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7 Common Mistakes
11 years ago
Saluton al ĉiuj! Jen ree via gepardamiko.
Hello, everyone! Your cheetah friend here again.
Jen kelkaj eraroj, kiujn mi oftege vidas kiel lingvohelpanto ĉe Lernu. Mi esperas foje skribi ĉi tiujn por helpi al ĉiuj fajnigi iliajn kapablojn!
Here are some mistakes I commonly see as a language tutor on Lernu. I hope to write a few of these to help everyone tune up their skills!
1. The accusative: -N
This is one of the most common slip-ups, so be on the lookout! In sentences like "I see the cat," we have two people involved: me doing the seeing, and the cat being seen. In Esperanto, we put an -n on "cat", to show who something is happening to (the cat), instead of the one doing the seeing (I).
We do this in English too when we make "he" into "him": I saw him, I met him, the cats liked him. Read more here, and practice lots! You'll quickly get the hang of using -n: http://en.lernu.net/lernado/gramati.....demandoj/n.php
Don't miss the note about -n after a preposition. That's another thing to watch out for.
2. Adjective Agreement
The noun is king in Esperanto. When it becomes plural or receives the -n, every adjective that describes it must as well. So if we have "mia bona amiko" and want to make it plural, "amikoj", that then ripples to all of the descriptive words: "miaJ bonaJ amikoJ". The same goes for -n, "Li estas bona amiko" -> "Mi havas bonaN amikoN."
Don't be fooled if the descriptive word moves in the sentence, we still need to do this: La arboj estas grandaJ kaj verdaJ.
3. SCII/KONI
There are two words for "know", as in other languages like French and Spanish. The short answer is if "know" is "know factually" like we know a date, a name, or an address, we use "scii". It has common roots with the English word SCIence. If it's more of a juicy, experiential knowing, like you know a person, a place, a song... something that you're familiar with, use "koni".
Compare: Mi scias lian nomon, sed mi ne konas lin.
4. KE/KIU
These words both mean "that". But "kiu" is used when you're providing more details about a specific thing, and "ke" is when you're filling out a verb. A few examples will make this clear:
- Li estas la viro, KIU havas la belan domon. (KIU describes "viro" more)
- Li diras, KE li havas belan domon. (KE gives the content of "diras")
- Mia patrino, KIUN mi amas multe, loĝas en ĉi tiu kvartalo.
- Mi neniam skribis, ke ŝi ne povos veni.
Don't forget that KIU needs -j for plural things and -n if it's the object, as in the third example above.
Remember too that in English, we often drop "that" after some verbs such as "say," "think," "believe" in English: I think you're nice. But we must always include KE in Esperanto: Mi pensas, ke vi estas afabla.
5. POR/PRO
Use "pro" if you mean "because of" or "in light of".
- Dankon pro via mesaĝo.
- Ŝi malgajiĝas pro nenio.
Use "por" if you're showing a goal or a direction. See if you can feel the difference in these sentences:
- Li venis por sia fratino. (to pick her up possibly)
- Li venis pro sia fratino. (because she wanted him to)
- Mi aĉetis jakon por la pluvo. (it's supposed to rain soon)
- Mi aĉetis jakon pro la pluvo. (it's been raining all week and I need one)
6. POR/DUM
If "for" means "during", always use "dum":
- Mi restis dum kelkaj tagoj.
- Mia familio ferios tie dum la somero.
7. PRAKTIKI/EKZERCIĜI
These words aren't terribly useful, but in the context of language learning, they can come up a lot. Only use "praktiki" if you mean "put into practice". One can "praktiki" an art, science, a skill, and even a language *in the sense of using it daily*. If you mean "do repeatedly in order to get better", use one of these formulations:
- Mi ekzerciĝas en Esperanto/piano/desegno/...
- Mi ekzercas min en Esperanto.
Note that what you "ekzerci" has to be something you train or exercise. So you can ekzerci viajn muskolojn, fingrojn, spiriton, memoron... But you cannot ekzerci la francan, because you're not making the French language do pushups. You're training yourself (vi ekzercas vin) IN French.
To see more common errors that we can all easily overcome to speak great Esperanto, look here: http://en.lernu.net/lernado/gramati.....emandoj/oe.php
You may have noticed too that a lot of these mistakes come from thinking in English when speaking Esperanto. So as soon as you can, try to think in Esperanto. Just use the language without any English filter, and you'll start to feel intuitively how things fit together. If all you can think is "Mi vidas domon" then start there :)
Please feel free to ask any questions you may have! Bonŝancon al ĉiuj!
Hello, everyone! Your cheetah friend here again.
Jen kelkaj eraroj, kiujn mi oftege vidas kiel lingvohelpanto ĉe Lernu. Mi esperas foje skribi ĉi tiujn por helpi al ĉiuj fajnigi iliajn kapablojn!
Here are some mistakes I commonly see as a language tutor on Lernu. I hope to write a few of these to help everyone tune up their skills!
1. The accusative: -N
This is one of the most common slip-ups, so be on the lookout! In sentences like "I see the cat," we have two people involved: me doing the seeing, and the cat being seen. In Esperanto, we put an -n on "cat", to show who something is happening to (the cat), instead of the one doing the seeing (I).
We do this in English too when we make "he" into "him": I saw him, I met him, the cats liked him. Read more here, and practice lots! You'll quickly get the hang of using -n: http://en.lernu.net/lernado/gramati.....demandoj/n.php
Don't miss the note about -n after a preposition. That's another thing to watch out for.
2. Adjective Agreement
The noun is king in Esperanto. When it becomes plural or receives the -n, every adjective that describes it must as well. So if we have "mia bona amiko" and want to make it plural, "amikoj", that then ripples to all of the descriptive words: "miaJ bonaJ amikoJ". The same goes for -n, "Li estas bona amiko" -> "Mi havas bonaN amikoN."
Don't be fooled if the descriptive word moves in the sentence, we still need to do this: La arboj estas grandaJ kaj verdaJ.
3. SCII/KONI
There are two words for "know", as in other languages like French and Spanish. The short answer is if "know" is "know factually" like we know a date, a name, or an address, we use "scii". It has common roots with the English word SCIence. If it's more of a juicy, experiential knowing, like you know a person, a place, a song... something that you're familiar with, use "koni".
Compare: Mi scias lian nomon, sed mi ne konas lin.
4. KE/KIU
These words both mean "that". But "kiu" is used when you're providing more details about a specific thing, and "ke" is when you're filling out a verb. A few examples will make this clear:
- Li estas la viro, KIU havas la belan domon. (KIU describes "viro" more)
- Li diras, KE li havas belan domon. (KE gives the content of "diras")
- Mia patrino, KIUN mi amas multe, loĝas en ĉi tiu kvartalo.
- Mi neniam skribis, ke ŝi ne povos veni.
Don't forget that KIU needs -j for plural things and -n if it's the object, as in the third example above.
Remember too that in English, we often drop "that" after some verbs such as "say," "think," "believe" in English: I think you're nice. But we must always include KE in Esperanto: Mi pensas, ke vi estas afabla.
5. POR/PRO
Use "pro" if you mean "because of" or "in light of".
- Dankon pro via mesaĝo.
- Ŝi malgajiĝas pro nenio.
Use "por" if you're showing a goal or a direction. See if you can feel the difference in these sentences:
- Li venis por sia fratino. (to pick her up possibly)
- Li venis pro sia fratino. (because she wanted him to)
- Mi aĉetis jakon por la pluvo. (it's supposed to rain soon)
- Mi aĉetis jakon pro la pluvo. (it's been raining all week and I need one)
6. POR/DUM
If "for" means "during", always use "dum":
- Mi restis dum kelkaj tagoj.
- Mia familio ferios tie dum la somero.
7. PRAKTIKI/EKZERCIĜI
These words aren't terribly useful, but in the context of language learning, they can come up a lot. Only use "praktiki" if you mean "put into practice". One can "praktiki" an art, science, a skill, and even a language *in the sense of using it daily*. If you mean "do repeatedly in order to get better", use one of these formulations:
- Mi ekzerciĝas en Esperanto/piano/desegno/...
- Mi ekzercas min en Esperanto.
Note that what you "ekzerci" has to be something you train or exercise. So you can ekzerci viajn muskolojn, fingrojn, spiriton, memoron... But you cannot ekzerci la francan, because you're not making the French language do pushups. You're training yourself (vi ekzercas vin) IN French.
To see more common errors that we can all easily overcome to speak great Esperanto, look here: http://en.lernu.net/lernado/gramati.....emandoj/oe.php
You may have noticed too that a lot of these mistakes come from thinking in English when speaking Esperanto. So as soon as you can, try to think in Esperanto. Just use the language without any English filter, and you'll start to feel intuitively how things fit together. If all you can think is "Mi vidas domon" then start there :)
Please feel free to ask any questions you may have! Bonŝancon al ĉiuj!
Zafur
~zafur
O! Mi ne sciis ke vi estas lingvohelpanto ĉe Lernu! Dankon por via helpo.
