Ĝojan feston! Wishes, birthdays and festo or ferio

Festo or ferio?

English holiday covers two Esperanto words. A festo is the celebration; a ferio is a day off work.

The verb and adjective come from the same root:

• Ni festis lian naskiĝtagon. - We celebrated his birthday.
• Ŝi portis festan robon. - She wore a party dress.

Birthdays: naskiĝtago and datreveno

A naskiĝtago is a birthday, the day somebody was born. A datreveno is any anniversary: the date coming round again.

A birthday is one kind of anniversary, but the Reta Vortaro notes that naskiĝtago is the better-understood word for it. To a person, say naskiĝtago.

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1. 1knabo
2. 2kuko
3. 3amikino
4. 4donaco

A naskiĝtago: the knabo (boy) has his birthday, the kuko (cake) has five candles, an amikino (friend, a girl) is at the party, and there is a donaco (present).

• Li havas kvin jarojn hodiaŭ. - He is five today.

The wishes, and why they end in -n

Every wish is a sentence with the verb left out, and the full sentence is hardly ever said. PMEG explains it this way: Bonan matenon! is short for Mi deziras al vi bonan matenon!, I wish you a good morning. The wish is the object of deziras, so the adjective and the noun both take -n.

The pattern is open: any adjective and noun, both with -n, make a wish, whether or not anyone has said it before.

• Bonan semajnfinon! - Have a good weekend!
• Agrablajn feriojn! - Have a nice holiday!

Thanks and greetings work the same way with a different verb left out. PMEG gives Dankon! as short for Mi donas al vi dankon!, I give you thanks, and Saluton! as Mi donas al vi saluton!.

Mistakes English speakers make