"Jen miaj mebloj: Mi havas tablon, liton, ŝrankon kaj du seĝojn."
Translation:Here is my furniture: I have a table, a bed, a cabinet and two chairs.
38 Comments
Yeah, furniture is always singular. Even if the word means a lot of things.
It's a mass noun in English: a singular word that represents a group of objects or amount of mass.
Is there an alternative word in English that would follow the regular singular/plural pattern (and thus easier to remember), i.e. unu meblo, multaj mebloj?
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I think you can also say "a piece of furniture", but I cannot guarantee that because I am not a native English speaker
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Good question!
The closest word I can think of that follows the singular/plural pattern you're looking for is "furnishing / furnishings".
However, that word is not very commonly used in English, and when it is, it is almost always used in the plural (as "furnishings").
And now the ten points question! :) Does Duolingo accept "a furnishing", "many furnishings"?
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Is there a rule about words after colons starting with capital letters in Esperanto?
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The colon was probably a mistake. In English, at least, that would have been a full stop (a period in American) because “Here is my furniture.” is a complete sentence. A colon would be used to introduce the list in the second sentence “I have: a table, a bed, a cupboard and two chairs.”
Ne nur en la angla la unua dupunkto ŝajnas stranga, sed ankaŭ al mi, ne denaska angla-parolanto.
What is an Oxford comma? The sentence has a list (A, B, C and D). What comma do you want more?
The Oxford comma is also known as the serial comma and separates the penultimate and the ultimate item in a list with a comma. The list here is formatted as A, B, C and D, whereas the oxford comma would formulate a list with the structure A, B, C, and D.
Ah, that one. I've wondered what it is. It looks so ancient. Plena Manlibro de Esperanto Gramatiko (PMEG) says in §1.2:
Komo estas uzata ene de frazoj en lokoj, kie povas esti nature iom paŭzi, ekz. antaŭ subfrazo, kaj anstataŭ la vortoj kaj kaj aŭ (§16) en elnombrado de pluraj aferoj. Komo estas iafoje uzata anstataŭ punkto inter ĉeffrazoj, kiuj iel kunapartenas. Komo estas ankaŭ uzata antaŭ decimaloj en nombroj: 3,14 (= “tri komo unu kvar”, “tri kaj dek kvar centonoj”).
So comma is used instead of "and" and "or" in a list.
I don't understand that at all. To me it looks really unnatural to not have a comma between the last two items.
As I understand it, one can use or not use the oxford comma in Esperanto and be correct. Just like with the "r". It's kinda meant to be like the spanish 'r', but if you have trouble rolling your tongue, it's cool.
Although I could be wrong.
Eh, we have four elements A–D and need a separator, a delimiter to keep them from mixing with each other. E-o uses the rule, that the most languages use: A, B, C kaj D. What you call Oxford comma, is really strange: why use double separator. Trust me, English is (once again) the odd one here.
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I am a bit confused, because "seĝo" is close to the French "siège", which doesn't mean "chair" but "seat" (any piece of furniture to seat). So I checked on the PIV, and it seems that "seĝo" means "seat" (the given definition is "Meblo, destinita por la sido de unu persono"), but that there is no word for "chair" (a piece of furniture to seat, with four legs and a back) and that it is why "seĝo" is always used to say "chair". Does anyone knows if their is a specific word to say "chair" without confounding it with any other kind of seats ?
For simplicity's sake, chair and seat are the same word in Esperanto. Is there really a need for two words?
Sounds like the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò: Du malnovaj seĝoj, kaj duono de kandelo / Unu malnova kruĉo sen tenilo
Mi jxus legis la Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò. Mirinda! Bezonas legi gxin Brite, cxar "talking" bezonas rimi kun "Dorking."
Mi estas usonano (origine de Orienta Teksaso), do mi prononcas la du vokalojn malsame. Ankaux, mi apenaux prononcas la leteron "l" en "talking" kaj mi prononcas la "r" en "Dorking" (rotikeco, doncha know). Mi supozas, laux via salutnomo, ke vi estas Irlandano, cxu ne?
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Mi estas brito kaj ankaux prononcas la du vokalojn malsame. Mi ankaux iomete prononcas la "r". Ne ekzistas brita akcxento same kiel ne ekzistas unu sola usona akcxento.
Jes, kompreneble -- mi konscias. Pardonu. Mi parlois malprecise. En kio parto de Britujo vi logxas?
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Pardono ne necesas. Mi sxatas la alcxentojn kaj dialektojn de Britujo kaj vidis okazon atentigi la fakton, ke ne cxiuj britoj parolas kiel londonanoj. Mi mem devenas de kaj logxas en Lankasxiro, nordokcidenta Anglujo.
People who are interested in UK dialects - this may interest you:
Take a look at my reply above. PMEG is downloadable as PDF or readable online at http://bertilow.com/pmeg/. But the short answer is: either comma or kaj/aŭ, not both.
