"Good morning, how are you?"
Translation:Bonan matenon, kiel vi fartas?
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Sometimes, I wish whoever created the Esperanto language would have picked a different word besides fartas. For obvious reasons, it just sounds weird.
Zamenhof didn't speak English, so this never would have occurred to him.
Zamenhof took it from the German fahrt, which means "journey". It's cognate with the English "fare".
Of course, there is a natural language where "fart" means something else.
https://inktank.fi/10-english-words-mean-something-else-languages/
or maybe he took it from the nordic languares where it is spelled 'fart' without the 'h' and which is globally used nowadays in the runners community in name for a popular training method, 'fartlek'. fart = speed . btw in French and Spanish you say ''how are you going?'' for 'how are you?' as well, so it is not that far(t) fetched.
It's the present-tense conjugation of "farti", which is essentially the English "fare". "How are you faring?"
https://esperanto.stackexchange.com/questions/4771/difference-between-fari-and-farti
and if you're also not familiar (like me) with "fare" in this sentence, perhaps you heard it as "farewell" or "fare thee well", i just learned. in english, it means to proceed or get along.
it's also interesting to notice the similarities with "fari", in esperanto: https://esperanto.stackexchange.com/questions/4771/difference-between-fari-and-farti
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Also, if you've studied French, think of the verb Faire - it seems to correspond well with Fartas
Adverbs end in -e.
Adjectives end in -a.
Any noun/adjective (except for "la") that's in the accusative (direct object of a transitive verb) gets the -n suffix.
The greeting is "bonan matenon" because it's short for something like "I bid you a good morning" or "I hope you have a good morning" or something along those lines.
Just curious -- would "kiel fartas vin" not be acceptable? Is "vi" not a direct object in this case?
It's not a direct object. A direct object is the one receiving the action (i.e. in "Mi amas vin", "vin" receives the action "amas" given by the subject "mi"). But "vi" here is the subject and is the one that does or experiences the action, so it can't be in the accusative case.
Beyond what crimson_seraph said, "farti" is a stative verb and stative verbs don't have direct objects. Instead, they take subject complements.
