Esperanto · Chapter 18 · Lesson 14 · Grammar primer
Letters and register
Formal and informal Esperanto without a tu/vous split: the salutation ladder from Kara to Altestimata, closing formulas, what ci is and why nobody uses it, and the politeness work bonvolu does.
The short version
One vi, and the politeness moved to the verb
No tu and vous, no du and Sie: vi does your oldest friend and a government minister alike. The register lives in the shape of the request instead, and that ladder is six rungs deep. Skribu al mi is an instruction, warm between friends and brusque to a stranger. Skribu al mi, mi petas softens it. Bonvolu skribi al mi turns an order into a request for the price of one word. Ĉu vi povus skribi al mi? asks a favour, and ĉu vi bonvolus is as formal as the language reasonably gets.
Bonvolu skribi al mi.
Kara, Estimata, Altestimata: match the ends
Kara is the friendly default and what Esperantists mostly use with each other. Estimata is the formal rung for a stranger, an official or a complaint, and it agrees like the ordinary adjective it is: Estimataj gesinjoroj. Altestimata is genuinely ceremonial and reads as irony anywhere below a head of state. Saluton! stands beside the ladder as the email-era neutral. Then match the ends: Estimata opens what Kun estimo closes, Kara opens what Amike or Kore closes.
Estimata sinjoro, ... Kun estimo,
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