"They sell a lot of spices and oils."

Translation: Ili vendas multe da spicoj kaj oleoj.

[consultjohan]

Ili vendas multajn spicojn kaj oleojn?

[clh335763]

Mi havas saman demandon

[Dalingo8]

Ili vendas multajn spicojn kaj oleojn - accepted, November 2019

[Sjdps]

why "spicoj" and "oleoj" are not in accusative?

[vinofreddo]

Because you don't use the accusative after a preposition (except sometimes to indicate direction, which isn't the case here). You would say "Ili vendas spicojn kaj oleojn", but the -n isn't used after "da".

[BonnieF70]

Thank you for that explanation. Have a lingot! :)

[GillyRobin1]

Lingoto el mi, ambaŭ!

[vodpox]

What's the difference between sentences "Ili vendas multe da spicoj kaj oleoj" and "Ili vendas multajn spicojn kaj oleojn"? Do they mean slightly different things or are they the same?

[Scott_MacGregor]

Its similar to the difference between 'Mi trinkas tason de akvo' and 'mi drinkas malvarman akvon'. In the latter cases the objects of the verbs are 'a lot' and 'a cup' respectively, and what its a lot of or what its a cup of is seperated from the object enough (by a preposition) that its not in the accusative. Its a difficult and counter-intuitive distinction becauae to your ears 'a glass of water' or 'a lot of spices' sounds like one object.

In the former cases 'multajn' and 'malvarman' are adjectives that still form part of the object noun, so both will be in the accusative.

[guyfef]

Kial estas "multe da" kaj ne la vorton "multe de"?
I mean it speaks of what they are selling and not how much

[AjxojLerni]

no, think of multe as an indefinite quantity. As a rule, da, not de, follows it.

[Vinessa124839]

Why is "multe" being used as an adverb and not a noun?

[Dalingo8]

Nouns in this example are "spices" and "oils", I don't see how you can use "a lot of" (multe) as a noun?!