Adverbs in Esperanto: -e, and Why estas varme Has No Noun

Swap the ending for -e and any root becomes an adverb: bela, beautiful, gives bele, beautifully. The one choice that needs teaching comes after estas: -a when a noun is there to agree with, -e when there is none.

-e from any root

Swap the ending and the root stays put:

From adjective roots you get what English makes with -ly:

• Ŝi parolas rapide. - She speaks quickly.

From noun roots you get what English needs a whole phrase for:

• Mi legas vespere. - I read in the evening.
• Ŝi laboras hejme. - She works at home.

The -e form answers how, when or where the action happens. Stop translating at night word by word and reach for nokte.

Adverbs with no -e

A small set of basic adverbs are words in their own right, not a root plus -e. They never need one:

Ankoraŭ (still), eĉ (even) and hodiaŭ (today) belong to the same set. Several of them can still take -a to describe a noun: la nuna tempo, the present time.

Tre and tro are not two strengths of one thing. Tre praises; tro complains:

• La domo estas tre granda. - The house is very big. (good news)
• La domo estas tro granda. - The house is too big. (bad news)

Nur, eĉ and ankaŭ work on the word right after them, as ne does:

-a or -e after estas

After estas, look for the subject. A noun or pronoun gets an agreeing -a. No noun gets -e:

12

1. 1Estas varme.
2. 2Estas malvarme.

Estas varme (it is warm) under the sun, estas malvarme (it is cold) in the snow: weather has no noun, so -e.

Esperanto has no dummy it (English it is warm, French il fait chaud). Estas varme is the whole sentence, and an -a form would be an adjective with nothing to describe.

Of a soup, say ĝi estas varma: the pronoun gives the -a something to agree with. Of the weather there is nothing to put there, so estas varma sends your listener looking for the warm thing.

No noun: three kinds of subject

The -e is not only for the weather. It goes wherever the subject is not a noun or pronoun:

Compare the same word with a noun subject:

• La leciono estas facila. - The lesson is easy.
• Lerni estas facile. - Learning is easy.

English speakers usually slip the same way: -a where -e belongs, because English it is easy has a subject and the instinct wants something for the adjective to agree with.

Direction: -en

Add -n to a place adverb and it means towards that place, just as en la domon means into the house:

• Mi iras hejmen. - I am going home.
• Ŝi estas hejme. - She is at home.

The question words pair the same way: kie asks where, kien asks where to.

• Kien vi iras? Hejmen. - Where are you going? Home.

Quantity: multe da, iom da

The quantity adverbs multe (a lot) and iom (some, a little) join their noun with da:

• Li trinkis multe da akvo. - He drank a lot of water.
• Mi havas iom da tempo. - I have a little time.

Multa akvo, with an agreeing adjective, is just as correct and very common. Multe akvo, with no da, is not. The full da rule is in quantity.

Where adverbs go

An adverb is free to move. Its neutral place is near the verb; moving it to the front puts weight on it:

• Ŝi kantas bele. - She sings beautifully. (neutral)
• Bele ŝi kantas! - Beautifully, she sings! (the manner is the news)
• Nun mi komprenas. - Now I understand. (I did not before)

Mistakes English speakers make

What to do next

1. Turn five nouns you know into -e adverbs: nokte, vespere, hejme.
2. Describe today's weather in two sentences, with no noun in either.
3. Read comparisons: pli bone, plej rapide.

See also

• Word endings - the four endings -e completes.
• The accusative - the direction -n that hejmen borrows.
• Questions - kie versus kien, and the other question words.
• Negation - where ne goes, a rule nur and eĉ share.
• Word order and style - what fronting an adverb signals.