"Liaj vestaĵoj estas nigraj."
Translation:His clothes are black.
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Sounds like you already figured it out, but for other people reading this:
The -aĵo suffix means "something made from or possessing the quality of"
porko (pig) ⇒ porkaĵo (something made out of pig = pork)
nova (new) ⇒ novaĵoj (things that are new = the news)
vesti (to clothe) ⇒ vestaĵo (something with which one clothes = a piece of clothing)
CloudeAytr made great a more in depth post about it here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/8849511
I'm not entirely sure, but here's a link that explains -ajx.
http://a-complete-grammar-of-esperanto.t.ebooks2ebooks.com/92.html
1097
In this case the -j is matching the pronoun with its plural noun, vestaĵoj.
His shoe: "Lia ŝuo"
His shoes: "Liaj ŝuoj"
It's modeled on how the Romance languages work. I see you're also learning Italian. It's the same rule. All adjectives must agree with the noun they modify, and this includes possessives. The only difference is that Esperanto only has one form of "the" and no gender.
ITALIAN:
la mia scarpa è piccola = my shoe is small
le mie scarpe sono piccole = my shoes are small
il mio gatto è piccolo = my cat is small
i miei gatti sono piccoli = my cats are small
ESPERANTO:
mia ŝuo estas malgranda = my shoe is small
miaj ŝuoj estas malgrandaj = my shoes are small
mia kato estas malgranda = my cat is small
miaj katoj estas malgrandaj = my cats are small
As I said, possessives are a type of adjective, and all adjectives must agree with the noun it modifies. The first part of the word, mi
, says that "I" am the owner. The last part of the word says whether my thing is singular or plural (and in Italian, whether the thing owned is masculine or feminine).
1328
No, that would be iliaj. Liaj has a j on the end because it belongs to the plural noun vestaĵoj.
1328
I keep mixing up Esperanto with Spanish and French words too, especially the Esperanto 'el' with the Spanish 'el', and the French 'il' with the Esperanto 'li'.
His articles of clothing are black.. Weird way of phrasing it. I guess it's normal in Esperanto
No. Esperanto writing is one-to-one with pronunciation.
http://esperanto.davidgsimpson.com/eo-alphabet.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCE7Il65KN0