Esperanto Quantity Words: iom, multe, kelkaj and da

Adjectives of quantity sit on the noun and agree; adverbs of quantity link to it with da; before la, da gives way to de. That is the whole system.

The quantity words

The words in -a are adjectives; the words in -e and the short ones (iom, tro, kiom) are adverbs. That one split decides everything below. The question word sits in the -om row of the correlatives table.

Adjective or adverb + da

An adjective sits on the noun and agrees with it, plural and object included:

• Mi vidis multajn hundojn. - I saw many dogs.
• Mi manĝis kelkajn pomojn. - I ate a few apples.
• Mi laboris la tutan tagon. - I worked the whole day.

An adverb cannot touch the noun. It needs a link, and the link is da:

• Multe da homoj venis. - A lot of people came.
• Ĉu vi havas sufiĉe da tempo? - Do you have enough time?

Both shapes are everyday Esperanto, and with multa they mean the same: multa tempo and multe da tempo are both a lot of time.

The da rule

A quantity links to the stuff it measures with da, and the stuff stays bare. The left side can be an adverb, kiom, or a measure noun:

• glaso da akvoa glass of water
• taso da teoa cup of tea
• botelo da laktoa bottle of milk

The noun after da never takes -n, even when the whole phrase is the object. The -n goes on the measure word:

• Mi trinkis glason da akvo. - I drank a glass of water.

123

1. 1kruĉo da akvo
2. 2botelo da suko
3. 3bovlo da fruktoj

Kruĉo da akvo, a jug of water; botelo da suko, a bottle of juice; bovlo da fruktoj, a bowl of fruit. Each container measures what is in it.

Never da before la

Da measures stuff in general. Once the stuff is a particular, identified thing (after la, tiu or a possessive), standard usage switches to de. A few writers defend da here when a real measure is meant, but de is what you will read and what to write:

The check is mechanical: if the next word is la, tiu or a possessive, write de.

• Ŝi trinkis glason de la vino. - She drank a glass of the wine.

da vs de: the minimal pairs

Even with no la, the two words say different things:

Da answers how much; de answers what kind or whose. The clearest word for the empty wine glass is the compound vinglaso; you will still meet glaso de vino used loosely for a glassful, but the careful form is glaso da vino. When in doubt, de is the general word and da the specialist.

Numbers take no da

A plain numeral sits straight on the noun, like an adjective:

• Tri pomoj estas sur la tablo. - Three apples are on the table.
• Mi vidis dek homojn. - I saw ten people.

Number nouns are different. Miliono (a million) and dekduo (a dozen) are nouns, so they need the link:

• miliono da homoj - a million people
• dekduo da ovoj - a dozen eggs

The numbers article has the full inventory.

Mistakes English speakers make

What to do next

1. Write what is in your kitchen with da: botelo da lakto, iom da pano.
2. Rewrite two of them with la and switch to de.
3. Then read numbers for the nouns that count.

See also

• Nouns and adjectives - the agreement that kelkaj and multaj follow.
• Adverbs - where multe and iom get their -e.
• Correlatives - kiom, tiom, iom, ĉiom, neniom: the quantity row.
• Numbers - why tri needs no da and miliono does.
• The article la - what la signals, and why da cannot stand before it.
• Prepositions - the many other jobs of de.