Ch 9 Ā· Lesson 9Esperanto Ā· Chapter 9 Ā· Lesson 9 Ā· Grammar primer
The passive sentence: esti, de and per
: carries the tense, the doer, per the tool. And only a verb that takes an object has a passive.
The short version
.
Why?Hide
A full passive is plus a passive participle, and the two prepositions that follow do not overlap. marks who did it, per marks what it was done with. English uses by for both and leaves you to untangle a sentence like it was signed by the king by candlelight. Esperanto keeps them apart, so there is nothing to untangle. Better still, in most sentences, dodge the passive and write .
Building the passive sentence
plus the participle. The tense sits on ; the participle says how far along the action is:
| Pattern | Esperanto | English |
|---|---|---|
-- | . | The house is being built. |
-- | . | The house is built. |
-- | . | The house was built. |
-- | . | The house will be built. |
Two prepositions add who and how, and never share a job. is the doer, is the means:
.- The letter was written by my mother with a pencil.
The participle agrees with the subject in number: . (The letters were written.)
Only transitive verbs have one
A passive needs something to be done to. , , and take no object, so they have no passive participle: is not a word. English agrees: nobody says he was arrived.
The suffix -- makes such a verb take an object, and then it has a passive:
dormigita.- The child was put to sleep.
Transitivity lists which verbs take an object.
Going further: Three more participles, same three vowels and the rest of the guide, when you want them. This lesson does not need them.
Practice
Practise this lesson
10-question session
One question at a time, mixed across the exercises in this lesson. Miss one and it comes back round before the end.
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