"I have been speaking Esperanto since the year two thousand."
Translation:Mi parolas Esperanton ekde la jaro du mil.
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That would be "I had been speaking Esperanto since the year two thousand (until the period in time that we happen to be talking about now".
You're still speaking Esperanto, right? So the present tense is correct. English uses the present perfect, Esperanto (like e.g. German) the simple present.
If we went by Latin rules, whose perfect tense can act as simple past or present perfect, it would be right.
Hovering the word "been" gives "estis + participle", Duolingo haven't taught me about participles and this sentence appears :/
I got it wrong several times (like an idiot calling the wrong number and pressing redial) because I thought it was "ekde la du mil jaro."
I guess I learned a little something bit word order in the end.
Jaro tends to precede the actual enumerated year. Have I learned that right?
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Can't it be "Mi parolas Esperanton ekde la du mila jara"? What's the correct ordinal for "du mil"?
In my experience, Esperanto uses cardinal numbers for years, like e.g. English and German, not ordinal numbers, like e.g. Russian.
So they would say, for example, that "Zamenhof was born in 1859" or "Zamenhof was born in the year 1859", not "Zamenhof was born in the 1859th year".
Yes, ordinals can be used for years - see "PMEG: Datoj" https://bertilow.com/pmeg/gramatiko/nombroj/datoj.html . Bertilo Wennergren says that it was more common in the past and I trust him. But obviously, even when the number is ordinal, the preferred order is it to follow the word "jaro". In this case it should be "la jaro du-mila". Now, "la du-mila jaro" still looks correct, but it's even more unpopular.
This last part is easy:
What's the correct ordinal for "du mil"?
Dumila - one word. It's possible to add a hyphen: du-mila
Can't it be [written with an ordinal]?
I read the article in PMEG slightly differently from how Tonibony does. Bertilo writes that some Esperantists prefer ordinal numbers even today - but that in practice, years are almost always written as numbers.
- Mi parolas Esperanton ekde la jaro 2000
He explicitly says that this is how you write the year. He kind of brushes over how to actually pronounce it, and he stops short of making a clear recommendation.
My recommendation - pronounce it as it's written - du mil.
In the previous lessons they insist that it must be la Esperanton, and mark me wrong for leaving "la" off... so why are they changing their tune on that now?
Could you please provide a link or screenshot to a sentence that insists on "La Esperanton"? I have been unable to turn up a sentence like that using search.
Could you say mi parolanta esperanton ekde la jaro du mil I'm kind of new at this tense
Parolanta is an adjective. You wouldn't say Mi parolanta any more than you would say "Mi blua."
In addition, it carries more of an active sense -- as in, you're in the state of actually speaking - so "Mi estas parolanta Esperanton" means that you're in the state of actively speaking Esperanto -- not just that speaking Esperanto is something that you do, even on a regular basis.
So "Mi parolas Esperanton ekde 2000" is the right way to say that.
Ok got it kion vi faras nun ? Mi estas parolanta esperanton kun lin . Dankon por via helpo