# Saluton: free Esperanto course in 12 lessons for beginners

Source: https://esperantopedia.org/learn/course/
Language: en
Updated: 2026-10-10

> A free Esperanto course in 12 lessons of 30–45 minutes, with original dialogues, clear grammar tables and over 230 exercises that check themselves.

**Saluton**, our free course, teaches the core of Esperanto in **12 lessons of 30–45 minutes each** – about 6 to 9 hours in total. Every lesson has an original dialogue, a word list, a short grammar explanation with tables, self-checking exercises and a note on Esperanto culture.

## Who is this course for?

It is for complete beginners who read English. You need no other languages and no grammar terms: each term is explained when it first appears. If you already know some Esperanto, use the exercises to find your gaps.

## What will you learn?

By the end of Lesson 12 you will be able to:

- read any Esperanto word aloud, using five pronunciation rules;
- introduce yourself and talk about your family, work and hobbies;
- use nouns, adjectives and the plural, and the object ending *-n*;
- talk about the past, present and future with *-is*, *-as* and *-os*;
- ask questions with *ĉu* and the *ki-* words;
- count, tell the time, give dates and pay in a shop;
- ask the way and describe where things are;
- build new words with *mal-*, *-ej-*, *-ist-* and five other affixes;
- make polite requests with *bonvolu* and the conditional *-us*;
- read a 200-word letter and recognise participles.

Along the way you will learn about 300 words.

**How many words do you need?** Know the 100 most common words and you recognise 55.2% of all words in everyday Esperanto sentences; know 1,000 and it is 78.4%. After that, each new word adds less – which is why we start with the most common ones.

## The story

The dialogues follow Ana from São Paulo and Tomo from Kraków. They meet in an online conversation group, talk about family, food and weather, and finally meet at the World Esperanto Congress. Every dialogue and text was written for this course.

## How to use the course

1. **Read the dialogue aloud.** Esperanto spelling is phonetic, and Lesson 1 gives you the rules. The [alphabet](https://esperantopedia.org/learn/alphabet/) page has every letter.
2. **Learn the new words.** The notes show how each word is built.
3. **Read the grammar, then do the exercises.** Choose an answer or type it, then press *Check*. Capital letters and a final full stop don't matter.
4. **Type special letters with x.** Write *cx* for *ĉ*, *gx* for *ĝ*, *hx* for *ĥ*, *jx* for *ĵ*, *sx* for *ŝ* and *ux* for *ŭ*; the exercises convert them as you type. See the [alphabet page](https://esperantopedia.org/learn/alphabet/).
5. **Repeat.** Redo the exercises the next day. At two or three lessons a week, you finish in about a month.

Start with [Lesson 1: Saluton!](https://esperantopedia.org/learn/course/lesson-01/)

## Common questions

### Is this Esperanto course really free?

Yes. All 12 lessons and all exercises are free.

### How long does it take to finish the course?

Each lesson takes 30–45 minutes, so the whole course needs about 6–9 hours of study. Reaching real fluency takes longer; see [how long it takes to learn Esperanto](https://esperantopedia.org/learn/how-long/).

### What should I do after Lesson 12?

Read graded texts, listen to podcasts and talk to people. Our list of the [best free resources](https://esperantopedia.org/learn/resources/) and the [grammar](https://esperantopedia.org/grammar/) section will help you continue.