Kilo Lingo
Esperanto grammar Part of Chapter 20

CEFR A2-B1

6 min read

Test yourself (24 questions)

Esperanto Punctuation, Spelling and Abbreviations

By Michael McGettrickUpdated 12 October 2026

has no binding punctuation rules, only conventions, and one of them catches every English speaker: a comma before each subordinate clause. , . English would never write I think, that he will come.

the mark to noticethe -n endingWhat do the colours mean?
PointEsperantoEnglish habit
clause comma , .no comma
indirect question , .the same: a stop
decimal mark3,143.14
titles s-ron Smith.Mr never changes
ordinals 5-athe 5th
compounds or coffee table

Quick check

Now use it: three quick questions on the chart above. The full practice is further down.

Pick the right one

0/3

Comma or no comma? The usual convention marks the start of every clause.

  1. (I think that he will come)

  2. (I do not know where she lives)

  3. (When he came, we were already eating)

The comma marks the clause

the commaWhat do the colours mean?

English puts a comma where you would breathe. Esperanto writers put one where a clause begins, before and every question word or ki- word that opens a clause:

Opens withExampleEnglish
, .I think that he will come.
, .I do not know where she lives.
, .Say what you want.
, .He asked whether I would come.

A clause that comes first is closed with a comma instead:

  • , . - When he came, we were already eating.

A clause in the middle takes a comma at each end:

  • , , . - The man who came yesterday is my friend.

English commas my brother, who lives in Leeds but not the man who came yesterday. Esperanto writers usually comma both, so there is nothing to decide. You will sometimes see a defining clause without them.

Commas also separate list items and join two main clauses:

  • , . - They ate bread, cheese and fruit.
  • , . - They ate, but they were not full.

Question marks and the other marks

the closing markWhat do the colours mean?

A real question ends with a question mark, and there is no opening one as in Spanish. A question inside a statement is not a question, so it takes a full stop:

KindSentenceEnglish
question ?Will you come?
question ?Who came?
inside a sentence , .I asked whether you would come.
inside a sentence , .I do not know who came.

PMEG says it plainly: no question mark after a question clause inside a sentence. The trap is , which looks so interrogative that the hand reaches for ? anyway.

The other marks work as in English:

  • ! after a command or a cry: ! - Do not do that!
  • : before a list or a quotation: : . - Here is the menu: bread and cheese.
  • ; between linked main clauses, and the next word is normally lower case: ; . - He worked; she slept.

No space goes before a full stop, question mark, exclamation mark, comma, colon or semicolon, unlike French.

Quotation marks

There is no official pair. PMEG lists six and ranks none of them:

StyleLooks like
English curly“”
straight""
Polish„”
guillemets«»
reversed»«
single‘’

Pick one pair per text and nest another inside it. If you want a reason to choose, the guillemets have one: a closing curly quote looks much like the apostrophe Esperanto uses at the end of a word, so “” ends in two near-identical marks. «» does not.

Capital letters

Places and names take a capital; peoples, most adjectives and weekdays do not:

CapitalLower caseEnglish
Francio, a French person
an
Christmas, Monday

The full list, with the months that writers still disagree about, is in capital letters.

The abbreviations

the -n endingplural -jWhat do the colours mean?
Short formFull formEnglish
ktp and so on, etc.
t.e. that is, i.e.
ekz.for example
bv.please
k.a. and others
k.s. and the like
n-roNo.
s-roMr
s-Mrs, Ms
d-roDr
prof.Prof.

The full stops vary: PMEG writes k.t.p. and calls ktp just as good. The hyphen forms are in PMEG too (d-ro, s-ro). The usual pattern is a stop where the end of the word is cut off, as in ekz., and none where a hyphen stands in for the middle, as in s-ro.

The hyphen forms take endings, exactly like the full word:

Mr, as the object: sinjoron, s-ron
  • s-ron Zamenhof. - I saw Mr Zamenhof.
  • n-rojn 3 4. - See numbers 3 and 4.

When an abbreviation ends the sentence, write one full stop, not two: , k.t.p.

Numbers on the page

the mark to noticethe -n endingWhat do the colours mean?
PointEsperantoEnglish
decimal3,143.14
thousands10 000 000 or 10.000.00010,000,000
ordinal 5-a or 5athe 5th
a date 5- on the 5th of May

Pi is read komo . PMEG writes ordinals as 23-a and calls 23a a perfectly good spelling too. A comma never groups thousands, because it is already the decimal mark; PMEG prefers thin spaces. The numbers themselves are in numbers, the dates in time expressions.

The hyphen inside a compound

Compounds are written as one word: , . A hyphen may go in to help the eye, and PMEG is clear that it does not change the meaning:

the same word: a coffee table

It is worth adding where the parts could group two ways, and before a capital: -. The compounding article has the rest.

When the keyboard has no hats

Letterh-systemx-system
ĉchcx
ĝghgx
ĥhhhx
ĵjhjx
ŝshsx
ŭuux

The h-system is in the itself, for printers without the letters. The x-system is unofficial but unambiguous, because x is not an Esperanto letter, so it is what web addresses, file names and many typists use. Both are stopgaps: write , not sxi, whenever you can. Typing Esperanto shows how.

Mistakes English speakers make

WrongRightWhy
, a comma before the clause
, ...? , .an indirect question: a full stop
3.143,14the decimal mark is a comma
s-ro Smith s-ron Smiththe object takes -n

What to do next

  1. Write three sentences with , and , each with its comma.
  2. Address an envelope with s-ro or s-, then use the title as an object: s-ron.
  3. Then read capital letters.

See also

Practise: test yourself

Pick the right one

0/4

Comma or no comma? The usual convention marks the start of every clause.

  1. (I think that he will come)

  2. (I do not know where she lives)

  3. (When he came, we were already eating)

  4. (The man who came yesterday is my friend)

Sort into groups

0/6

Which mark ends the sentence?

Tap a word, then the group it belongs in.

Spot the mistake

0/2

Each line breaks one convention of written Esperanto. Tap it.

Fill in the blank

0/6

Write the usual short form.

  1. kaj tiel plu -> (and so on)

    Punctuation counts here - cx, gx, ux work for ĉ, ĝ, ŭ

  2. tio estas -> (that is)

    Punctuation counts here - cx, gx, ux work for ĉ, ĝ, ŭ

  3. ekzemple -> (for example)

    Punctuation counts here - cx, gx, ux work for ĉ, ĝ, ŭ

  4. bonvolu -> (please)

    Punctuation counts here - cx, gx, ux work for ĉ, ĝ, ŭ

  5. sinjoro -> (Mr) (First letter, hyphen, last syllable.)

    Punctuation counts here - cx, gx, ux work for ĉ, ĝ, ŭ

  6. numero -> (No.)

    Punctuation counts here - cx, gx, ux work for ĉ, ĝ, ŭ

Matching

0/6

The short form, and what it stands for.

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Frequently asked questions

Do you put a comma before in Esperanto?
Yes, in practice almost always: , , where English refuses a comma in I think that he will come. It is convention, not law. PMEG says Esperanto has no binding rules for punctuation and puts the comma where a short pause is natural, for example before a subordinate clause. The written tradition commas every , , , and clause, and that is what your reader expects.
Do you use a question mark after in an indirect question?
No. , is a statement about asking, so it ends with a full stop, and PMEG says outright not to put a question mark after a question clause inside a sentence. A real question takes one: ? There is never an opening question mark as in Spanish.
Which quotation marks does Esperanto use?
Any of the common pairs: PMEG lists six, including “so”, „so” and «so», without choosing. Pick one pair, use it throughout, and nest another inside it. The guillemets have one practical point in their favour: a closing curly quote looks much like the apostrophe Esperanto uses at the end of a word ().
What does ktp mean in Esperanto, and what are the other abbreviations?
Ktp is , and so on: the Esperanto etc. You will also see k.t.p., and PMEG says ktp is just as good. The rest of the working set: t.e. ( , that is), ekz. (, for example), bv. (, please), k.a. ( , and others), n-ro () and the titles s-ro, s- and d-ro, which take endings: s-ron Zamenhof.
How do you write numbers in Esperanto text?
The decimal mark is a comma: 3,14, read komo . Large numbers are grouped with thin spaces (10 000 000), or with full stops, never with commas. An ordinal in digits takes the ending at the end: 5-a, or 5a, and the accusative works the same way: 5-an .