-ant-

-ant- is the active participle of the present: the root's action is going on at the moment you are talking about, and someone or something is doing it. paroli gives parolanta (speaking), dormi gives dormanta (sleeping), kuri gives kurante (running). With -a it describes, with -e it says how or while, and with -o it becomes the person doing it: a parolanto is a speaker, a leganto a reader, a lernanto a pupil.

The nuance worth holding on to is that the tense is relative. Li estis dormanta is "he was sleeping": the sleeping was going on at the time of the story, not now. And the -anto person holds the role only while the action lasts, which is why a lernanto is someone learning and a komencanto a beginner, but a teacher is an instruisto by trade.

It is the first of six. -ant-, -int- and -ont- are the active set (doing, having done, about to do); -at-, -it- and -ot- mirror them in the passive. The participles article takes the whole set through its paces.