"Iliaj gepatroj venas el Usono."

Translation: Their parents come from the United States.

[vacker13]

why is it (el usono) and not (de usono) what is the difference de sounds better to me at least. thanks.

[Rae.F]

"El" means "from". If you're talking about directions (coming from, going to) it's el = from and al = to.

"De" means "of". If you're talking about possession (the story of my life, the color of the sky), it's de = of.

[fellipemartins]

What would the question to that answer be? El kie ili venas?

[vikungen]

Jes, tre bone.

[Gooberbobber]

What's the difference between "ilia" and "iliaj"? Isn't it implied that "they" is plural?

[Rae.F]

Don't confuse ili ("they") with ilia ("their").

ilia = their singular thing
iliaj = their plural things

[Gooberbobber]

Aaaaah! I just understood it! It's using "iliaj" as an adjective! Then it takes the "j" from the plural "gepatroj"!

[Rae.F]

Yep!

Possessives are formed by turning the pronoun of the owner into an adjective, and must agree in number with what is possessed.

[Gooberbobber]

Dankon! Mi estas tre klara nun!
+1, +$1

[picsa]

How to tell apart 'coming to' and 'coming from'? Non native English speaker here, got answer wrong.

[Jamthom8]

"To" is "al", "from" is "el" or "de".

[picsa]

Dankon!

[vipassana75]

why here we should put the article "the" but few exercises before we don't "The German comes from Germany"?

I learned that we should omit the "The" when we have: names of cities, states, islands, countries, continents:

[callicrates]

Unfortunately, there are almost always exceptions to any rule.

Just the ones I can think of:

Countries: the Bahamas, the Gambia, the United States, the United Kingdom,

City: The Hague,

[Q-Allat]

But ''The Hague'' is maybe different? It's an abbreviation, it's actually '''s Gravenhage''. which I think would originally have been ''Des Graven Haag'' .

[EaterofPumkin]

Well alrighty then.

[KillTheFuture]

I saw someone else's comment on another sentence that pointed out that it's The United States of America because you're specifying which states. Other examples: The United Kingdom, The Virgin Islands, The Dominican Republic.

[w00tw00t]

I wonder if "venas el" can stand for both "are traveling from" as well as "originate from", the way it does in English?

[adailtonjn68]

is ' Their parents come from USA' wrong? (without the article)

[Jamthom8]

Yes. It needs a "the" in English but not in Esperanto.

[adailtonjn68]

Dankon ;-)

[michael.ford1986]

how would you say, "their parents are coming from the united states"

[Rae.F]

estas venanta

[LeeWhiteout]

"Their parents come from the States." should be accepted as well, right?

[Rae.F]

That's generally understood to be synonymous, if a bit less formal.

If it's not accepted and there are no errors in your answer, then next time this happens flag it and select "My answer should be accepted".

[LeeWhiteout]

Thank you!