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Patro kaj frato. Leono estas besto. Rozo estas floro, kaj kolombo estas birdo. La rozo apartenas al Teodoro. La suno brilas. La patro estas sana. La patro estas tajloro. |
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1. -O on the end of a word indicates that that word is a noun -- a person, place, animal, object or thing; in other words, something you can hold in your hand, if your hand is big enough.
2. Esperanto doesn't have an indefinite article (a, an). Leono can be either a lion or just lion.
3. -AS on the end of a word indicates that the word refers to an action or state that is ongoing at the time at which the sentence is set. In other words, a present-tense verb.
4. EST- is used for all the Esperanto equivalents of the parts of the English verb to be. ESTAS can be am, is or are. ADDITIONAL NOTE FOR THE VERY ENTHUSIASTIC: As with its English equivalents, estas has basically three meanings: (1) identification of one thing with another thing (no examples here); (2) links a describing word with the word it describes (la patro estas sana); (3) shows that one thing is a member of a group described by the other thing (leono estas besto). Note that in English the relationship is shown by putting the individual before the verb and the group after the verb (a lion is an animal); this is the custom in Esperanto, too, but is not mandatory, and occasionally you'll find a reversed sentence, where you have to use non-grammatical knowledge to determine which is the individual and which the group (besto estas leono).
5. -A on the end of a word indicates that this word is used to describe a noun; in other words, it's an adjective. One way to describe a noun is to link the two words with estas (la patro estas sana).
6. Prepositions such as AL always precede the word, usually a noun, which is their object.