Esperanto · Chapter 14 · Lesson 14 · Grammar primer
Quantity: iom, multe, kelkaj and the da rule
Glaso da akvo but glaso de la vino: da follows quantity and never precedes la. The quantity words, the rule, and the minimal pairs that make it stick.
The short version
glaso da vino against glaso de vino
Two letters, two different objects. Glaso da vino is a glassful of wine: the glass is measuring and the wine is the point, so you can drink it. Glaso de vino is a wine glass: the glass is the point and the wine a mere association, so it is probably empty. Da answers how much, de answers what kind or whose. The same contrast runs through botelo da lakto, a bottle of milk, against botelo de lakto, a milk bottle.
glaso da vino / glaso de vino
Numbers take no da; kelkaj simply agrees
The line runs between word classes, not meanings. A plain numeral sits straight on the noun like an adjective: tri pomoj, dek homoj, never tri da pomoj. Quantity nouns need the link even when they name numbers: miliono da homoj, dekduo da ovoj, amaso da laboro. And kelkaj is a plural adjective, so it agrees rather than linking: mi manĝis kelkajn pomojn. Hence the doublet multaj pomoj and multe da pomoj, both correct and interchangeable.
Mi manĝis tri pomojn kaj kelkajn ovojn.
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