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Lesson Four — Verbs

In many languages, verbs are the most complex part of speech, with different forms depending on whether the subject is first-, second-, or third-person, singular or plural, masculine or feminine, etc. Esperanto has only one form for each tense, making it much simpler.

If some of what follows in this chapter seems complicated, please realize that it is the English that is complicated, because we have many forms that make distinctions unnecessary in Esperanto, and we have to choose from among them when we translate.

Here is a table with half of all of the forms of the Esperanto verb for “love” (only because it’s customary in language courses to use this word in verb paradigms):

ami	infinitive — “to love” — the dictionary form
amis	past tense — “loved” — for past actions
amas	present tense — “love/loves” — for present or ongoing actions
amos	future tense — “will love” — for future actions
amus	conditional/subjunctive — “would love” — for statements that are conditional, or contrary to fact
amu	imperative — “love!” — for commands

The rest of the verb forms will be covered in the chapter on participles.

Infinitive

1a	Gravas	manĝi	pomon	ĉiutage.
1a	[It] is important	to eat	[an] apple	every day.

1b	Mi	havas	martelon	por	marteli	najlojn.
1b	I	have	[a] hammer	for	hammering	nails.

1c	Fari	erarojn	estas	facile.
1c	Making	errors	is	easy.

The subject of 1a is the infinitive manĝi, and putting it after the verb is often done in Esperanto. English puts the word “it” before the verb as an anticipatory subject. We have the option of putting the verb after the subjec, saying “To eat an apple every day is important,” but it’s a bit less common to say it this way.

The infinitive in 1b is translated with a gerund, because saying “for to hammer” sounds strange in English. Esperanto has no gerund; the only verbal noun is the infinitive, and it does double duty from the point of view of English.

Although the infinitive is a verbal noun, it is not modified by an adjective, but rather by an adverb. The adverb facile in 1c really means “easily”, but we translate it with an adjective in English.

Past Tense

2a	Johano	manĝis	pomon	dum	li	promenadis.
2a	John	was eating	[an] apple	while	he	walked.

2b	Ĥana	jam	studis	la lecionon.
2b	Hannah	²already	¹has ³studied	the lesson.

2c	Aminda	aĉetis	farunon	antaŭ ol	ŝi	bakis	la kukon.
2c	Mindy	had bought	flour	before	she	baked	the cake.

When translating an Esperanto past-tense verb into English, we have a choice of forms. In 2a, one verb was translated as past progressive, “was eating”, and the other as simple past, “walked”.

In 2b, the past tense is translated as present perfect, because of the adverb jam. Without it, we might translate as the simple past, “studied”.

In 2c, we translate the first verb as past perfect to indicate that it occurred before the second one, translated as simple past. Esperanto does not need the distinction, because the conjunction antaŭ ol does the same job.

Present Tense

3a	Mateo	faras	al	Novjorko	ĉiusemajne.
3a	Matthew	travels	to	New York City	every week.

3b	Eriko	faras	al	Novjorko	hodiaŭ.
3b	Eric	is traveling	to	New York City	today.

In 3a, the verb is translated as the simple present, because it states a customary or repeated action.

In 3b, the verb is translated as progressive, as it states a one-time action that is occuring now. That is, Eric is on his way to New York as you read this.

Future Tense

4a	Kiam	Ĥava	faligos	la vazon,	ĝi	rompiĝos.
4a	When	Eve	drops	the vase,	it	will break.

4b	Paŭlo	faros	al	Novjorko	morgaŭ.
4b	Paul	is traveling	to	New York City	tomorrow.

There are two future-tense verbs in 4a, but one is translated as present in English, as is our custom. In Esperanto, though, future actions are always expressed in the future tense.

Sentence 4b is another example of using the present to express future time in English. It’s still future tense in Esperanto.

Conditional

5a	Marganjo	aĉetus	la bluzon,	se	ŝi	havus	la monon.
5a	Peggy	would buy	the blouse,	if	she	had	the money.

5b	Mi	volus	hakviandan sandviĉon.
5b	I	would like	a hamburger.

This –us ending marks the conditional in Esperanto, which is not really a tense, but a mood. The first verb in 5a is translated into English as the conditional “would buy”, and the second as the subjunctive, “had” which looks like the past tense.

Sometimes, Esperanto uses the conditional form just to be polite, as in English. If the verb were volas, we would translate it as the straightforward “want”.

Imperative

6a	Manĝu	viajn	fabojn!
6a	Eat	your	beans!

6b	La leŭtenanto	ordonis,	ke	la soldato	razu sin.
6b	The lieutenant	ordered	that	the soldier	shave.

6c	Ili	manĝu	kukon!
6c	²them	¹Let ³eat	cake!

6d	Ni	manĝu	ĉe	la restoracio.
6d	²us	¹Let ³eat	at	the restaurant.

6e	Kion	ni	faru?
6e	What	²we	¹shall ³do?

6f	Mi	pensu	pri	tio.
6f	²me	¹Let ³think	about	that.

In 6a, we see the imperative use of the imperative form, that is, for giving direct orders. This works exactly as in English.

Esperanto uses the imperative for stating indirect orders as well, as in 6b. In English, we express this with the nearly obsolete present subjunctive form, without the –s ending that we would usually put on the verb.

The usage in 6c is called the volitive, because it expresses what the speaker wants, rather than a direct order. You will often see the word “let” in translations of this usage.

We see another volitive form in 6d to offer a suggestion, though we would usually express this as “Let’s eat…”.

Sentence 6e uses this volitive form in a question.

And finally, 6f uses the volitive in the first-person singular. The speaker is effectively giving an order to himself.

Questions or suggestions? Please write, and I’ll get back to you.