"Li rompis siajn okulvitrojn."

Translation: He broke his own glasses.

[FaizalZahid]

Oculus reparo!

[-Zorua-]

Sorry to be so nitpicky about this, but in the books it's just Reparo. There's no special spell for repairing glasses as opposed to everything else.

[FaizalZahid]

Sure, I'm just posting this because the sentence is about glasses and 'oculus' is quite close to okulvitrojn. It can be a mnemonic

[noureddin95]

From "oculus" came the word "okulo" = "eye".
And "vitro" means "glass (substance)".
So we have "okulvitroj" = "eye-glasses".

[FaizalZahid]

yeah...like 'in vitro fertilisation'...

[noureddin95]

Yes, although today "in vitro" in this context doesn't always mean "in glass", but I think it's good as a mnemonic. :)

[GeorgeChri15]

Please, how do you say, "He broke her glasses"?

[bnikfar]

Li rompis siajn okulvitrojn. = He broke his own glasses.
Li rompis liajn okulvitrojn. = He broke his (some other male person's) glasses.
Li rompis ŝiajn okulvitrojn. = He broke her (some other female person's) glasses.

[JelvonDoran]

I sat staring at the examples for ages quite sure I'd gone barmy, then I saw it; the tiny umbrella missing from the siajn!

[GeorgeChri15]

Thank you, bloody details. They'll get you every time. :0

[sarquis]

Dankon - sxiajn/siajn

[NessyNoinex]

Is there a way to say "She broke her own glasses" or sxia would also be used?

[bnikfar]

sia works for both male and female, so
- li rompis siajn okulvitrojn = he broke his own glasses
- ŝi rompis siajn okulvitrojn = she broke her own glasses
- ŝi rompis ŝiajn okulvitrojn = she broke her (some other female person's) glasses

[NessyNoinex]

Ohh I see, thank you!

[__init__.py]

I love this feature

[GregGruber]

It sure sounds like he is saying "Lia rompis", but i know that doesn't make much sense

[StrangaStrigo]

It does but it's a little difficult to say it in a normal way without the phantom 'a' creeping in. Kinda like when people say 'Bye' on the phone you often hear 'mBye'.

[sylviaplanths]

So the reflexive pronoun is gender neutral? Does the same substitution happen anywhere else or just his own/her own?

[vytah]

It can also mean its own or their own.

[deactivated user]

Si is just his/her/its own. Ĝi works as a gender neutral pronoun.

[adromu]

"he did break his own glasses" ?

[polyglot928]

It's not incorrect to say "he did break his own glasses" but it's more common to say "he broke his own glasses" unless you want to emphasize that he DID break his own glasses.

[Canvasian]

Kiel oni diras "He was breaking his glasses" en esperanto?

[noureddin95]

The past in Esperanto means both the simple and the continuous past. If you want to emphasize the state of being breaking his glasses, use the participles. This sentence can be "Li estis rompanta siajn okulvitrojn."

[Canvasian]

Multajn dankojn :p

[StephieRice]

Pretty sure you meant rompante instead of rompanta

[noureddin95]

It's a compound tense. And compound tenses in Esperanto are formed using "esti" + an adjectival participle.

See Esperanto_grammar#Compound_tense @ Wikipedia.

[StephieRice]

Dankon! Mi komprenantas nun.

[avocadohummus]

Why not li rompis proprajn okulvitrojn?

[noureddin95]

This would be "He broke personal glasses."

[blessedwhitney]

Youll poke your eye out kid

[LordRatte]

I assume "sia" is the reflexive form of "lia" based one the context.

[High_Raccoon]

he dropped 'em on the ground and then stepped on 'em. twelve times.

[Assisting]

That was one hell of a roll on that R, in "rompis". I feel like my anglophone tongue is not prepared for such feats.