Saluton course
Esperanto lesson 3: adjectives, colours and negation
Adjectives end in -a and follow their noun into the plural – then you can describe the weather, a city or a friend.
One thing at a time: the dialogue line by line, new words with sound and pictures, one exercise per screen.
39 words22 exercises~19 min
In this lesson you learn to describe things. Esperanto adjectives end in -a, and they add -j when their noun is plural: bela tago "a beautiful day", belaj tagoj "beautiful days". You will also learn twelve colours, a few weather words, tre "very" and ne "not" – and a first look at mal-, the prefix that turns a word into its opposite.
Dialogue
It is October. In Kraków autumn has started; in São Paulo it is spring.
| Esperanto | English |
|---|---|
| Ana: Saluton, Tomo! Kia estas la vetero en Krakovo? | Hi, Tomo! What's the weather like in Kraków? |
| Tomo: Ne bona. La ĉielo estas griza, kaj la vento estas forta. | Not good. The sky is grey and the wind is strong. |
| Ana: Ho ne! Ĉi tie la ĉielo estas tute blua. | Oh no! Here the sky is completely blue. |
| Tomo: Vere? | Really? |
| Ana: Jes! En Brazilo nun estas printempo. La tagoj estas longaj kaj varmaj. | Yes! It's spring in Brazil now. The days are long and warm. |
| Tomo: Kaj ĉi tie estas aŭtuno. La tagoj estas mallongaj kaj malvarmaj. | And here it's autumn. The days are short and cold. |
| Ana: Ho, kompatinda Tomo! | Oh, poor Tomo! |
| Tomo: Sed la aŭtuno ankaŭ estas bela. La folioj estas flavaj, oranĝaj kaj ruĝaj. | But autumn is beautiful too. The leaves are yellow, orange and red. |
| Ana: Kiel bele! En San-Paŭlo la folioj ĉiam estas verdaj. | How lovely! In São Paulo the leaves are always green. |
| Tomo: Verdaj folioj kaj blua ĉielo… Mi tre envias vin! | Green leaves and a blue sky… I'm so jealous! |
| Ana: Ha ha! Sed San-Paŭlo ne estas trankvila urbo. Ĝi estas tre granda kaj tre brua. | Ha ha! But São Paulo isn't a quiet city. It's very big and very noisy. |
| Tomo: Krakovo ne estas tiel granda, sed ĝi estas malnova kaj tre bela. | Kraków isn't so big, but it's old and very beautiful. |
| Ana: Malnovaj urboj estas tre belaj! | Old towns are very beautiful! |
Kia…? means "what kind of…?" or "what… like?". You will meet it again in the table of question words in Lesson 11.
New words
| Esperanto | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| bela | beautiful, nice | adjective |
| bona | good | bone "well" |
| granda | big, large | |
| longa | long | mallonga "short" |
| varma | warm | malvarma "cold" |
| nova | new | malnova "old" (for things) |
| forta | strong | |
| trankvila | quiet, calm | |
| brua | noisy | from bruo "noise" |
| kompatinda | poor (to be pitied) | kompatinda Tomo! "poor Tomo!" |
| envii | to envy | Mi envias vin. "I envy you." (vin: Lesson 5) |
| vetero | weather | noun |
| ĉielo | sky | |
| vento | wind | |
| folio | leaf; sheet of paper | |
| urbo | town, city | |
| printempo | spring | |
| aŭtuno | autumn, fall | |
| tre | very | |
| tute | completely, totally | |
| ne | not; no | |
| tiel | so, that | ne tiel granda "not so big" |
| ĉiam | always | |
| nun | now | |
| en | in | en Brazilo "in Brazil" (Lesson 9) |
| feliĉa | happy | |
| vere | really, truly |
Grammar
Adjectives end in -a
Every Esperanto adjective ends in -a: bela, granda, varma. It can stand before or after its noun – bela tago and tago bela both mean "a beautiful day" – but before the noun is more common. Details are on the nouns and adjectives page.
Agreement: plural nouns, plural adjectives
When a noun is plural, its adjective adds -j too. This also applies after estas: in La tagoj estas longaj, the adjective describes la tagoj, so it takes -j.
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
| bela tago – a beautiful day | belaj tagoj – beautiful days |
| la granda urbo – the big city | la grandaj urboj – the big cities |
| La folio estas flava. – The leaf is yellow. | La folioj estas flavaj. – The leaves are yellow. |
| mia malnova foto – my old photo | miaj malnovaj fotoj – my old photos |
Pronouns count too: Ni estas feliĉaj – "We are happy" – because ni is plural. With vi, think of how many people you mean: Vi estas feliĉa (one person), Vi estas feliĉaj (several).
Colours
Colours are ordinary adjectives, so they agree too: ruĝa folio, ruĝaj folioj. The colours page lists more shades.
| Esperanto | English | Esperanto | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| ruĝa | red | bruna | brown |
| oranĝa | orange | griza | grey |
| flava | yellow | nigra | black |
| verda | green | blanka | white |
| blua | blue | roza | pink |
| viola | purple | ora | golden |
Tre "very" and ne "not"
Tre goes before an adjective or adverb: tre bela "very beautiful", tre bone "very well". Ne goes right before the word it negates, usually the verb: La ĉielo ne estas blua – "The sky is not blue". Ne also means "no": Ne, la vetero ne estas bona. See questions and negation.
A first look at mal-
The prefix mal- gives the exact opposite. One root plus mal- saves you learning a second word. You will learn more word-building tricks in Lesson 10.
| Word | Opposite with mal- |
|---|---|
| varma – warm | malvarma – cold |
| longa – long | mallonga – short |
| nova – new | malnova – old |
| bona – good | malbona – bad |
| granda – big | malgranda – small |
Practice
Culture corner
Green is the colour of Esperanto. The Esperanto flag – green with a white square holding a green five-pointed star – was adopted at the first World Esperanto Congress in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, in 1905. Green traditionally stands for hope, and the five points for the five continents. Keen speakers are even nicknamed verduloj – "green ones"; read more about the flag and symbols.
Common questions
Does the adjective go before or after the noun?
Either. Bela tago and tago bela mean the same, but before the noun is more common. Endings show which word is which, so the order is free.
Do adjectives always agree with nouns?
Yes. An adjective takes -j with a plural noun and, as you will see in Lesson 5, -n when the noun takes -n. Possessives like mia follow the same rule.
How do you say "old" for people?
Malnova is for things: malnova urbo "an old town". For people and animals, use maljuna "old" – the opposite of juna "young". Malnova amiko is "an old friend" in the sense "a friend for many years".
Sources
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