Esperanto Interjections: Ho, Nu, Ve and Sound Words

An Esperanto interjection takes no ending and sits outside the sentence: Ho, kiel bele! is oh, how lovely! Give one an ending, though, and it becomes an ordinary word: the noise boj gives boji, to bark.

The glosses: how lovely!; ha ha!; if only I knew!; ouch, my foot!; woe is me!; oh dear, it is too late; well, let us begin; shame on you!; hooray, we won!; hey, you there!

Ho is by far the commonest. In the frequency list this course uses it sits at rank 85, among the pronouns; ha is at 382, ve at 589, fi at 862.

Outside the sentence

An interjection has no job in the grammar. Delete it and the sentence is still whole:

• Ho, mi ne sciis tion. - Oh, I did not know that.
• Mi ne sciis tion. - I did not know that.

So it never takes -j, -n or any other ending: ho is ho whatever surrounds it. A comma or an exclamation mark sets it off, and an exclamation mark raises the volume:

• Aj! Tio doloras. - Ouch! That hurts.

Unlike Spanish, Esperanto has no opening mark: Ho!, never ¡Ho!. And one per turn is plenty. Ho ve is a fixed pair; ho, ha, nu, ve is a breakdown.

Ho ve: alas

Ho brings the surprise, ve the misery, and together they are the standard alas, or a milder oh dear:

• Ho ve, mi forgesis la ŝlosilon! - Oh dear, I forgot the key!
• Ho ve, la tempo pasis. - Alas, the time has gone.

Alone, ve is heavier and older-sounding. It is not a verb, so it cannot take an object; it aims at a person with al:

• Ve al mi! - Woe is me!
• Ve al la venkitoj! - Woe to the defeated!

Ve min is what an English speaker writes by analogy with woe is me, and it is wrong for that reason: there is no verb for min to be the object of.

Nu: well, and now

Nu is the nudge: well, so, right, come on. It opens a turn, moves a story on, and buys a second while you think:

• Nu, ni komencu. - Well, let us begin.
• Nu, mi ne scias. - Well, I don't know.
• Nu, iru! - Go on, then!

In a chain of reasoning it can also mean now, bringing in the next step, much as English now does:

• Ĉiuj homoj mortas. Nu, Sokrato estas homo. - All men die. Now, Socrates is a man.

Outside an argument like that one, read it as well. Its partner in conversation is do, so, then, which closes a thought where nu opens one; both are in spoken Esperanto.

Fi, and the fi- prefix

Fi is one syllable of disgust: Fi al vi! is shame on you! With an ending it becomes a word, and as a prefix it condemns:

The suffix -aĉ- also disapproves, but of quality, not morals. Put both on one root and you get two different complaints:

The two overlap at the edges, and speakers do not always keep them apart. The tendency is what matters: fi- judges, -aĉ- sneers. The interjection fi and the prefix fi- have separate pages here.

Every noise takes an ending

The four endings work on any root, and a root that started life as a noise is no exception. So interjections grow families:

Hejmveo is the best argument for learning the interjections: no word list prepares you for it, and once you know ve you cannot misread it.

• Li sentis hejmveon. - He felt homesick.

Sound words become verbs

Esperanto writes noises much as English does: bum for a thud, plaŭd for a splash, boj for a dog. Add -i and the noise is a verb; add -o and it is the sound itself:

Then it conjugates like any verb:

• La hundo bojis la tutan nokton. - The dog barked all night.
• Kiu miaŭas malantaŭ la pordo? - Who is miaowing behind the door?

• bojito bark
• sonorito ring (a bell)
• fajfito whistle

Many sound verbs are ordinary roots with no written noise behind them: sonori (ring, of a bell), fajfi (whistle), ĝemi (groan). When you do not know an animal's own verb, bleki is the general one: the cry of any animal.

• La azeno blekis. - The donkey brayed.

The spelling of animal noises varies more than the rest of the language; a cockerel, for one, is written several ways. The interjections in the first table are the settled core.

Mistakes English speakers make

What to do next

1. Learn ho, aj, ve, nu and fi first; they cover most feelings.
2. Make verbs from three noises you hear today, with -i.
3. Then read spoken Esperanto for nu and do in conversation.

See also

• Spoken Esperanto - nu, do and ĉu ne? in conversation.
• Esperanto slang - more -aĉ-, and the words speakers use about themselves.
• The four endings - why a noise can become a verb.
• Word building - the affix system fi- and -aĉ- belong to.
• Orthography and punctuation - the exclamation mark and the comma.