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- "Li aŭ ŝi laboras."
31 Comments
ŭ doesn't make syllable and is used only in diphthongs. nor it counts when you're calculating stressed syllable.
To me, those sound the same. Are there any other examples words you can think of for the pronunciation of ŭ?
I think I understand now. From what I just read in an article, it seems 'ŭ' only shows up in conjunction with 'a' to form the diphthong 'aŭ'. So 'ŭ' pretty much has the same sound as 'u' but 'a' comes before it making the 'ou' sound.
It also shows up as "eŭ" sometimes, most notably in words such as eŭropa (European) and la eŭro (the euro).
Oh dear!
'u' is a vowel sound "oo" and 'ŭ' is practically a consonant sound "w". These do not sound alike to me at all. Try training your ear with these recordings: http://www.forvo.com/search-eo/u%20au/
Say "How about that!" and tell me again that the "w" doesn't sound like a "w"? Ouch! also has that "w" sound in English.
Moon sounds the same to you? How about the "u" in lunar? Oddly, even "you" and the end of "kangaroo". No, w sound in those.
@allintolearning I think I was just misunderstanding what he/she was saying. I can pronounce them perfectly fine now, but I don't associate ŭ with 'w'. In my opinion, 'w' in words like "how" does not make a normal 'w' sound but rather makes a different sound inside of the diphthong (ow). I understand now what was trying to be said, but it didn't make sense to me at the time.
I see that you are learning Spanish, so imagine this sound like the "y" in some Spanish words, like "Rey" (King). It's just a "short i" (in Russian it is literally called "short i"). Well, the same with u.
Rey: /réy/, one syllable Reí: /re-í/ (note the accent on the i that "breaks the diphthong") two syllables.
I know you probably already know the answer, but I'll respond anyway in case someone else has the same question.
ŭ is basically like an english "W", and it usually follows an "a" or in some cases "e"
aŭ sounds like "ow" in english and eŭ doesn't really have a sound in english but kinda sounds like ay-ew without really pronouncing the y very much
Does this mean [He or she] works (as in, I don’t know the gender) or [He works] or [she works] (as in, there are two people and one of them is working)?
Well... when you say "he or she works" in English, do you mean [he or she] works (as in, I don't know the gender) or [he works] or [she works] (as in, there are two people and one of them is working)?
I don’t say that :P Esperanto is not English, and different languages work differently.
Oh. Well my guess is that it works like in English and French, and probably other languages that have a separate pronoun for male and female, which is to say that it depends on the context.
Interesting question! Just as in English, this could be interpreted either way.
When I wrote this sentence, I was definitely thinking that there were two people, but could definitely see how it could be interpreted as not knowing the gender of the person you're talking about who is working.
Few of these sentences seem... normal? Human? Or at least, make sense to my non-Esperanto linguist brain?
It's because you know so few words and we can only make sentences including words you already know. :-/ We're working on improving this!
So there isn't difference between present simple and continuous in esperanto, no?
Did anyone else translated "aux" as "either" instead of "or"? I've seen some sontences translated that way, and the Wikipedia says an acceptable translation.
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is "aŭ" inclusive or exclusive? I don't know about other languages, but in most from Greco-Latin roots "or" is ambiguous in its meaning. For normal speech and even in some technical "or" is usually exclusive (one option over the other but not both); yet in mathematics and logic (e.g. Formal, Boolean) "OR" is inclusive (possible all the choices but at least one of them).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And/or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclusive_or http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=125823
I assumed that the Logic background of Esperanto and/or (pun intended) the lax of DuoLingo would allow both.
Li aŭ ŝi laboras = He or she
(He + She)= They They work= He or She work
That is marked as wrong, when is possible that the sentence means "one, the other, and/or both"
- 1417
I believe this was answered elsewhere in the thread. It can go either way, much like English. "He or she work" on the other hand, is not correct English.
