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- "Milk is white and chocolate …
"Milk is white and chocolate is brown."
Translation:Lakto estas blanka kaj ĉokolado estas bruna.
8 Comments
Does "Lakto blankas" here mean "Lakto estas blanka"? Does someone care to elaborate on the grammar?
It does. As far as I know everytime you have an the verb "to be" with an adjective you can transform the adjective into a verb of its own.
"estas XXXXa" is the same thing as "XXXXas"
"milk is white" can also be lakto blankas since "milk IS WHITE" is at present tense and verbs in esperanto that are in present tense end in -as
(that's what i know, not sure tho)
Would 'blankan lakton kaj brunan ĉokoladan' show that the colors are describing the object?
No, that's not how it works.
The accusative is only for direct objects of transitive verbs. "Esti" is a stative verb, which takes a subject complement (the nominative).
You would have "blankan lakton" with something like "Mi trinkas blankan lakton" -- I drink white milk.
Thank you! I'm not sure what accusative and transitive and all those other things mean... (My English teacher didn't really make us learn those things) but I understand what you mean I think.
Broadly, there are two types of verb: stative and active.
Stative verbs, also called copulae, are verbs of state. They describe the state of the subject.
The cake smells delicious.
She looks tired.
They sound angry.
He is tall.
That seems reasonable.
The woman became a teacher.
Usually, anything that comes after a stative verb is put in the subject form (a.k.a. the nominative). In languages with agreement, any adjectives in the predicate will agree with the subject in exactly the same way as they do when they're part of the same noun phrase:
la bona knabino
la bonaj knabinoj
la knabino estas bona
la knabinoj estas bonaj
Active verbs are verbs of action, and they come in two flavors: intransitive and transitive. Think of the word "transit". It suggests motion from one place to another.
Intransitive verbs are self-contained. There is nothing to receive their action.
She sleeps.
He runs.
They talk.
I jump.
Transitive verbs perform an action on a thing, and the thing that receives the action is the direct object. The case it takes is called the accusative.
He threw the ball. (What was thrown?)
She eats dinner. (What was eaten?)
I like him. (Who is liked?)
He sees her. (Who is seen?)
Let's ask them. (Who is asked?)
Only sentences with transitive verbs can be re-written into the passive voice, which is hinted at when put in to question form as above:
The ball was thrown.
Dinner was eaten.
He is liked.
She is seen.
They are asked.
Ŝi kisas lin.
Li kisas ŝin.
Mi trinkas lakton.
Ni manĝas ĉokoladon.
