Alphabet

The Esperanto alphabet has 28 letters: a, b, c, ĉ, d, e, f, g, ĝ, h, ĥ, i, j, ĵ, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, ŝ, t, u, ŭ, v, z. Each letter always stands for exactly one sound, so once you know the alphabet you can read any word aloud — there are no silent letters and no exceptions.

Note the following differences from English:

• a as in "father"
• c = ts as in "Betsy"
• ĉ = ch as in "church"
• e as in "there"
• g as in "give" (always hard, never as in "gem")
• ĝ = j as in "judge"
• h as in "hammer"
• ĥ = Scottish ch as in "loch"
• i as in "machine"
• j = y as in "yes". The combinations aj, ej, oj, uj are diphthongs, made of a, e, o, u plus a short i-sound:
  • aj = i in "die"
  • ej = a in "face"
  • oj = oy in "boy"
  • uj = ui in "ruin", said quickly
• ĵ = zh as in "measure"
• o as in "north"
• r is always pronounced — ideally rolled
• s as in "sense" (always hissed, never z as in "rose")
• ŝ = sh as in "sharp"
• u as in "fool"
• ŭ = w as in "tower". The combinations aŭ, eŭ are diphthongs, made of a or e plus a short oo-sound:
  • aŭ = ou in "mouth"
  • eŭ = "eh-oo"

⚠️ Watch out: three familiar-looking letters sound different — c is "ts" (not "k" or "s"), j is "y" (not the "j" of "jam"), and g is always hard. So ĝi is "jee", whereas gi would be "ghee".

⚠️ Keep vowels pure: Esperanto vowels are short and clean. Say o as a crisp "oh", not "oh-w"; e as "eh", not "ay".

Pronunciation

Words are pronounced exactly as spelled, applying the values above, e.g.

• amiko = ah-MEE-koh
• ĉambro = CHAHM-broh
• ĝi = jee

Stress

Words of more than one syllable are stressed on the penultimate (second-to-last) syllable — always, with no exceptions:

• te-le-FO-no (teh-leh-FOH-noh)
• ra-DI-o (rah-DEE-oh)
• kaj (kigh)
• a-MI-ko (ah-MEE-koh)
• ES-tas (ESS-tahss)
• note AN-kaŭ (because kaŭ is a single syllable)

⚠️ Watch out: count syllables the Esperanto way. Adjacent vowels form separate syllables, so historio is hi-sto-RI-o (hee-stoh-REE-oh), not "his-TO-ryo".

Article

The definite article is la ("the"). It never changes — no variation for gender, case or number. There is no indefinite article:

• la amiko – the friend
  • amiko – a friend
• la laboro – the work
  • laboro – work

⚠️ Watch out: don't translate "a / an" — Esperanto simply leaves it out. Ĝi estas amiko = "It is a friend."

Personal Pronouns

• mi – I
• vi – you
• li – he
• ŝi – she
• ĝi – it
• ni – we
• ili – they

The pronouns li, ŝi, ĝi work just like English "he, she, it".

Possessive Pronouns

These are formed quite regularly, by adding the ending -a to the simple pronouns:

• mia – my
• via – your
• lia – his
• ŝia – her
• ĝia – its
• nia – our
• ilia – their

Nouns

All nouns end in -o. There is no grammatical gender; where appropriate, the female sex is shown by a suffix:

• tablo – table
• lernanto – learner
• lernantino – learner (female)

Plural

The plural ending is -j. Both nouns and adjectives take it:

• tabloj – tables
• lernantoj – learners
• viaj lernantoj – your learners

⚠️ Watch out: the plural is -j (pronounced like "y"), not -s as in English. "Tables" is tabloj (TAH-bloy), never tablos.

Verbs

The verb endings are the same for every person and number — there is no extra -s for "he/she/it" as in English.

1. The infinitive ends in -i:
   • lerni – to learn
   • labori – to work
   • esti – to be
2. The present tense ends in -as, the same for all persons:
   • mi sidas – I sit
   • vi sidas – you sit
   • ni sidas – we sit
   • ili sidas – they sit

⚠️ Watch out: English adds -s in the third person ("he sits"); Esperanto never does — mi sidas, li sidas, ili sidas are all identical.

Ĉu?

ĉu is a question word that turns a statement into a yes/no question. English does this by inverting the verb or adding "do"; Esperanto just puts ĉu in front and keeps the word order:

• Ĉu vi sidas? – Are you sitting?
• Ĉu vi skribas? – Are you writing? Do you write?

Kiu?

This question word works both as a pronoun ("who?") and as an adjective ("which?"):

• Kiu vi estas? – Who are you?
• Kiu instruisto sidas? – Which teacher is sitting?

The Suffix -ist

forms the name of a person regularly engaged in some activity — just like English "-ist":

• instruisto – teacher
• hotelisto – hotelier, hotel-keeper
• esperantisto – Esperantist, supporter of Esperanto

The Suffix -in

forms the feminine of a noun:

• patro – father / patrino – mother
• lernanto – pupil / lernantino – pupil (female)
• instruisto – teacher / instruistino – (woman) teacher

💡 Memory aid: think of the English "-ine" in hero → heroine — the -in- signals "female".

Affirmative Particle

jes has the same sound and meaning as English "yes":

• Ĉu vi estas en la ĉambro?
  • Jes, mi estas en la ĉambro.

Negative Particle

ne corresponds both to "no" (the opposite of "yes") and to "not":

• Ne, mi ne estas en la ĉambro.