h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Anyone know how to say 'Pigs can fly'?

Hello out there !
I think the word "knabo" has been created from the german word
"knabe" which means exaclty the same than "boy".
greetings
silenco

Also, Rimmer tries to learn it.

If you are interested in finding a set of esperanto stuff that doesn't cost anything, then if you have linux, look at the documentation. A lot of the howto's have been written in esperanto, as well as in german, english, and quite a few other languages. And of course, once you can read the stuff in one language, you have a good idea of what it will say in the others, so that will help you if you have any difficulty.

You can learn the Esperanto language at your local Esperanto society. Please look in the phone book or have a look at http://www.esperanto.net/info/index_en.html

Another place where you can start is http://www.travlang.com/languages/ and click on the Esperanto word.

Good luck.

I'm learning Esperanto at
www.lernu.net
I can thoroughly recommend it.Its pages are available in English and several other languages. There are several courses, a dictionary, a word of the day option, forums and a Yahoo group, as well as news of events in the Esperantist movement.

Thanks for the tip.

JTG

Another Esperanto grammar lescionojn....
"You are an ugly camel" is actually "Vi estas malbellan kamelon", since "camel" or "kamelo" is the direct object.
At least that's what the Esperanto Language proggy is telling me....

Since the question was first asked in 2000 this multilingual site for learning Esperanto has been developed: http://en.lernu.net/
General info and other free courses are available here: http://esperanto.memlink.ca and of course books should be available in your local bookstore or library, and also on-line - if you can't find anything, ask! Good luck!

I'm sorry, Strange Raine, but your information is all wet! The verb 'to be' is known grammatically as a 'copula' verb, and NEVER takes a direct object. Only transitive verbs take direct objects (accusative case).
'You are an ugly camel, your breath smells bad, and your hump is too small' would be:
'Vi estas malbela kamelo (or fem.: kamelino), via spira?o malbone odoras, kaj via ?ibo estas tro malgranda'.

One can easily be very inventive in making up insults (and compliments!) in Esperanto because of the building-block structure of the language. (I think you might have got the original sentence from a naughty site about 'Talking dirty in Esperanto' - I won't give the url in case I get banished from here, but I'm sure you could find it with a little persistence).

No, I was taking courses in the language. Got a tutor and everything.
And for future reference, American and English grammar are useless with other languages. In fact, in Esperanto, I can mix up an entire sentence and as long as the direct object ends in "n" then it is perfectly understandable. Japanese sentence structure would also make a high school grammar teacher flip out.

And Knabe has the same origin as the English word knave.

"The verb 'to be' is known grammatically as a 'copula' verb."

Not true. In English, the copula and the existential are performed by the same verb, to be, but in other languages they can be different. Spanish has two different verbs for the copula and the existential. Irish has a verb for the existential, and a different construction altogether for the copula.

Wikipedia is actually very good at explaining the Irish copula.

I must ask my Esperanto tutor (I'm taking a free online course from http://pacujo.net/esperanto/course/ ) whether I'm right, but I suspect that in Esperanto the copula and the existential are both the same verb (esti), but that the copula form takes no direct object, having two subjects, while the existential form does take a direct object.

So, "You're an ugly camel." = "Vi estas malbelan kamelon."

But I could well be wrong.

(I don't see any need for the feminine form, /kamelino/, unless it's intended as an insult to a small boy (from another small boy). From what I've read, the neuter form is preferred unless you're trying to make a point or to clarify something.)

TRiG.

>Probably the hardest words in Esperanto for anglophones to speak are those that begin with "sc" - this ends up making a "ss-ts" sound, which is tricky to pronounce.

Don't see why you have such problems with this, if you are able to say 'nest see us' correctly in English. There you almost have 'ne scias'! The only unusual thing is that the sound of 'sc-' is not a word-initial combination in English. Most English-speakers in my experience seem to have greater problems keeping their vowels pure (especially 'e' and 'o'), without turning them into diphthongs. Both just take a bit of practice.

For a model pronunciation of Esperanto, try listening to one of the daily Esperanto broadcasts from Radio Polonia: http://www.polskieradio.pl/eo/

Hi, don't know if you're still keen to learn about Esperanto?

A good place to start is www.lernu.net who have various on line courses and exercises.

You could contact Barlaston

Wedgwood Memorial College,
Station Road
Barlaston,
Stoke-on-Trent,
ST12 9DG
Tel: (01782) 372105/373427

who have correspondance and in house courses. They are best placed to tell you the most up to date dictionaries etc.

Good luck! Or Bonan Sancon!

Hlzwlz

I'm learning Esperanto at http://www.lernu.net and I highly suggest this site for anyone learning the language. It is totally free to register, and has an abundance of courses which take you from complete beginner level to fluent.

One of the best on-line sites for learning esperanto is http://en.lernu.net/
There you'll find a selection of different courses, on-line grammars and dictionaries. Language learning is meant to be enjoyable, so they have not forgotten language games, songs and a chat-room. Worried about finding somebody to write to? No problems, you can find pen-friends there too. Exams? yes, you can even take progress tests there.
I know it well! It was one of the sites I used myself when I started learning Esperanto 3½ years' ago.