Esperanto vocabulary

The word base of Esperanto was originally defined in Unua Libro ("First Book"), published by L. L.
Zamenhof in 1887. It contained around 900 root words. The rules of the language allow speakers to
borrow words as needed, recommending only that they look for the most international words, and that
they borrow one basic word and derive others from it, rather than borrowing many words with related
meanings. In 1894, Zamenhof published the first Esperanto dictionary, Universala vortaro, which was
written in five languages and supplied a larger set of root words.

Since then, many words have been borrowed from other languages, primarily those of Western Europe.
In recent decades, most of the new borrowings or coinages have been technical or scientific terms; terms
in everyday use are more likely to be derived from existing words (for example komputilo [a computer],
from komputi [to compute]), or extending them to cover new meanings (for example muso [a mouse],
now also signifies a computer input device, as in English). There are frequent debates among Esperanto
speakers about whether a particular borrowing is justified or whether the need can be met by derivation
or extending the meaning of existing words.

Contents
Origins
Word formation
Affixes
List of lexical suffixes
List of prefixes
Compounds
Reduplication
Some examples
Correlatives
Table of correlatives
Correlative particles
An extension of the original paradigm
Interrogative vs relative pronouns
Derivatives
Gender
Masculine roots
The original setup
The current situation
Feminine roots
Feminine personal names
Gendered pronouns
Antonyms
Proper names
 Idioms and slang
Idioms
Contractions
Word play
Cultural "in" words
Jargon
Artificial variants
Reconstructions
De novo creations
False cognates
Dictionaries
See also
Notes
External links

Origins
Esperanto occupies a middle ground between "naturalistic" constructed languages such as Interlingua,
which take words en masse from their source languages with little internal derivation, and a priori
conlangs such as Solresol, in which the words have no historical connection to other languages. In
Esperanto, root words are borrowed and retain much of the form of their source language, whether the
phonetic form (eks- from ex-) or orthographic form (teamo from team). However, each root can then
form dozens of derivations that may bear little resemblance to equivalent words in the source languages,
such as registaro (government), which is derived from the Latinate root reg (to rule).

Word formation
One of the ways Zamenhof made Esperanto easier to learn than ethnic languages was by creating a
regular and highly productive derivational morphology. Through the judicious use of lexical affixes
(prefixes suffixes), the core vocabulary needed for communication was greatly reduced, making
Esperanto a more agglutinative language than most European languages. It has been estimated that on
average one root in Esperanto is the communicative equivalent of ten words in English.

However, a contrary tendency is apparent in cultured and Greco-Latin technical vocabulary, which most
Europeans see as "international" and therefore take into Esperanto en masse, despite the fact they are not
truly universal. Many Asians consider this to be an onerous and unnecessary burden on the memory,
when it is so easy to derive equivalent words internally (for example by calquing them, which is what
Chinese often does). This sparks frequent debates as to whether a particular root is justified, and
sometimes results in duplicates of native and borrowed vocabulary. An example is "calligraphy", which
occurs both as a calqued belskribo ("writing of beauty") and as the direct borrowing kaligrafio. A similar
development has also occurred in English (brotherly vs. fraternal), German (Ornithologie vs. Vogelkunde
for ornithology), Japanese (beesubooru vs. yakyuu for baseball), Spanish (básquetbol vs. baloncesto for
basketball), French (le week-end vs. la fin de semaine), and other languages. However, although the
debates in ethnic languages are motivated by nationalism or issues of cultural identity, in Esperanto the
debates are largely motivated by differing views on how to make the language practical and accessible.
Affixes
One of the most immediately useful derivational affixes for the beginner is the prefix mal-, which derives
antonyms: peza (heavy), malpeza (light); supren (upwards), malsupren (downwards); ami (to love),
malami (to hate); lumo (light), mallumo (darkness). However, except in jokes, this prefix is not used
when an antonym exists in the basic vocabulary: suda (south), not "malnorda" from 'north'; manki (to be
lacking, intr.), not "malesti" from 'to be'.

The creation of new words through the use of grammatical (i.e. inflectional) suffixes, such as nura (mere)
from nur (only), tiama (contemporary) from tiam (then), or vido (sight) from vidi (to see), is covered in
the article on Esperanto grammar. What follows is a list of what are usually called "affixes". Most of
them, however, are actually lexical roots, in that they can be used as independent words and their relative
order in a compound is determined by semantics, not grammar. They are called "affixes" mainly because
they derive from affixes in Esperanto's source languages. Some are true affixes in that, although they may
be used independently, their order within a word is fixed by the grammar. Only a few cannot be used
independently and so correspond to how a typical affix behaves in English.

When a root receives more than one affix, their order matters, because affixes modify the entire stem they
are attached to. That is, the outer ones modify the inner ones. Most affixes are themselves roots, and as
such have an inherent part of speech. This is indicated by the final part-of-speech vowel in the suffix list
below. A few affixes do not affect the part of speech of the root; for the suffixes listed in the tables below,
this is indicated by a hyphen in place of the final vowel.

List of lexical suffixes

skribaĉi (to scrawl, from 'write'); veteraĉo (foul
pejorative (expresses negative weather); domaĉo (a hovel, from 'house');
-aĉ- affect or a poor opinion of the rigardaĉi (to gape at, from 'look at'); belaĉa
object or action) (tawdry, from 'beautiful'); aĵaĉo (junk, from -aĵo);
aĉigi (to screw up, with -igi); aĉ ! (yuck!)
frequent, repeated, or continual kuradi (to keep on running); parolado (a speech,
-adi, -ado action (often imperfective); as a from 'talk, speak'); adi (to carry on); ada
noun, an action or process (continual)
manĝaĵo (food, from 'eat'); novaĵo (news, a
a concrete manifestation; (with novelty, from 'new'); glaciaĵo (an ice[cream], from
-aĵo
a noun root) a product 'ice'); bovaĵo (beef, from 'bovine'); aĉigaĵo (a
snafu, from -aĉ and -igi); aĵo (a thing);
kristano (a Christian); marksano (a Marxist);
usonano (a US American) [cf. amerikano (a
a member, follower, participant, continental American)]; ŝipano (a crew member);
-ano
inhabitant samkursano (a classmate, from 'same' and
'course'); samideano (a kindred spirit, from 'same'
and 'idea'); ano (a member)
arbaro (a forest, from 'tree'); vortaro (a dictionary,
from 'word' [a set expression]); homaro (humanity,
a collective group without from 'human' [a set expression; 'crowd, mob' is
-aro
specific number homamaso]); ŝafaro (a flock of sheep); ŝiparo (a
fleet of ships); anaro (a society [group of
members], from -ano); aro (a herd, group, set)
masculine affectionate form; the Joĉjo (Jack); paĉjo (daddy); fraĉjo (bro); amiĉjo
-ĉjo
root is truncated (dear friend); la iĉjoj (the 'boys')
 kredebla (believable); videbla (visible); eble
-ebla possible
(possibly)
amikeco (friendship); bono or boneco (goodness);
-eco an abstract quality italeca (Italianesque); ecaro (character [sum of
qualities], with -aro)
domego (a mansion, from 'house'); virego (a
augmentative; sometimes
giant, from 'man'); librego (a tome, from 'book');
-eg- pejorative connotations when
varmega (boiling hot); ridegi (to guffaw, from
used with people
'laugh'); ega (great, humongous)
lernejo (a school, from 'to learn'), vendejo (a store,
from 'to sell'), juĝejo (a court, from 'to judge'),
a place characterized by the kuirejo (a kitchen, from 'to cook'), hundejo (a
-ejo
root (not used for toponyms) kennel, from 'dog'), senakvejo (a desert, from
'without water'); devenejo (provenance, from 'to
come from'); ejo (the appropriate place)
ludema (playful), parolema (talkative), kredema
(credulous, from 'believe'); brulema (flammable,
-ema having a propensity, tendency
from 'burn'); emo (inclination); malema (unwilling,
with mal-)
-enda[1] mandatory pagenda (payable), legendaĵo (required reading)
ĉenero (a link, from 'chain'); fajrero (a spark, from
'fire'); neĝero (a snowflake, from 'snow'), kudrero
(a stitch, from 'sew'), lignero (a splinter, from
-ero the smallest part 'wood'); okulero (an ommatidium, from 'eye');
usonero (a U.S. state, from 'USA'); vortero (a
morpheme, from 'word'); ero (a crumb etc.);
eriĝema (friable)
lernejestro (a school principal [see -ejo]); urbestro
(a mayor, from 'city'); centestro (a centurion, from
-estro a leader, boss 'hundred'); usonestro (a president of the United
States, from 'USA'); estraro (board of directors,
with -aro)
dometo (a hut, from 'house'); libreto (a booklet);
diminutive; sometimes
varmeta (lukewarm); rideti (to smile, from 'laugh');
-et- affectionate connotations when
rompeti (to crack, fracture, from 'break'); boleti (to
used with people
simmer, from 'boil'); ete (slightly)
Meksikio (Mexico, from 'Mexico City'); Niĝerio
a country named after a (Nigeria, from 'the river Niger'); Anglio (England,
-io geographic feature, and now from 'English person'); patrio (fatherland, from
after an ethnicity [unofficial] 'father') [cannot be used as a root io, because that
means 'something']
-iĉo male [unofficial] (see gender below)
katido (a kitten); reĝido (a prince, from 'king');
arbido (a sapling, from 'tree'); izraelido (an
-ido an offspring, descendant
Israelite); ido (a kit, pup, kid, etc.); idaro (a clan,
tribe, with -aro)
to make, to cause mortigi (to kill, from 'die'); purigi (to clean);
-igi
(transitivizer/causative) konstruigi (to have built); igi (to cause)
-iĝi to become amuziĝi (to enjoy oneself); naskiĝi (to be born);
(intransitivizer/inchoative/middle ruĝiĝi (to blush, from 'red'); aniĝi (to join, from -
 voice) ano); iĝi (to become)
ludilo (a toy, from 'play'); tranĉilo (a knife, from
'cut'); helpilo (a remedy, from 'help'); solvilo (a
-ilo an instrument, a tool
solution, from 'solve'); ilo (a tool); ilaro
(equipment, set of tools, with -aro)
bovino (a cow); patrino (a mother); studentino (a
-ino female
female student); ino (a female)
memorinda (memorable); kredinda (credible, from
'believe'); fidinda (dependable, trustworthy, from
-inda worthy of
'trust'); plorindaĵo (something to cry about, from
'weep, cry' and -aĵo); inda (worthy)
glavingo (a scabbard, from 'sword'); kandelingo (a
candle-holder); dentingo (a tooth socket);
-ingo a holder, sheath ŝraŭbingo (a nut, from 'bolt'), piedingo (stirrup,
from 'foot'); kuglingo (a cartridge, from 'bullet');
ingo (a socket, etc.)
a doctrine, system (as in komunismo (Communism); kristanismo
-ismo
English) (Christianity); ismo (an ism)
person professionally or
instruisto (teacher); dentisto (dentist); abelisto (a
avocationally occupied with an
-isto beekeeper); komunisto (a communist); registaro
idea or activity (a narrower use
(a government, from 'rule, govern' and -aro)
than in English)
Jonjo (Joanie); panjo (mommy); anjo (granny);
feminine affectionate form; the
-njo onjo (aunty); vanjo (nanny, from 'nurse'); aminjo
root is truncated
(dear friend); la injoj (the 'girls', from -ino or -ido)
duobla (double); trioble (triply); oble (more than
-obla multiple
once)
duona (half [of]); centono (one hundredth);
-ono fraction dekonaĵo (a tithe, from 'ten' and -aĵo); ono (a
fraction); onigi (to divide into equal parts, with -igi)
duope (two together; by twos = po du); triopo (a
trilogy); kiomope (how many together?); arope
in a collective group of specific (together in a group, from -aro); gutope (drop by
-ope
number drop, from 'drop'; = pogute); unuopa (isolated,
individual); opo (a group, unit, team); opa
(collective)
monujo (a purse, from 'money'); salujo (a
a (loose) container, country saltshaker, from 'salt'); lavujo (a washbasin, from
(archaic when referring to a 'wash'); abelujo (a beehive, from 'bee'); Anglujo
-ujo
political entity), a tree of a (England [Anglio in current usage]); Kurdujo
certain fruit (archaic) (Kurdistan, the Kurdish lands); pomujo (appletree
[now pomarbo]); ujo (a container)
-ulo one characterized by the root junulo (a youth); sanktulo (a saint, from 'holy');
abocoulo (a beginning reader [student, not book],
from aboco "ABC's"); mamulo (a mammal, from
'breast'); proksimulo (a neighbor, from 'near');
multinfanulino (a woman with many children, from
multa 'many' and infano 'child'); senindulo
(someone without merit, from 'without' and the
suffix -ind); aĉulo ~ ulaĉo (a wretch, from the

undefined ad hoc suffix
-um-
(used sparingly: see list)
suffix aĉ); tiamulo (a contemporary, from 'then');
etulino (a wisp of a girl); ulo (a fellow)
kolumo (a collar, from 'neck'); krucumi (to crucify,
from 'cross'); malvarmumo (a cold, from 'cold');
plenumi (to fulfill, from 'full'); brakumi (to hug, from
'arm'); amindumi (to woo, from 'lovable' [see -
ind]); dekstrume (clockwise, from 'right'); kortumo
(appellate court, from 'court(yard)'); mondumo
(high society, from 'world'); komunumo (a
community, from 'common'); proksimume
(approximately, from 'near'); deksesuma
(hexadecimal, from '16'); umo (a thingamajig)

List of prefixes
bopatro (a father-in-law); boparenciĝi (to marry into a family, from parenco
relation by
'a relative' and -iĝi); boedziĝi (to marry one's dead brother's wife, from
bo- marriage, -
edziĝi 'to marry'); boedzino (a sister-wife); boamiko ([jocular] a friend of
in-law
one's spouse)
disĵeti (to throw about, from 'throw'); dissendi (to distribute, from 'send');
separation, disatomi (to split by atomic fission, from 'atom'); disliberiĝi (to escape in all
dis-
scattering directions, like pages dropping from a book with a disintegrated binding,
from 'free' and -iĝi); dis! (scram!)
beginning,
sudden, or ekbrilo (a flash [of lightning], from 'shine'); ekami (to fall in love); ekkrii (to
ek- momentary cry out); ekvidi (to catch sight of); eki (to start); ekde (inclusive 'from'); ek
action (often al la batalo! (off to war!); ek! (hop to!)
perfective)
eksedzo (an ex-husband); eksbovo (a steer [jocular, from 'bull']); eksa
eks- former, ex- (former); ekskutima (previously customary); Eks la estro! (Down with our
leader!)
shameful,
fihomo (a wicked person); fimensa (foul-minded); fivorto (a profane word);
nasty,
fi- fibuŝo (a dirty mouth); fibesto (vermin, from 'animal, beast'); fia (vile); fie!
disgusting,
(For shame!); Fi al vi! (Shame on you!)
filthy
gepatroj (parents); gepatrano (a parent); gesinjoroj (ladies and
both sexes gentlemen); la geZamenhofoj (the Zamenhofs); gelernejo (a
ge-
together coeducational school); gedormi (to sleep together); geulo (a
hermaphrodite); geiĝi (to pair up, to mate); gea (heterosexual)
malgranda (small, from 'large'); malriĉa (poor, from 'rich'); malplena
(empty, from 'full'); malino (a male [jocular], from -ino); maldekstrume
mal- antonym
(counter-clockwise [see -um]); nemalobeebla leĝo (a law that cannot be
disobeyed, from obe- 'to obey'), mala (opposite)
misloki (to misplace); misakuzi (to wrongly accuse); misfamiga
incorrectly,
mis- (disparaging, from fama 'well-known' and the causative suffix -ig); mise
awry
(incorrectly)
great-
(grand-), praavo (a great-grandfather); prapatro (a forefather); prabesto (a
pra- primordial, prehistoric beast); prahejmo (ancestral home); prahindeŭropa (Proto-Indo-
primitive, European)
proto-
re- over again, resendi (to send back); rekonstrui (to rebuild); resalti (to rebound, from
back again 'jump'); rediri (to repeat); reaboni (to renew a subscription, from
'subscribe'); rebrilo (reflection, glare, from 'shine'); reira bileto (a return
ticket, from iri 'to go'); refoje (once again, from '[x] times'); ĝis (la) revido
("au revoir", from ĝis 'until' and vido 'sight')
There are, in addition, affixes not listed here: technical affixes, such as the biological family suffix -edo
seen in numidedo (Guineafowls), and a few taken from Ido, such as -oza (full of) in montoza
(mountainous), muskoloza (muscular), poroza (porous). A proposed suffix -ala makes adjectives out of
nouns made from adjectives: varmala (caloric, from varma warm), ŝtataligi (nationalize).[2]

Lexical (i.e. derivational) affixes may act as roots by taking one of the grammatical suffixes: mala
(opposite), eta (slight), ano (a member), umo (a doohickey), eble (possibly), iĝi (to become), ero (a bit, a
crumb). Also, through compounding, lexical roots may act as affixes: vidi (to see), povi (to be able to),
vidpova (able to see, not blind); ĉefo (head, chief), urbo (a city), ĉefurbo (a capital). It is quite common
for prepositions to be used as prefixes: alveni (to arrive), from al (to) and veni (come); senespera
(hopeless), from sen (without) and espero (hope); pripensi (to consider), from pri (about) and pensi
(to think); vendi pogrande (sell wholesale), from po (at the rate of) and grande (large [quantity]), etc.
There is even aliĝilo (registration form), from the preposition al (to) and the suffixes -iĝ- (to become) and
-ilo (an instrument).

Compounds
Compound words in Esperanto are similar to English, in that the final root is basic to the meaning. The
roots may be joined together directly, or with an epenthetic (linking) vowel to aid pronunciation. This
epenthetic vowel is most commonly the nominal suffix -o-, used regardless of number or case, but other
grammatical suffixes may be used when the inherent part of speech of the first root of the compound
needs to be changed.

kantobirdo (a songbird) versus birdokanto (a birdsong)

velŝipo (a sailship) versus ŝipvelo (a ship sail)
centjaro (a centennial [a year of a hundred]) versus jarcento (a century [a hundred of
years])
multekosta (expensive, with an adverbial -e-)

Prepositions are frequently found in compounds, and behave much like prefixes,

pripensi ion (to consider something) versus pensi pri io (to think about something).

Since affixes may be used as root words, and roots may combine like affixes, the boundary between the
two is blurred. Indeed, many so-called affixes are indistinguishable from other roots. However, "true"
affixes are grammatically fixed as being either prefixes or suffixes, whereas the order of roots in
compounds is determined by semantics.

Although Zamenhof did not prescribe rules for which consonant sequences are not acceptable and
therefore when the epenthetic -o- is required, he generally omitted it when the result was a sequence of
two consonants, as in velŝipo above. However, he inserted an -o-,[3]

when the two consonants that would come together differed in voicing, and would both
become different consonants if their voicing were changed, as in rozokolora (rose-colored).
This prevents the voicing assimilation that is so prevalent in the world's languages, including
Zamenhof's Russian and German, and that would result in "rozkolora" being mispronounced
 as */roskolora/ or */rozɡolora/. This is not a problem for sonorants, such as l, r, m, n, j, which
do not have voiceless equivalents in Esperanto, so the -o- may be safely dropped from
velŝipo.[4]
when the two consonants would be the same, as in vivovespero (the evening of life). This
reflects the general lack of geminate consonants in Esperanto. However, epenthetic vowels
are never used with affixes or prepositions, so double consonants are found in such cases,
as in mallonga (short).
when the first element was very short and might not otherwise be recognized, as in
diosimila (godlike).
when the compound would otherwise be homonymous with an existing word, as in
konkoludo (shell game); cf. konkludo (conclusion).

Reduplication
Reduplication is only marginally used in Esperanto. It has an intensifying effect similar to that of the
suffix -eg-. The common examples are plenplena (chock-full), from plena (full), finfine (finally, at last),
from fina (final), and fojfoje (once in a while), from foje (once, sometimes). So far, reduplication has only
been used with monosyllabic roots that don't require an epenthetic vowel when compounded.

Some examples
amantino (a [female] lover)
aminda (lovable)
amema (loving)
malameti (to feel distaste for)

esperiga (hopeful [of a situation: inspiring hope])

esperema (hopeful [of a person: tending to hope])
Esperantujo (the Esperanto community)
Esperantaĉo (broken Esperanto)

Affixes may be used in novel ways, creating new words that don't exist in any national language.
Sometimes the results are poetic: In one Esperanto novel, a man opens an old book with a broken spine,
and the yellowed pages disliberiĝas [from the root libera (free) and the affixes dis- and -iĝ-]. There is no
equivalent way to express this in English, but it creates a very strong visual image of the pages escaping
the book and scattering over the floor. More importantly, the word is comprehensible the first time one
hears it.

Derivation by affix greatly expands a speaker's vocabulary, sometimes beyond what they know in their
native language. For instance, the English word ommatidium (a single lens of a compound eye) is rather
obscure, but a child would be able to coin an Esperanto equivalent, okulero, from okulo 'an eye' (or
perhaps, more precisely, okularero, by first coining okularo for 'a compound eye'). In this way the
Esperanto root vid- (see) regularly corresponds to some two dozen English words: see (saw, seen), sight,
blind, vision, visual, visible, nonvisual, invisible, unsightly, glance, view, vista, panorama, observant etc.,
though there are also separate Esperanto roots for some of these concepts.

In the Fundamento, Zamenhof illustrated word formation by deriving the equivalents of recuperate,
disease, hospital, germ, patient, doctor, medicine, pharmacy, etc. from sana (healthy). Not all of the
resulting words translate well into English, in many cases because they distinguish fine shades of
meaning that English lacks: Sano, sana, sane, sani, sanu, saniga, saneco, sanilo, sanigi, saniĝi, sanejo,
sanisto, sanulo, malsano, malsana, malsane, malsani, malsanulo, malsaniga, malsaniĝi, malsaneta,
malsanema, malsanulejo, malsanulisto, malsanero, malsaneraro, sanigebla, sanigisto, sanigilo, resanigi,
resaniĝanto, sanigilejo, sanigejo, malsanemulo, sanilaro, malsanaro, malsanulido, nesana, malsanado,
sanulaĵo, malsaneco, malsanemeco, saniginda, sanilujo, sanigilujo, remalsano, remalsaniĝo,
malsanulino, sanigista, sanigilista, sanilista, malsanulista. Perhaps half of these words are in common
use, but the others (and more) are available if needed.

Correlatives
The "correlatives" are a paradigm of pro-forms, used to ask and answer the questions what, where, when,
why, who, whose, how, how much, and what kind. They are constructed from set elements so that
correlatives with similar meanings have similar forms: There are nine endings corresponding to the nine
wh- questions, and five initial elements that perform the functions of asking, answering, denying, being
inclusive, and being indefinite about these nine questions. For example, the words kiam (when) and kiu
(who, which), with the initial ki- of questions, ask about time and individuals, whereas the words tiam
(then) and tiu (this/that one), with the same endings but the initial ti- of demonstratives, answer those
questions, and the words neniam (never) and neniu (no-one) deny those questions. Thus by learning these
14 elements the speaker acquires a paradigm of 45 adverbs and pronouns.

The correlatives beginning with ti- correspond to the English demonstratives in th- (this, thus, then, there
etc.), whereas ĉi- corresponds to every- and i- to some-. The correlatives beginning with ki- have a double
function, as interrogative and relative pronouns and adverbs, just as the wh- words do in English: Kiu
ĉevalo? (Which horse?); La ĉevalo, kiu forkuris (The horse that ran away).

The adjectival determiners ending in -u have the usual dual function of adjectives: standing alone as
proforms, as in ĉiu (everyone); and modifying a noun, as in ĉiu tago (every day). Those ending in -io are
exclusively used standing alone: ĉio (everything).

The correlatives have a genitive case ending in -es. Therefore, the adjectival correlatives, ending in -ia
and -iu, do not play that role, as adjectival personal pronouns such as mia "my" do. However, adjectival
correlatives do agree in number and case with the nouns they modify, as any other adjectives: La ĉevaloj,
kiujn mi vidis (The horses which I saw). They, as well as the independent determiners ending in -io, also
take the accusative case when standing in for the object of a clause. The accusative of motion is used
with the place correlatives in -ie, forming -ien (hither, whither, thither, etc.).

Table of correlatives
 Question Indication Indefinite Universal Negative
("What") ("This/that") ("Some") ("Each, every") ("No")
ki– ti– i– ĉi– neni–
nenia
kia ia ĉia
tia (no
Quality –a (what (some (every
(such a) kind/sort/type
kind/sort/type of) kind/sort/type of) kind/sort/type of)
of)
tial
ial
kial (for that ĉial nenial
Reason –al (for some
(why) reason, (for all reasons) (for no reason)
reason)
therefore)
– kiam tiam iam ĉiam neniam
Time
am (when) (then) (sometime) (always) (never)
kie tie ie ĉie nenie
Place –e
(where) (there) (somewhere) (everywhere) (nowhere)
neniel
kiel tiel iel ĉiel
Manner –el (no-how,
(how, as) (thus, as) (somehow) (in every way)
in no way)
ties
– kies ies ĉies nenies
Association (this/that
es (whose) (someone's) (everyone's) (no one's)
one's)
kio tio io ĉio nenio
Thing –o
(what) (this/that) (something) (everything) (nothing)
– kiom tiom iom ĉiom neniom
Amount
om (how much) (that much) (some, a bit) (all of it) (none)
kiu ĉiu
tiu iu neniu
(who, which (everyone;
Individual –u (that one; (someone; (no one;
one; each [horse],
that [horse]) some [horse]) no [horse])
which [horse]) all [horses])

Correlative particles
Several adverbial particles are used primarily with the correlatives: ajn indicates generality, ĉi proximity,
and for distance. (Without these particles, demonstratives such as tiu and tio are not specific about
distance, though they are usually translated as "that".)

kio ajn (whatever)

io ajn (anything)
tio (that [general]) [cannot modify a noun]
tiu (that one) [can modify a noun: tiu knabo (that boy)]
tiuj (those)
tiu ĉi (this one)
tiu for (that one yonder)
tien ĉi (hither [to here])
ĉiu hundo (each/every dog)
ĉiuj hundoj (all dogs)

An extension of the original paradigm

Sometimes the correlative system is extended to the root ali- (other), at least when the resulting word is
unambiguous,
 aliel (in another way), alies (someone else's).

Alie, however, would be ambiguous as to whether the original meaning "otherwise" or the correlative
"elsewhere" were intended, so aliloke (from loko "place") is used for "elsewhere".

As a practical matter, only aliel and alies are seen with any frequency, and even they are condemned by
many speakers.

Interrogative vs relative pronouns

Examples of the interrogative versus relative uses of the ki- words:

Kiu ŝtelis mian ringon? (Who stole my ring?)

La polico ne kaptis la ŝtelistojn, kiuj ŝtelis mian ringon. (The police haven't caught the
thieves who[plural] stole my ring.)

Kiel vi faris tion? (How did you do that?)

Mi ne scias, kiel fari tion. (I don't know how to do that.)

Also,

Kia viro li estas? (What kind of man is he?)

Kia viro! (What a man!)

Note that standard Esperanto punctuation puts a comma before the relative word (a correlative in ki- or
the conjunction ke, "that"), a feature common to many Slavic languages.

Derivatives
Various parts of speech may be derived from the correlatives, just as from any other roots: ĉiama
(eternal), ĉiea (ubiquitous), tiama (contemporary), kialo (a reason), iomete (a little bit), kioma etaĝo?
(which floor?) [This last requests an ordinal answer of how many floors up, like la dek-sesa (the 16th),
rather than asking someone to simply point out which floor, which would be asked with kiu etaĝo?. The
same form is used for asking time: Kioma horo estas?, literally "How-manyeth hour is it?"]

Although the initial and final elements of the correlatives are not roots or affixes, in that they cannot
normally be independently combined with other words (for instance, there is no genitive case in -es for
nouns), the initial element of the neni- correlatives is an exception, as seen in neniulo (a nobody), from
neni- plus -ulo, or neniigi, to nullify or destroy, from neni- plus the causative -ig.

Gender
Usually, feminine nouns are derived from epicene (genderless) roots via the suffix -ino. A relatively
small number of Esperanto roots are semantically masculine or feminine. In some but not all cases,
masculine roots also have feminine derivatives via -ino. Usage is consistent for only a few dozen words.
For others, people may differ in usage, or it may be difficult to tell whether a word is gendered because
of social custom or because of the word itself.[5]

Masculine roots
A small (and decreasing) number of noun roots, mostly titles and kinship terms, are inherently masculine
unless the feminine suffix -ino or the inclusive prefix ge- are added. For example, there are patro (father),
patrino (mother), and gepatroj (parents), whereas there is no proper word for parent in the singular (as
explained in a following section). There are other words, such as papo (pope), which are generally
assumed to be masculine due to historical reality, but there is no reason a feminine form "papino"
couldn't be used in fiction, or if customs change.

The original setup

In the early twentieth century, members of a profession were assumed to be masculine unless specified
otherwise with -ino, reflecting the expectations of most industrial societies. That is, sekretario was a male
secretary, and instruisto was a male teacher. This was the case for all words ending in -isto, as well as -
ulo (riĉulo "a rich man"), -ano and ethnicities (kristano "a male Christian", anglo "an Englishman"), -
estro (urbestro "a male mayor"), and the participles -into, -anto, -onto, -ito, -ato, -oto (komencanto "a
male beginner"). Many domestic animals were also masculine (bovo "bull", kapro "billygoat", koko
"rooster"). These generally became gender-neutral over the course of the century, as many similar words
did in English, because of social transformation.

Once such a word is used ambiguously by a significant number of speakers or writers, it can no longer be
assumed to be masculine. Language guides suggest using all ambiguous words neutrally, and many
people find this the least confusing approach—and so the ranks of masculine words gradually dwindle.

The current situation

There is still variation in many of the above words, depending on the social expectations and language
background of the speaker. Many of the words are not clearly either masculine or epicene today. For
example, the plural bovoj is generally understood to mean "cattle", not "bulls", and similarly the plurals
angloj (Englishpeople) and komencantoj (beginners); but a masculine meaning reappears in bovo kaj
bovino "a bull & cow", anglo kaj anglino (an Englishman & Englishwoman), komencanto kaj
komencantino (a male & female beginner).

There are several dozen clearly masculine roots:

Words for boys and men: fraŭlo (bachelor – the feminine fraŭlino is used for 'miss'),
knabo (boy), viro (man).
Kinship terms: avo (grandfather), edzo (husband), fianĉo (fiance), filo (son), frato
(brother), kuzo (cousin), nepo (grandson), nevo (nephew), onklo (uncle), patro (father),
vidvo (widower), but not orfo (orphan) or parenco (relative).
Titles of nobility that have feminine equivalents: barono (baron), caro (czar), grafo
(count), kavaliro (knight), princo (prince), reĝo (king), sinjoro (lord, sir), but not generic
nobelo (noble) or monarĥo (monarch). Many non-European titles, such as ŝaho (shah)
and mikado (mikado), are considered masculine because there are no female examples
(there is no "ŝahino" or "mikadino"), but like 'pope' above, this is subject to circumstance.
For example, though faraono (pharaoh) may be said to be masculine, Hatshepsut is
described not only as a faraonino but as a female faraono.
Religious orders that have feminine equivalents: abato (abbot), monaĥo (monk). Others,
such as rabeno (rabbi), do not occur in the feminine but, like papo (pope), that is a matter
of custom rather than language.
Male mythological figures: ciklopoj (cyclopses), leprekono (leprechaun), etc. These do
not take the suffix -ino. There are relatively few mythological terms that can only be
 masculine. Inkubo (incubus), for example, is prototypically masculine, but the feminine
inkubino is found as an alternative to sukubo (succubus).
Dedicated masculine words for domestic animals that have a separate epicene root:
boko (buck), stalono (stallion), taŭro (bull). These do not take the suffix -ino.
Words for castrated beings: eŭnuko (eunuch), kapono (castrated rooster), okso
(castrated bull). These do not take the suffix -ino.
A word for male: masklo.

Some of these, such as masklo and the dedicated words for male animals, are fundamentally masculine
and are never used with the feminine suffix. The others remain masculine mainly because Zamenhof did
not establish a way to derive masculine words the way he did for feminine words. To partially remedy
this, the root vir (man) has long been used to form the masculine of animal words. Originally a suffix,
since the 1926 publication of the Esperanto translation of the Bible it has shifted in use to a prefix, but
either way the resulting words are ambiguous.[6] Bovoviro "bovine-man" and virbovo "man-bovine", for
example, could mean either "minotaur" or "bull", and therefore both taŭro (bull) and minotaŭro
(minotaur) have been borrowed into the language to disambiguate. Adjectival usage of vira is also found,
but is similarly ambiguous. More recently, the word maskla (masculine) was created as an unambiguous
alternative.

Feminine roots
There are several dozen feminine roots that do not normally take the feminine suffix -ino:

Words for women: damo (lady), matrono (matron), megero (shrew/bitch, from mythology);
Female professions: almeo (almah), gejŝo (geisha), hetajro (concubine), meretrico
(prostitute), odalisko (odalisque), primadono (prima donna), subreto (soubrette);
Female mythological figures: amazono (Amazon), furio (Fury), muzo (Muse), nimfo
(nymph), sireno (siren), etc.
Special words for female domestic animals: guno (heifer)
Spayed animals: pulardo (poulard)
Words for female: ino, femalo.

Like the essentially masculine roots (those that do not take the feminine suffix), feminine roots are rarely
interpreted as epicene. However, many of them are feminine because of social custom or the details of
their mythology, and there is nothing preventing masculine usage in fiction. Even outside of fiction,
words such as muzo (muse) and nimfo (nymph) may be used metaphorically for males, and a collection
of Goethe's poetry has been translated under the title La Muzino ('The [female] Muse'), with gendered
metaphorical usage. Similarly, sireno is also the biological name for sea-cows (Latin Sirenia), and as
such one can speak of sirenino (a female sea-cow).

Feminine personal names

The ending of all assimilated nouns in Esperanto with -o, including personal names, clashes with
Romance languages such as Italian and Spanish, in which -o marks masculine names, and feminine
names end in -a. For example, the fully Esperantized form of 'Mary' is Mario, which resembles Spanish
masculine Mario rather than feminine María. (Though suffixed Mariino is also available, it is seldom
seen.) This has resulted in some writers using a final -a for feminine names with cognates in Romance
languages, such as Johano "John" vs. Johana "Joanna", rather than using the feminine suffix -in for a
more fully assimilated Johano and Johanino, or Jozefo "Joseph" and Jozefino "Josephine". Some writers
extend this -a convention to all female names.
Gendered pronouns
Esperanto personal pronouns distinguish gender in the third-person singular: li (he), ŝi (she); but not in
the plural: ili (they). There are two practical epicene third-person singular pronouns: expanding the use of
the demonstrative pronoun tiu (that one), and Zamenhof's suggestion, ĝi.

See the discussions at Esperanto personal pronouns and gender reform in Esperanto.

Antonyms
People sometimes object to using the prefix mal- to derive highly frequent antonyms, especially when
they are as long as malproksima (far). There are a few alternative roots in poetry, such as turpa for
malbela (ugly) and pigra for mallaborema (lazy) – some of which originated in Ido – that find their way
into prose. However, they are rarely used in conversation. This is a combination of two factors: the great
ease and familiarity of using the mal- prefix, and the relative obscurity of most of the alternatives, which
would hamper communication. This results in English borrowings – such as ĉipa (cheap) for
malmultekosta (inexpensive) – failing to find favor even among native English speakers.

Two root antonyms are frequently encountered: eta (little), and dura (hard [not soft]). However, their
popularity is due to their iconicity. Eta is derived from the diminutive suffix and more properly means
slight, but it's a short word, and its use for malgranda (little) is quite common. The reason for the
popularity of dura may be similar: perhaps official malmola, with the repeated continuants m_l, sounds
too soft to mean "hard", while dura begins with a stop consonant. Other antonymic words tend to have a
different scope. For example, instead of malbona (bad) we may see aĉa (of poor quality) or fia
(shameful), but these are not strict antonyms.

The antonymic prefix is highly productive among native-speaking children.

Proper names
Proper names may either be

translated into Esperanto: Johano "John"

fully assimilated (respelled in the Esperanto alphabet
and given the inflectional suffix -o of nouns). These can
then be inflected like normal Esperanto nouns:
Rozevelto "Roosevelt" The Japanese names "Akihito and
la Rozeveltoj "the Roosevelts" Michiko" inflected in Latin as
in accusative case: Nun mi priskribos Rozevelton Akihitum et Michikam. Final vowels
"Now I will describe Roosevelt." are often similarly changed to the
inflectional suffix -o, -on in
changed to another part of speech: la Rozevelta
Esperanto.
domego "the Roosevelt mansion"
combined with other roots and affixes: Rozeveltidoj
"descendants of the Roosevelts"
partially assimilated, i.e. respelled only: Kandaliza Rajs "Condoleezza Rice", or
left in the original orthography: Zamenhof.
The last method is usually used only for names or transliterations of names in Latin script. As noted
under Gender, feminine personal names may take the suffix a rather than o even when fully assimilated.
When a name ending in a vowel is fully assimilated, the vowel is often changed to inflectional o, rather
than the o being added to the full root. As with borrowed common nouns, this may be criticized if the
vowel is part of the root rather than inflectional in the source language, because the resulting form may
not be readily recognized by native speakers of the source language. However, it is a common
phenomenon in inflectional languages such as Russian or Latin. If a name is not fully assimilated, the
accusative case may be tacked on with a hyphen, as -n if the name ends in a vowel, or as -on if it does not
(Zamenhof-on).

Idioms and slang

Some idiomatic expressions have either been borrowed from Esperanto's source languages, or developed
naturally over the course of Esperanto's history. There are also various expletives based on body
functions and religion, as in English.

Idioms
In addition to the root words and the rules for combining them, a learner of Esperanto must learn some
idiomatic compounds that are not entirely straightforward. For example, eldoni, literally "to give out",
means "to publish"; a vortaro, literally "a compilation of words", means "a glossary" or "a dictionary";
and necesejo, literally "a place for necessities", is a toilet. Almost all of these compounds, however, are
modeled after equivalent compounds in native European languages: eldoni after the German herausgeben
or Russian издавать, and vortaro from the Russian словарь slovar’.

Contractions
Saluton (hello) is sometimes clipped to sal or even sa, and saluĝis (from saluton – ĝis la revido) is seen
as a quick hello–goodbye on internet chatrooms. Similarly:

espo (Esperanto)
kaŭ (from kaj/aŭ 'and/or')
ŝli (from li/ŝi 'he/she' and ŝ/li 's/he')
’stas (from estas 'is, are, am')

In the contraction ’stas the stress shifts to the temporal suffix, which makes the tenses easier to
distinguish than they are in formal estas, and effectively recapturing some of the stress patterns of Proto-
Esperanto (see below).

Word play
Sometimes Esperanto derivational morphology is used to create humorous alternatives to existing roots.
For instance, with the antonym prefix mal-, one gets,

maltrinki (from trinki to drink) to urinate (normally urini)

malmanĝi (from manĝi to eat) to vomit (normally vomi).

As in English, some slang is intentionally offensive, such as substituting the suffix -ingo (a sheath) for
the feminine -ino in virino (a woman), for viringo, meaning a woman as a receptacle for a man. However,
such terms are usually coined to translate from English or other languages, and are rarely heard in
conversation.
Cultural "in" words
Esperanto has some slang in the sense of in-group talk as well. Some of this is borrowed; for example,
fajfi pri io (to whistle about something) means not to care about it, as in German. Other expressions
deriving from Esperanto history or dealing with specifically Esperantist concerns have arisen over the
years. A volapukaĵo, for example, is something needlessly incomprehensible, derived from the name of
the more complex and less immediately readable constructed language Volapük, which preceded
Esperanto by a few years.

Words and phrases reflect what speakers of a language talk about. Tellingly, Esperanto has a slang
expression krokodili (to crocodile) for speaking a language other than Esperanto when Esperanto would
be more appropriate, such as at an Esperanto convention, whereas there is nothing equivalent in English.

Jargon
Technical jargon exists in Esperanto as it does in English, and this is a major source of debate in the
language: whether international jargon should be borrowed into Esperanto, or whether more transparent
equivalents should be constructed from existing roots.

However, the normal wordplay people use for amusement is occasionally carried to the extreme of being
jargon. One such style is called Esperant’ (https://web.archive.org/web/20020218100612/http://www.geo
cities.com/mihxil/esperant/esperant.html), found in chat rooms and occasionally used at Esperanto
conventions. (See Esperantido.)

Artificial variants
One line of verse, taken from the sole surviving example of the original Lingwe uniwersala of 1878, is
used idiomatically:

jam temp’ está (it's time).

If this stage of Esperanto had been preserved, it would presumably be used to occasionally give a novel
the archaic flavor that Latin provides in the modern European languages.

Various approaches have been taken to represent deviant language in Esperanto literature. One play, for
example, originally written in two dialects of Italian, was translated with Esperanto representing one
dialect, and Ido representing the other. Other approaches are to attempt to reconstruct proto-Esperanto,
and to create de novo variants of the language.

Reconstructions
With so little data available, various attempts have been made to reconstruct what proto-Esperanto may
have been like. However, these reconstructions rely heavily on material from the intermediate period of
Esperanto development, between the original Lingwe Uniwersala of 1878 and the Unua Libro of 1887.
(See Proto-Esperanto.)

De novo creations
There are various "dialects" and pseudo-historical forms that have been created for literary uses in
Esperanto. Two of the more notable are a substandard jargon, Popido, and a fictitious "archaic" version
of Esperanto called Arcaicam Esperantom. Neither are used in conversation. (See Esperantido.)

False cognates
Because Esperanto vocabulary is largely international, it shares many cognates with English. However,
because they were often taken from languages other than English, these do not always have their English
meanings. Some of the mismatches are:

domaĝi (to spare), vs. difekti (to damage)

embaraso (jam, obstruction), vs. hontigi (to embarrass)
aktuala (current, up-to-date), vs. efektiva (actual), vs. efika (effective)
eventuala (contingent), vs. rezulta (eventual)
akurata (punctual, on-time), vs. preciza (accurate)
kontroli (to check, keep track of), vs. regi (to control)
konvena (suitable), vs. oportuna (convenient)
rento (dividend income), vs. lupago (rent)
paragrafo (section), vs. alineo (paragraph)

Dictionaries
La Plena Ilustrita Vortaro de Esperanto (English: The Complete Illustrated Dictionary of Esperanto,
abbreviated PIV) is the largest monolingual dictionary of the language and is generally regarded as the
standard. (There is a free online version at vortaro.net (http://vortaro.net).) However, it is subject to
criticism, for example for failure to distinguish rare, idiosyncratic, redundant, or even erroneous words
attested in a few written texts from their conversational equivalents, and for giving French
approximations of some difficult words rather than their Zamehofian meanings.[7] The older Plena
Vortaro de Esperanto, originally published in 1930 and reissued with an appendix in 1953, is still widely
used, as more portable and less expensive than the PIV, and perhaps more accurate, even if somewhat
dated. The Etimologia vortaro de Esperanto (five volumes, 1989–2001) gives source-language
etymologies of all fundamental and official root words (tentative and uncertain in a few cases), along
with comparisons of equivalent words in four other constructed international auxiliary languages.

See also
Esperanto grammar
Word derivation by native speakers
Esperanto lexicographers
Vortaro de Esperanto
Special Esperanto adverbs
Esperanto words with the suffix -um
Esperanto profanity

Notes
1. -enda is a borrowing from Ido. It is often equivalent to the nonce passive conditional
participle: pagenda 'payable', paguta 'that which would/should be paid'.
 2. "Blueprints for Babel: Esperanto" (https://web.archive.org/web/20120717023051/http://homu
nculus.com/babel/aesperanto.html#adjectives). Archived from the original (http://homunculu
s.com/babel/aesperanto.html#adjectives) on 17 July 2012.
3. Plena analiza gramatiko, § 309.
4. V is also an exception, as in ŝipvelo, perhaps because for Zamenhof it was intermediate in
pronunciation between [v] and the sonorant [w]. V is also an exception to assimilation rules
in Slavic languages.
5. PMEG, §4.3. Seksa signifo de O-vortoj (https://bertilow.com/pmeg/gramatiko/o-vortoj/seksa
_signifo.html)
6. Malovec, Miroslav (1999). "Morfologio § 5.2.2. Genro kaj sekso" (https://web.archive.org/we
b/20140103101219/http://literatura.bucek.name/malovec/malovec_gramatiko-esp.pdf#page
=27) (PDF). Gramatiko de Esperanto (http://literatura.bucek.name/malovec/malovec_grama
tiko-esp.pdf) (PDF) (in Esperanto). Prague. p. 26. Archived from the original (https://web.arc
hive.org/web/20140103101219/http://literatura.bucek.name/malovec/malovec_gramatiko-es
p.pdf#page=27) (PDF) on 3 January 2014.
7. For example the common preposition da, which has no exact equivalent in Romance and
Germanic languages and is frequently misused by speakers of those languages, was
defined in the PIV according to how it was misused by most French authors rather than to
how it was used in Zamenhof's writings and by authors who follow his example. (Sergio
Pokrovskij, 2007. Lingva Kritiko: Studoj kaj notoj pri la Internacia Lingvo[1] (http://lingvakritik
o.com/2007/02/05/la-artikolo/#Da))

External links
Lowenstein, Anna (2008) [after a 1998 talk]. "PV kaj PIV" (https://web.archive.org/web/2014
1221034509/http://bonalingvo.org/?title=PV_kaj_PIV). La Bona Lingvo (in Esperanto).
Archived from the original (http://bonalingvo.org/?title=PV_kaj_PIV) on 21 December 2014.,
a discussion of the Plena Vortaro and Plena Ilustrita Vortaro, and criticism of the latter
Reta Vortaro (http://reta-vortaro.de/revo/), multilingual Esperanto dictionary
vortaro.net (http://vortaro.net), Plena Ilustrita Vortaro online

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