" only covers the meaning of "to" in English; being in motion. "al" always means some kind of movement. If you want to give the meaning of "at", being at a place, staying in a place, then the usual word is "ĉe" or sometimes "je".

Sample sentences:
I go to Paris.
Mi iras al Parizo.
Je vais à Paris.
Me voy a París.
Vado a Parigi.

I am sitting at the table.
Mi sidas ĉe la tablo.
Je suis assis à la table.
Estoy sentado a la mesa.
Sono seduto al tavolo. (al = a + il)

You can see how Spanish, French, and Italian use the same word for both meanings, but Esperanto and English use different words. Therefore if you speak English, you can use English as a model to help you choose the right Esperanto word.

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