"I am eating an apple."

Translation: Mi manĝas pomon.

[NovemberQuinn]

Anyone else instinctively type "Je mange une pomme" from their beginning French days? I did.

[Alphaf]

[09/06/15] No, I just pronounce it that way.

[lexipoopss]

JES.

[hasanelias]

"mi estas manĝanta pomon"

[Skapata]

Mi manĝas pomon is enough.

[hasanelias]

"estas mangxanta" is correct too.

[etieffen]

I believe that's not how it works in Esperanto. Like in French, there is no dedicated tense in Esperanto for the progressive. Mi manĝas pomon (just like the French Je mange une pomme) means both I eat an apple and I'm eating an apple.

Also read Loxiney's answer.

[hasanelias]

since it is not incorrect, it should be valid

[sjh]

Actually there is a form in Esperanto for the progressive present. It is '-anta'.

[etieffen]

"-anta" is an adjective suffix, so the meaning of "mi estas manĝanta" would be closer to "I am someone who eats." than to "I am eating." Although It can be used to mean the latter, it is not used so much, to my knowledge.

But I could be wrong in assessing what is more common :-)

[deactivated user]

I am eating an apple =/= I am who is eating an apple. If you have a question about a verb, not about a person, you should use "mangxas", not "estas mangxanta"

[DonBurnette]

Agreed. I wish they would stick with the simple present tense in the beginning.

[TygerStripe]

Simple present tense would be "manĝas" as they use (Unless it changed since you posted that). While the present progressive can be formed the same in esperanto, it's not as common as it is in English.

[sjh]

I think you can drop the "estas" because the English equivalent of the progressive perfect "manĝanta" aleardy contains it, i.e., "I am eating".

AFAIK "mi estas manĝanta pomon" doesn't make sense and translates to something like "I am am eating an apple"

[etieffen]

No. "manĝanta" does not contain anything that means estas. It is just an adjective/participle and can be used only as such, and never as a verb! So it does need a verb (in this case, estas)

You could however combine it with estas and come up with "manĝantas" which then is, grammatically, a verb (but not commonly used).

[DavidWolff17]

Correct. Note that "manĝanta" ends in "-a", and is therefore an adjective.

[mkljohnson]

Why can't this be "Pomon mi manĝas', I thought esperanto was flexible with sentence structure.

[Gaelan]

Which is more natural: "Mi mangas pomon," or "Mi estates manganta pomon"?

[deactivated user]

(manĝas, not mangas). Both are "more neutral". Mi manĝas pomon - I eat an apple, Mi estas manĝanta pomon - I am who eats an apple.

[TraceyLalena]

Why is it not pomo?

[DreamerJ2]

Pomo is having the action (eating) done to it. So it's gets -n added to the end to show this.

[emiirose]

I spy with my little eye some French origins

[milosanj]

Why is manğanta?

[naw613]

When do you use an -n suffix vs wihout??

[leigh525593]

Is it wrong to think that it must be "Mi estas mangas pomon"? Otherwise, how does it differ from "I eat an apple/s"?

[David1309R]

Why does it require manğanta?I tried manğas but it doesnt work

[Noel435839]

How can you test a group of UNTAUGHT WORD'S? Do you somehow think that is fair or even ok?

[DanielGarr830049]

Esperanto doesn't really distinguish simple present ("I eat") from present progressive ("I am eating"). I think the lessons are structured to make you think of those things more interchangeably.

If you wanted to precisely translate the present progressive, you could hypothetically say something like "mi estas manĝanta" or "mi manĝantas", but those sound weird and as far as I can tell they aren't really used.

In short, when speaking Esperanto, stick to the simple present.

[Tilda90]

Since 'pomo' means 'boss' in Finnish, I cannot help but read this as 'I am eating boss'. Each and every time.
Knowing many languages can be a blessing, but also a curse, when you mix them together.