ve

Ve is a cry of grief and it is properly old fashioned, at home in the Bible translations and the romantic literature rather than in a text message. The doubled form ho ve is the common one, roughly oh dear or alas. Its most distinctive use is ve al, aimed at whoever is about to get what is coming to them: ve al la venkitoj. Like most Esperanto interjections it takes grammatical endings when needed, giving veo for a wail and vei for the wailing itself.