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Ĉu with tio/tiu

by Leke, May 18, 2011

Messages: 40

Language: English

Chainy (User's profile) May 18, 2011, 5:52:36 PM

@Geo63

Seems you still haven't read my message properly. Take a deep breath and try again.

darkweasel (User's profile) May 18, 2011, 5:54:49 PM

Regardless of the flamewar between geo63 and Chainy:
Leke:
darkweasel:These translations are correct. If you want to convey the idea of proximity expressed by "this" put "chi" before or after the correlative.
So like, Ĉu ĉi tiu estas mia aŭto?
Yes, that's fine.

Chainy (User's profile) May 18, 2011, 6:01:22 PM

darkweasel:Regardless of the flamewar between geo63 and Chainy
rideto.gif

sudanglo (User's profile) May 19, 2011, 9:52:34 AM

I may be wrong here, but wouldn't you tend to use ĝi in contexts where you refer to a specific object in question when it has been previously mentioned/identified/talked about - whereas tio/tiu is used to identify/point to/introduce the object.

Anyway ĝi seems more specific, more concrete, less general.

I would expect the question Ĉu ĝi estas birdo if you were discussing for example a fossil that was difficult to classify. Is it a bird or a reptile?

If there were an unidientified knock at the door then I would expect Ĉu tio estas la leterportisto - is that the postman.

erinja (User's profile) May 19, 2011, 1:01:18 PM

I agree with you, sudanglo.

However in old Esperanto texts, I find that "ĝi" is used much more frequently than it is today. Sometimes Zamenhof used "ĝi" in cases where "tio" seems more appropriate to the modern ear.

What I normally tell my students is that "ĝi" is a pronoun, meaning that it replaces a noun. I tell them that normally I don't recommend using "ĝi" unless you can name the exact noun that it's replacing (the same way that if you use "he" or "she", you can name the exact person whose name you are replacing with a pronoun)

Due to the historical usage of "ĝi" which varies slightly from today's usage, I don't normally call students wrong when they do it the old way, but I normally recommend against it.

chicago1 (User's profile) May 20, 2011, 6:44:15 PM

Not quite on the exact same topic, but what about using "tio" to replace a predicate phrase as we do with the word "that" in English?
e.g.
"I want to call her."
"Don't do that."
In Eo:
"Mi volas telefoni shin."
"Ne faru tio." (one friend suggested "Ne jeno faru", which looks cool but nor sure it's right)

Miland (User's profile) May 20, 2011, 6:59:05 PM

chicago1:.. what about using "tio" to replace a predicate phrase ..
I wrote an answer here (2011-05-20 18:54:59)

erinja (User's profile) May 20, 2011, 7:34:30 PM

It would be "Ne faru tion"

You can definitely use "tio" to replace a phrase.

chicago1 (User's profile) May 20, 2011, 8:45:41 PM

Got it. Thanks.

On the use of "tial," does one use it to say "Tell me why you called her":
"Diru al mi tial vi telefonis shin."

(and if so, am I forgetting an accusative "n" somewhere here?)

darkweasel (User's profile) May 20, 2011, 8:47:01 PM

chicago1:
On the use of "tial," does one use it to say "Tell me why you called her":
"Diru al mi tial vi telefonis shin."
No, you use kial here - just like in English.

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