Basic Esperanto Phrases

Here are the 30 Esperanto phrases that carry a first conversation: greetings, thanks, introductions and goodbyes, with pronunciation for each. Two facts make this the easiest phrase list you will ever learn. First, Esperanto is completely phonetic: one letter, one sound, so every phrase is pronounced exactly as written. Second, the stress always falls on the second-to-last syllable, in every word, with no exceptions. Learn those two rules once and the pronunciation column below becomes a formality; the alphabet page covers the five hatted letters in ten minutes.

The other thing this page does that phrase lists usually skip: it tells you why the phrases look the way they do. The short answer is grammar young enough to still show its working, and it starts with the very first word.

Greetings: saluton and friends

Saluton! - Hello. Say sah-LOO-tohn. The all-purpose greeting, any hour, any company; friends clip it to Sal! From saluti, to greet.
Bonan matenon! - Good morning. BOH-nahn mah-TEH-nohn. From bona (good) and mateno (morning).
Bonan tagon! - Good day. BOH-nahn TAH-gohn. The daytime default; tago is day.
Bonan vesperon! - Good evening. BOH-nahn vess-PEH-rohn. Vespero is evening.
Bonan nokton! - Good night. BOH-nahn NOHK-tohn. For leave-taking, as in English; nokto is night.
Kiel vi fartas? - How are you? KEE-el vee FAR-tahs. Literally how do you fare; kiel is how.
Mi fartas bone, dankon. - I am well, thank you. mee FAR-tahs BOH-neh. Note it is fartas bone, not sana: Esperanto keeps being healthy and doing fine as separate ideas.

Now the promised oddity. Every greeting above ends in -n, and that -n is not decoration: it is the accusative ending, the marker Esperanto puts on direct objects. The greetings carry it because each one is the surviving object of an unspoken wish, something like mi deziras al vi bonan tagon: I wish you a good day. Politeness wore away everything except the thing being wished. Say bona tago without the -n and you have named the concept of a good day rather than offered anyone one. No other beginner phrase list tells you this, which is a shame, because it means your very first word of Esperanto already contains the language's most famous piece of grammar.

Thanks and politeness: dankon, bonvolu

Dankon! - Thank you. DAHN-kohn. Same fossilised accusative as saluton. From danki, to thank.
Multan dankon! - Many thanks. MOOL-tahn DAHN-kohn. Turn it up further with koran dankon, heartfelt thanks, from koro, heart.
Dankon pro ĉio! - Thank you for everything. DAHN-kohn proh CHEE-oh.
Ne dankinde. - You're welcome. neh dahn-KEEN-deh. Literally not worth thanking: danki plus the suffix -ind-, worthy of. A courtesy with its reasoning still visible.
Bonvolu... - Please... bohn-VOH-loo. From bonvoli, to be so kind; it takes an infinitive, as in bonvolu atendi, please wait.
Mi petas. - Please / I ask you. mee PEH-tahs. From peti, to request: the softener you append, as in unu momenton, mi petas, one moment, please.
Pardonu min! - Excuse me / forgive me. par-DOH-noo meen. From pardoni. Also the polite way to open with a stranger: Pardonu, ĉu vi parolas Esperanton?

Introducing yourself and getting by

Kio estas via nomo? - What is your name? KEE-oh ESS-tahs VEE-ah NOH-moh. Nomo is name.
Mia nomo estas... - My name is... MEE-ah NOH-moh ESS-tahs.
Ĉu vi parolas Esperanton? - Do you speak Esperanto? choo vee pah-ROH-lahs ess-peh-RAHN-tohn. Ĉu turns any statement into a yes-no question, no inversion required.
Jes. / Ne. - Yes. / No. yess, neh. Jes rhymes with chess, not with cheese.
Mi lernas Esperanton. - I am learning Esperanto. mee LEHR-nahs. From lerni; the honest thing to say in month one, and everyone will slow down.
Mi ne komprenas. - I do not understand. mee neh kohm-PREH-nahs. From kompreni. The most load-bearing phrase in any language.
Ĉu vi komprenas? - Do you understand? choo vee kohm-PREH-nahs.
Kiom ĝi kostas? - How much does it cost? KEE-ohm jee KOSS-tahs. Kiom is how much; counting the answer is the numbers page's job.
Mi amas vin. - I love you. mee AH-mahs veen. From ami. Included because it is the single most searched-for sentence in every language, and because the -n on vin is the same accusative you met in saluton, now doing its day job.

Goodbyes and the congress staples

Esperanto's social calendar runs on congresses and meet-ups, and a handful of phrases are pure congress culture: you will hear all of these in the first five minutes of any Esperanto gathering.

Ĝis revido! - Goodbye / until we meet again. jees reh-VEE-doh. Literally until re-seeing: ĝis (until) plus revidi (to see again). Also ĝis la revido, with the article.
Ĝis! - Bye! jees. The clipped everyday version, and the commonest sign-off in Esperanto messaging.
Adiaŭ. - Farewell. ah-DEE-ow. From adiaŭ; more final than ĝis revido, for partings with weight to them.
Bonvenon! - Welcome! bohn-VEH-nohn. Bona plus veni, a good coming, wearing the same wished-at-you -n as the greetings. On the banner at every Esperanto congress since 1905.
Bonan vojaĝon! - Have a good trip! BOH-nahn voh-YAH-john. From vojaĝi, to travel; the standard congress farewell, since everyone is leaving for somewhere else.
Sanon! - Bless you / your health! SAH-nohn. Said after a sneeze or with a raised glass: health, in the accusative, wished at you.
Kial ne? - Why not? KEE-ahl neh. From kial, why. The community's reflexive answer to shall we...?, and a fair two-word summary of the whole Esperanto project.

Where these phrases come from, and where they go

A warning this page owes you: phrases are a doorway, not a method. All 30 above are built from words in the frequency-ordered 1,000-word Esperanto course, where each word gets its own dictionary page with example sentences and audio in two accents; the course will have you building your own sentences, rather than reciting these, within the first hour. To see what those sentences look like at every stage, the Esperanto example sentences page grades 48 of them from first-fifty-words to the full core 1,000. For counting, prices and dates, take the Esperanto numbers page next.

And if you are still deciding whether any of this is worth your time, we have written the honest cases: why learn Esperanto, how easy it really is, and how long it takes.

Frequently asked

How do you say hello in Esperanto?

Saluton, pronounced sah-LOO-tohn with the stress on the middle syllable. It works at any time of day and any level of formality, and among friends it clips to sal. The time-of-day greetings are bonan matenon (good morning), bonan tagon (good day) and bonan vesperon (good evening).

How do you say thank you in Esperanto?

Dankon, pronounced DAHN-kohn. For emphasis, multan dankon or koran dankon (many thanks, heartfelt thanks). The standard reply is ne dankinde, literally not worth thanking, the Esperanto equivalent of don't mention it.

How do you say goodbye in Esperanto?

Ĝis revido, pronounced jees reh-VEE-doh, literally until re-seeing, and usually shortened to plain ĝis among friends. Adiaŭ (ah-DEE-ow) is a more final farewell, for partings with some weight to them.

Why do Esperanto greetings end in -n?

Because they are grammatically objects. The -n is Esperanto's accusative ending, and saluton, dankon and bonan tagon are the surviving objects of an unspoken verb of wishing or offering: something like mi deziras al vi bonan tagon, I wish you a good day, with everything but the wish itself worn away. Say bona tago without the -n and you are naming the concept of a good day rather than offering anyone one.

Is Esperanto hard to pronounce?

No, and this is by design. Every letter has exactly one sound, every word is spelled as it is said, and the stress always falls on the second-to-last syllable, with no exceptions anywhere in the language. The only letters English speakers need to learn are the hatted ones: ĉ as in church, ŝ as in shoe, ĝ as in judge, ĵ as in pleasure, plus c pronounced ts.