"Ĉu vi du estas paro?"

Translation: Are you two a couple?

[FredCapp]

A couple of what? :D

[cdub4language]

...ni diris al Adamo kaj Sofia. I can't wait to see what happens at the end of the story!

[pablussky]

Adamo kaj Sofia ne estis paro, sed gefratoj.

[AndressaAndrd]

Kiel vi sxatas tion?

[pablussky]

Mi ne komprenas vin :/

[AndressaAndrd]

Pardonu, mi uzis la eraran verbon, hahaha! Mi volis diri: Kiel vi scias tion?

[Majklo_Blic]

Redito scias.

[pablussky]

Oh! Mi legis gxin en la komentoj de la unuaj lezionoj.

[tiagoloprete]

Ili estis paro de gefratoj, ĉu ne?

[Sarah-Cheung]

They should always ask this at the reception in a hotel. XD

[Klinpo]

Nice 420 days streak ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[Sarah-Cheung]

Thank you~ ^^

[JennyDraper]

Can you really say "you two" just like in English? It just seems like the sort of anglicism an English speaker would make up...

[mbalicki]

Yes, vi followed by a numeral is fine in Esperanto. Here are several examples from some old texts and translations:

La tuta urbo parolas pri vi du kiel pri estontaj geedzoj. — Fundamenta Krestomatio

Tiam via sorto dependas de tiu, kiu el vi du diros la unuan vorton. — Fundamenta Krestomatio

Bela plano, vi du jam estas tro multe… — Elektitaj Fabeloj de fratoj Grimm

Eliru vi tri al la tabernaklo de kunveno. — Malnova Testamento

[untech]

I wonder how did you manage to get these citations. Did you actually read all these sources, or is there a convenient way to find phrases in a corpus of Esperanto texts?

[mbalicki]

It’d be nice if I just had a perfect memory of everything I’ve ever read, wouldn’t it? :D

The best corpus of Esperanto available is Tekstaro and that’s what I’ve used.

[Kreilyn]

What does this sentence mean?

[mbalicki]

That's something you'd ask your friends, whom you caught on holding hands.

[savannidgerinel]

How would I ask about triads or quads? Relevant in my culture.

Cxu vi tri estas ...?

[deactivated user]

You would probably have to explain what you meant, just as you would in English, because "quads" in English normally is an abbreviation for "quadruplets", and "triad" is a musical term, or a reference to a group of three related people or things.

[mbalicki]

Exactly. :D A musical “triad” is in Esperanto trisono, while a “quad” or an “All Terrain Vehicle” is kvado, though it isn't very popular word so different translations may also be found.

[Erinacino]

Awkward...

[Dalingo8]

Do we need "two" here? "You" already implies that there are more than one.

[mbalicki]

In Esperanto the pronoun vi is second-person and it doesn’t mark the grammatical number (singular or plural), so same as “you” in English, vi doesn’t imply there is more than one of something. Apart from that, if you were to say this sentence in a larger group of people, adding du (“two”) would help to mark you were talking about particular two of them (e.g. the two you were directly facing or pointing to).

But of course, very often even without du (“two”) these sentence would be perfectly understandable. This exercise teaches what one can do, not what one ought to do.

[Dalingo8]

Vi in Esperanto is both second person singular, and second person plural. In sentence "Ĉu vi estas paro?", vi can be only for plural, right?

[Nastassia.V]

I like the sound of "ĉu vi du"!

[Dalingo8]

You mean - scoooo-beeee-doooo :D