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- "Planto mia kreskas en poto."
38 Comments
And why did they chose to do it this way? I know that word order is very flexible. But they mentioned words can interchange for the sake of style. There must be another semantic nuance here, is it?
No, the reason they wrote it the other way around here in this example is to learn people that it can be written both ways.
54
Vikungen, just trying to help people with English! I know it's hard, but there are millions of grammar nazis and punctuation police out there to help us all out! :-)
I mean this in the friendliest of ways.
French is making less and less of a distinction between "teach" and "learn". Why wouldn't English? You still got what they said.
Thank you. I'll be sure to point out your mistakes whenever you're writing a non-native language.
I assume it maybe due to owner's feelings about his/her plant.
I can use both
Kara amiko mia & Kara mia amiko
However the first phrase shows my descent feelings about my friend so much.
I would say that "kara amiko mia" is ok, but "kara mia amiko" is strange. For the second one, it would be better to say "mia kara amiko."
Not all speakers make this distinction, but for a large number of esperantists "mia planto" is definite (THE specific plant that I'm talking about) and "planto mia" is indefinite (a plant that belongs to me.)
It sounded to me that way also. I tried "a plant of mine..." and was marked correct :)
This way is good for indonesian learners, for example. Tanaman anda - Plant I - My plant.
According to Salivanto, "mia planto" and "planta mia" don't share the same meaning. Check his comment :)
I said:
Not all speakers make this distinction, but for a large number of esperantists "mia planto" is definite (THE specific plant that I'm talking about) and "planto mia" is indefinite (a plant that belongs to me.)
Are mia and planto the wrong way round here?
Only sort of. I think someone tried to get cute. The vast majority of the time, the possessive pronoun (mia) will be first. There's a good argument that with pronouns like this, it actually changes the meaning (and not just the emphasis.)
- 1860
Mi pensas la tio ĉi ne ĝustas:
«planto mia» → a plant of mine (I may have various)
«mia planto » → my plant (I have only one)
Sed «a plant of mine» estis akceptita do eble tio ĉi ↑ĝustas?
Each time I think I get the "-n" thing, I'm lost again... :( Why it isn't "Planton mian kresas en poto"?
- 1894
Because the plant is doing the growing, rather than the thing being grown (by someone or something). If I was growing a plant, then it could be "Mi kresas planton mian" -- I am growing my plant. The subject (thing doing the verb) DOES NOT have the -n, and the object (thing the verb is done to) DOES have the -n.
I don't know ungarian but yes, esperanto has a flexible order. Might not be exactly the same, though
I wish that more sentences would switch up the word order like this, so that we're prepared for other speakers.
Word order is actually pretty standard in Esperanto. The preparation for other speakers will be getting used to accents and the like.
Won't speakers of Germanic languages who use Esperanto incline towards putting adjectives before the words they describe while speakers of Italic/Romance languages who use Esperanto incline towards putting adjectives after the words they describe?
No. That's pretty much what I was trying to say in my previous comment. Word order is pretty standard in Esperanto. Esperanto wasn't born yesterday. It has a 130 year unbroken history of regular usage, and all courses teach accordingly. The kind of variation you described is no more common among intermediate speakers of Esperanto than it is among intermediate speakers of, say, English.
Would be "Mia planto kreskas en florpoto" accepted? Was looking through some dictionaries and at first glance, I would think of "a pot" as a pot for cooking food...
I assume from your question that you had an English sentence to translate into Esperanto, unlike the sentence at the top of this page, which was Esperanto to be translated into English. If so, and the English had said "flowerpot", then "florpoto" would be accepted. But if the English says "pot", it should be translated "poto".
