Quantity words: iom, multe, kelkaj, tro

Adjectives of quantity sit on the noun and agree; adverbs of quantity link to it with da; before la, da gives way to de. That is the whole system.

The quantity words

The words in -a are adjectives; the words in -e and the short ones (iom, tro, kiom) are adverbs. That one split decides everything below. The question word sits in the -om row of the correlatives table.

Adjective or adverb + da

An adjective sits on the noun and agrees with it, plural and object included:

• Mi vidis multajn hundojn. - I saw many dogs.
• Mi manĝis kelkajn pomojn. - I ate a few apples.
• Mi laboris la tutan tagon. - I worked the whole day.

An adverb cannot touch the noun. It needs a link, and the link is da:

• Multe da homoj venis. - A lot of people came.
• Ĉu vi havas sufiĉe da tempo? - Do you have enough time?

Both shapes are everyday Esperanto, and with multa they mean the same: multa tempo and multe da tempo are both a lot of time.

Numbers take no da

A plain numeral sits straight on the noun, like an adjective:

• Tri pomoj estas sur la tablo. - Three apples are on the table.
• Mi vidis dek homojn. - I saw ten people.

Number nouns are different. Miliono (a million) and dekduo (a dozen) are nouns, so they need the link:

• miliono da homoj - a million people
• dekduo da ovoj - a dozen eggs

The numbers article has the full inventory.