Esperanto lesson 2: family, nouns and plurals

Q: How do you say "a" or "an" in Esperanto?

You don't. Esperanto has no indefinite article: kato means "a cat" or "cat", and la kato means "the cat".

Q: Why is it miaj gepatroj and not mia gepatroj?

Mia works like an adjective, and adjectives take -j when their noun is plural. You will practise this agreement in Lesson 3.

In this lesson you learn how Esperanto nouns work. Every noun ends in -o, the plural adds -j, and one article, la, means "the" for every noun. You will also describe your family with mia "my", point at things with jen "here is", and add people with kaj "and" and ankaŭ "too".

Dialogue

A week later, Ana and Tomo have a video call. Ana shares a photo of her family.

Esperanto	English
Ana: Saluton, Tomo! Jen foto de mia familio.	Hi, Tomo! Here's a photo of my family.
Tomo: Saluton! Ho, granda familio!	Hi! Oh, a big family!
Ana: Jes! Jen miaj gepatroj, Paulo kaj Rita.	Yes! Here are my parents, Paulo and Rita.
Tomo: Kaj la knabo?	And the boy?
Ana: La knabo estas mia frato, Pedro. Li estas studento, kiel mi.	The boy is my brother, Pedro. He's a student, like me.
Tomo: Kaj la du knabinoj?	And the two girls?
Ana: Ili estas miaj fratinoj, Bia kaj Lara. Ili estas ĝemeloj.	They're my sisters, Bia and Lara. They're twins.
Tomo: Kaj la kato?	And the cat?
Ana: La kato estas Kafo. Ĝi estas la ĉefo de la familio!	The cat is Kafo ("Coffee"). It's the boss of the family!
Tomo: Ha ha! Jen ankaŭ mia familio: miaj gepatroj, mia fratino Marta kaj mi.	Ha ha! Here's my family too: my parents, my sister Marta and me.
Ana: Kaj la sinjorino?	And the lady?
Tomo: Ŝi estas mia avino, Zofia. Ŝi estas la ĉefo de nia familio!	She's my grandmother, Zofia. She's the boss of our family!
Ana: Ha ha! Kafo kaj Zofia – du ĉefoj!	Ha ha! Kafo and Zofia – two bosses!

New words

Esperanto	English	Notes
familio	family	noun
foto	photo	noun
patro	father	patrino "mother"
gepatroj	parents	ge- = both sexes
frato	brother	fratino "sister"
avo	grandfather	avino "grandmother", geavoj "grandparents"
knabo	boy	knabino "girl"
studento	student	for anyone
ĝemeloj	twins	singular ĝemelo
kato	cat
ĉefo	boss, chief, head
sinjorino	lady, Mrs	sinjoro "gentleman, Mr"
la	the	the only article
jen	here is, here are, look	for pointing
de	of, from	foto de mia familio
mia	my	miaj before a plural
via	your
nia	our
du	two	numbers in Lesson 8
granda	big	adjective (Lesson 3)
kiel	like, as	kiel mi "like me"
ho	oh	interjection

Grammar

Nouns end in -o

Every Esperanto noun ends in -o: familio, patro, kato, foto. You can recognise a noun at a glance, even if you don't know the word. Nouns have no grammatical gender: la familio and la kato use the same la. More on the nouns and adjectives page.

The plural: add -j

Add -j to make a noun plural. The -oj ending sounds like "oy" in "boy".

Singular	Plural	English
frato	fratoj	brothers
familio	familioj	families
knabino	knabinoj	girls
ĉefo	ĉefoj	bosses

There are no irregular plurals: infano "child" → infanoj "children", homo "person" → homoj "people".

One article: la

La means "the" and never changes: la knabo, la knaboj, la knabino. Use it more or less where English uses "the". To say "a" or "an", use no article at all: kato is "a cat", la kato is "the cat". The details are on the article page.

Female forms with -in-

A few words for people are male by default: family words like patro, frato, avo, and also knabo "boy" and sinjoro "gentleman". The suffix -in- makes the female form: patrino "mother", fratino "sister". The prefix ge- means "both sexes together": gepatroj "parents", gefratoj "brothers and sisters". Most other words for people, such as studento and amiko, can be used for anyone.

Male	Female	Both
patro – father	patrino – mother	gepatroj – parents
frato – brother	fratino – sister	gefratoj – siblings
avo – grandfather	avino – grandmother	geavoj – grandparents
knabo – boy	knabino – girl	geknaboj – boys and girls

patrrootfather

insuffixfemale

oendingnoun

patrinomother

geprefixboth sexes

patrrootfather

oendingnoun

jendingplural

gepatrojparents

"My", "your", "our": add -a to the pronoun

Possessives are pronouns with the adjective ending -a. Before a plural noun they add -j, just like the noun: mia frato "my brother", miaj fratoj "my brothers". See the pronouns page for all forms.

Pronoun	Possessive	Example
mi	mia – my	mia familio
vi	via – your	via frato
li	lia – his	lia patrino
ŝi	ŝia – her	ŝiaj gepatroj
ĝi	ĝia – its	ĝia nomo
ni	nia – our	nia avino
ili	ilia – their	ilia kato

Jen, kaj, ankaŭ

Jen points at something: Jen mia frato – "Here is my brother", Jen la fotoj – "Here are the photos". Kaj joins words and sentences: Paulo kaj Rita. Ankaŭ means "also, too" and normally stands right before the word it is about: Ankaŭ Marta estas studento – "Marta is a student too". After a name or pronoun you will also hear it the other way round, with the same meaning: Marta ankaŭ estas studento.

Practice

Culture corner

Some families speak Esperanto at home. Children who grow up with it are called denaskuloj – "people from birth" – and researchers estimate there are about 1,000 to 2,000 of them. Some come from couples who met through Esperanto and have no other language in common; more often, parents who share a language choose to speak Esperanto with their children. Read more about native Esperanto speakers.

Common questions

Does Esperanto have grammatical gender?

No. Nouns have no gender, and la is the same for every noun. Only words for people and animals can show sex, and -in- makes the female form.

How do you say "a" or "an" in Esperanto?

You don't. Esperanto has no indefinite article: kato means "a cat" or "cat", and la kato means "the cat".

Why is it miaj gepatroj and not mia gepatroj?

Mia works like an adjective, and adjectives take -j when their noun is plural. You will practise this agreement in Lesson 3.

#Dialogue

#New words

#Grammar

#Nouns end in -o

#The plural: add -j

#One article: la

#Female forms with -in-

#"My", "your", "our": add -a to the pronoun

#Jen, kaj, ankaŭ

#Practice

#Culture corner

#Common questions

#Does Esperanto have grammatical gender?

#How do you say "a" or "an" in Esperanto?

#Why is it miaj gepatroj and not mia gepatroj?

#Sources