Kilo Lingo

Line drawing of seksumi
Coloured illustration of seksumi
#2365 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

to have sex

Word origin

Built inside Esperanto from sekso, sex, plus the wildcard suffix -um-. The root is Latin sexus, which is also behind English sex and sexual.

Origin
Esperanto derivation on a Latin root
Root
seks- + -um-
English cognates
sex, sexual

Grammar

Verb typeregular (Esperanto has no irregular verbs)

Irregular verb. A full conjugation table for irregular verbs is coming soon. For now, use a reference like Wordreference or RAE.

Examples

.

Many animals mate only in spring.

, .

At school they explain when and how people have sex.

, .

The doctor asked whether they have sex.

This is the neutral word, and that is the point of the page. is the standard, unmarked verb every adult dictionary of Esperanto carries for having sex. It is neither clinical nor coarse: it is what a doctor, a textbook, a novel and a friend would all use, in the way English "have sex" is usable in all four settings while its alternatives are not. Esperanto does have blunter options, as every language does, and the reason you do not need them listed here is that covers the ground.

It is also the best argument for -um- on the site. The regular suffixes compute: -- is a tool, -- a place, -- to cause. None of them would produce this. i would be to cause sex, whatever that means; o a place for sex; seksa is just the adjective, sexual. What was wanted was a verb meaning "to do the thing that has to do with sex", and that is precisely the job description of -um-: it marks the word as related to its root and refuses to say how. A century of use has fixed the meaning, which is why is vocabulary you learn rather than a derivation you compute.

Around it. Amoro is lovemaking as a noun, warmer and more literary; amori is its verb and is the usual choice in poetry and romantic fiction. o is the activity as a noun, o protekto unprotected sex. Sekso itself covers both sex and gender, and the tangle that causes - the -in- suffix, -, the proposed pronoun ri - is the subject of gender in Esperanto.

A note on register when you write. Because the verb is neutral, it takes its colour entirely from the sentence around it. In a health leaflet it reads as clinical, in a novel as plain, and in a joke as a joke. That is a useful property and a normal one; it is the same property English "sleep with" does not have.

Where this fits

Add to review queue

Track this word in your spaced-repetition queue and be tested on it at the right interval.

Go to my review queue

Esperanto · Free printables

seksumi: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "seksumi" (to have sex): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

Free for members

The printable worksheets, infographics and PDFs are free with an account. Start a free week and download as many as you like.

Start your free week

This word is part of lesson 48.