Esperanto Compound Tenses: esti + Participle, and When
By Michael McGettrickUpdated 12 October 2026
A form of plus a participle makes a compound tense. says when; the participle says whether the action is under way, done or still to come. Read them all, and write few.
-- | -- | -- | |
|---|---|---|---|
| now | | | |
| past | | | |
| future | | | |
Quick check
Now use it: three quick questions on the chart above. The full practice is further down.
Spot the mistake
0/3Each sentence has one wrong word. Tap it.
| Esperanto | English |
|---|---|
. | I had read. |
. | I was about to read. |
. | I will have read. |
Swap in the passive participles (-ata, -ita, -ota) and you get nine more: , the book was read. The passive covers those.
Esti carries the time
puts you at a moment in the past. The participle then says where the reading stood at that moment:
mi estis leginta (done before she came)
kiam ŝi venis (the moment)
mi estis leganta (under way as she came)
mi estis legonta (still to come)
Timeline from past to now, with now marked.
| At that moment | Esperanto | English |
|---|---|---|
| already done | , . | When she came, I had read. |
| under way | , . | When she came, I was reading. |
| still to come | , . | When she came, I was about to read. |
Change to and the same three cells move into the future: , . is when she comes, I will have read.
Agreement: -j yes, -n no
The participle after describes the subject, like in . So it takes the subject's -j, and never -n:
.- They are reading the book..- We were about to come.
has -n because the reading lands on it. describes , so is wrong.
Usually, the simple tense says it
Esperanto's simple tenses are wider than English ones:
| Esperanto | English |
|---|---|
. | I read. / I am reading. |
. | I read. / I was reading. / I have read. / I had read. |
. | I will read. / I will be reading. |
English makes you choose between I read and I am reading every time, and the habit follows English speakers into Esperanto. is correct; used by default, it sounds translated.
Small words do most of what a compound would:
| Word | Example | English |
|---|---|---|
| . | I had already eaten. |
| . | He has just come. |
| , . | While I was reading, he slept. |
And the -inte participle folds a whole after I had clause into one word: , . (having read the book, I slept).
The cells that earn their keep
Three compounds say something no simple tense can:
| Use | Esperanto | English |
|---|---|---|
| about to | . | I was about to leave. |
| a past hypothetical | , . | If I had read it, I would know. |
| the passive | . | The house is being built. |
About to: no ending means about to, so -- is the only way. , . leaves open whether the leaving ever happened; . (soon I left) says it did.
A past hypothetical: -us carries no time, so can mean if I read or, in context, if I had read. pins it to the past.
The passive: when the thing acted on belongs at the front of the sentence. The passive shows how often does it better.
A curiosity: legintas
Some writers fuse the compound into one verb: legintas for , for . You will meet them now and then, but they are rare and many speakers avoid them: recognise them, and write .
Mistakes English speakers make
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| | the participle never takes -n |
| | plural subject: -j |
| | unreal past: |
What to do next
- Say the nine active cells of
aloud, then three with. - Write two sentences with
and an--participle about things you nearly did. - Then read participles for the
-inteform that replaces many of these.
See also
- Verb tenses - the simple endings that do almost all the work.
- Participles - the
--,--and--forms these tenses are built from. - The passive -
- The aspect affixes -
iandi, often lighter than a compound.