Esperanto Apposition: la urbon Parizon and the Echoed -n

Apposition is two nouns side by side for one thing, with no word between them: la urbo Parizo, mia amiko Petro. Both nouns fill the same slot in the sentence, so both take the same ending. When that slot is the object, the -n lands twice.

Where English says the city of Paris or the month of May, Esperanto needs no linking word: la urbo Parizo, la monato majo. (For affixes used as words, ilo, aro, eta, see affixes that are also words.)

The case echoes

The two nouns do not describe each other: they are each other. La urbo and Parizo name one place, so they do one job and wear one ending.

With a language name you will also meet the bare form, la lingvon Esperanto, the name treated as a label; the echoed form is the regular one.

The plural echoes too, and a comma changes nothing:

• Mi salutas miajn amikojn, la esperantistojn. - I greet my friends, the Esperantists.

English speakers often drop this -n, because English has no ending to drop: I saw the city of Paris sounds finished after city. Hear the two nouns as one phrase with one job.

When it does not echo

The second noun copies the first. Where the first has no -n, neither does the second.

After a preposition. A preposition is followed by the plain form, so there is nothing to copy:

The last line is the direction -n: en with motion puts -n on the first noun, so the second copies it.

A name kept in its own spelling. Parizo, Londono and Petro have Esperanto endings and take -n. A name left as it is spelled at home has nowhere to put one, so the title takes the -n and the name stays:

A book title or a quoted word is being named, not used, so it keeps the shape it came with.

ni ĉiuj, vi ambaŭ, li mem

Ĉiuj after a pronoun names the same people, so it copies the pronoun's ending:

Tri stays tri because numbers take no endings. Two more words never change, however the pronoun before them does:

• Li vidis nin ambaŭ. - He saw us both.
• Mi vidis lin mem. - I saw him himself.

Titles before a name

A title in front of a name is apposition too, and it is written in lower case. Its short form keeps the first letter and the last letters, with a hyphen between:

The short forms take endings like the full word:

• Mi vidis s-ron Smith. - I saw Mr Smith.
• Ŝi skribis al s-ro Smith. - She wrote to Mr Smith.

La Majstro, with the article and no name after it, means Zamenhof himself: La Majstro naskiĝis en 1859. - The Master was born in 1859. Letter writing and register has the salutations these titles sit in.

Mistakes English speakers make

What to do next

1. Say three sentences about places you have visited: Mi vizitis la urbon ....
2. Say nin ĉiujn and nin ambaŭ aloud until the difference is automatic.
3. Then read affixes that are also words.

See also

• The accusative - the -n that the second noun echoes.
• Nouns and adjectives - the agreement rule apposition is a special case of.
• Particle combinations - mem, ambaŭ and the other small words that never change.
• Affixes that are also words - ilo, aro, eta, and words that only look built.
• Countries and peoples - the names that la urbo and la lando stand beside.
• Letter writing and register - s-ro, d-ro and the salutations that use them.