Esperanto Grammar on One Page: All 16 Rules

Esperanto's whole official grammar is sixteen numbered rules, the Fundamenta Gramatiko, fixed in 1905. Here they are in Zamenhof's order, each with an example and a link to the article that covers it in full. Rules 1 to 8 are the parts of speech; rules 9 to 16 are general rules.

What the Fundamenta Gramatiko is

It is one of the four parts of the Fundamento de Esperanto, beside a preface, the Ekzercaro (exercises) and the Universala Vortaro (about 2,600 roots).

The quotations below are from the English column. Read straight through the apostrophe spelling: it was for elementary works only.

Rules 1-4: article, nouns, adjectives, numerals

Rule 1: the article

"There is no indefinite, and only one definite, article, la, for all genders, numbers, and cases."

• la homo, la homoj, la homon - the person, the people, the person (object)
• homo - a person: no word for "a"

When to use la is not in the rule: the article la covers it.

Rule 2: nouns

"Substantives are formed by adding o to the root. For the plural, the letter j must be added to the singular."

The object, the rule goes on, "adds an n after the o". Every other case is a preposition: de for of, al for to, kun for with.

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1. 1unu pomo
2. 2tri pomoj

Unu pomo, tri pomoj: one apple, three apples. The -j is the whole plural.

• Mi vidas la domon. - I see the house.
• Mi vidas la domojn. - I see the houses.

More: word endings, nouns and adjectives, the accusative.

Rule 3: adjectives

"Adjectives are formed by adding a to the root. The numbers and cases are the same as in substantives."

So an adjective takes the -j and -n of its noun. Comparison uses pli (more) and plej (most), and "the word 'than' is rendered by ol".

• Mi vidas la belajn domojn. - I see the beautiful houses.
• pli blanka ol neĝo - whiter than snow (the Fundamento's own example)

More: comparisons.

Rule 4: numerals

"The cardinal numerals do not change their forms for the different cases."

The rule lists twelve: unu du tri kvar kvin ses sep ok naŭ dek cent mil. Bigger numbers are joined, as in its own example kvincent tridek tri, 533. The derived numbers are endings and suffixes:

More: numbers, fractions and multiples.

Rules 5-8: pronouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions

Rule 5: pronouns

"Possessive pronouns are formed by suffixing to the required personal, the adjectival termination."

The list is mi vi li ŝi ĝi si ni ili oni. Add -a for the possessive and -n for the object, as on a noun:

• mia libro - my book
• Li vidas min. - He sees me.

More: personal pronouns, the reflexive si, oni.

Rule 6: verbs

"The verb does not change its form for numbers or persons"

The English column calls -us the subjunctive ("she may do"); Esperanto grammars call it the conditional. The rule then gives six participles (-ant- -int- -ont-, -at- -it- -ot-) and the passive, esti plus a passive participle, with de for "by":

• Ŝi estas amata de ĉiuj. - She is loved by everyone (the Fundamento's example).

What -at- against -it- means in the past was argued over for decades; in 1967 the Akademio de Esperanto declared the aspect reading (-it- finished) the one that matches Zamenhof. More: verb tenses, participles, the passive.

Rule 7: adverbs

"Adverbs are formed by adding e to the root."

Comparison works as for adjectives:

• Mia frato kantas pli bone ol mi. - My brother sings better than I do (the Fundamento's example).

More: adverbs.

Rule 8: prepositions

"All prepositions govern the nominative case."

The nominative is the plain form, without -n:

• Mi parolas kun la amiko. - I am talking with the friend.
• Tio estas por la infanoj. - That is for the children.

When -n does follow a preposition, Rule 13 is at work, not the preposition. More: prepositions.

Rules 9-16: the general rules

Rule 9: pronunciation

"Every word is to be read exactly as written, there are no silent letters."

Each of the 28 letters has one sound: ĉiu is CHEE-oo. Where hats cannot be printed, the Fundamento allows an h instead (ch for ĉ). More: pronunciation, typing Esperanto.

Rule 10: stress

"The accent falls on the last syllable but one, (penultimate)."

• amiko - a-MI-ko

The twist is Rule 16: a word that drops its -o keeps its stress, so kor' (from koro) is one stressed syllable. More: poetic Esperanto.

Rule 11: compounds

"Compound words are formed by the simple junction of roots, (the principal word standing last)"

• vaporŝipo - a steamship: vapor + ŝip + -o, the ship last.

More: compounding.

Rule 12: negation

"If there be one negative in a clause, a second is not admissible."

• Neniu venis. - Nobody came. (Not neniu ne venis, which would mean everybody came.)
• Mi neniam vidis lin. - I never saw him.

More: negation.

Rule 13: direction

"In phrases answering the question "where?" (meaning direction), the words take the termination of the objective case"

The rule's own examples are kien vi iras? (where are you going?) and domon for "home".

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1. 1Li iras hejmen.
2. 2Li estas hejme.

Li iras hejmen: he is going home. Li estas hejme: he is at home. Only the -n differs.

• Mi iras en la domon. - I am going into the house.
• Mi promenas en la domo. - I am walking about in the house.

More: the accusative.

Rule 14: fixed meanings, and je

"Every preposition in the international language has a definite fixed meaning."

Where no preposition is clearly right, the rule says to use je, "which has no definite meaning". It adds: "Instead of je, the objective without a preposition may be used, when no confusion is to be feared."

• ridi je tio - to laugh at it (the Fundamento's example)
• Mi venos lundon. - I will come on Monday (the -n in place of a preposition).

More: tricky prepositions.

Rule 15: international words

"The so-called "foreign" words ... undergo no change in the international language, beyond conforming to its system of orthography."

The rule borrows the root and builds the rest: its example is teatro, theatre, but teatra, theatrical, not a borrowed teatricala. More: false friends, the letter ĥ.

Rule 16: elision

"The a of the article, and final o of substantives, may be sometimes dropped euphoniae gratia"

An apostrophe takes the vowel's place:

• de l' mondo - for de la mondo, of the world (the Fundamento's example)
• kor' - for koro, heart

The rule allows nothing else: not the -o of mondon or mondoj, not an adjective's -a. It lives in poetry and song. More: poetic Esperanto.

Mistakes English speakers make

What the sixteen rules do not say

The rules hold every ending in the language. They do not hold the language. None of these is in them:

A note on four of them:

• Affixes. PMEG counts ten official prefixes: bo- ĉef- dis- ek- eks- ge- mal- mis- pra- re-. Many textbooks add fi- (fihomo, a scoundrel), which the Fundamento has only as an exclamation. See word building.
• Correlatives. All forty-five come from one grid: correlatives.
• Word order. La katon vidis la hundo. - The dog saw the cat: the -n, not the position, marks the object. See word order.
• Capitals. The Fundamento writes Januaro with a capital, and PMEG still recommends it; many now write januaro. See capital letters.

The rules never grew

The Akademio de Esperanto adds words and gives advice. It cannot touch the sixteen rules, and in more than a century nothing has:

• La domo estis konstruita. - The house was built (finished: the 1967 reading).
• Francio and Francujo - France: both in use, and the Akademio accepted -io in 1974. See countries and peoples.

For a learner the consequence is simple: the grammar you have learned is the grammar, and there is no second edition.

What to do next

1. For each rule, name a sentence you said this week.
2. Go deep on the rule you hesitate over: usually the accusative or negation.
3. Then read where to go from here.

See also

• The Fundamento and the Akademio - who decides, and why the rules cannot move.
• Word endings - -o, -a, -e, -i: Rules 2, 3, 6 and 7 in one place.
• The accusative - Rule 2's -n and Rule 13's.
• Correlatives - the forty-five-word table that is not one of the sixteen rules.
• Word building - the half of the language the rules leave open.
• Where to go from here - you have the grammar and three thousand roots. What now.