"I do not eat meat."
Translation:Mi ne manĝas viandon.
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Can it not be "Mi ne manĝas la viandon."? I ask this because in French you would say "Je ne mange pas la viande." and the grammars of Esperanto and French seem similar.
"La viando" is a specific piece of meat you're having right now (the meat), not meat in general.
Could this not also be "Mi mangxas ne viandon." I thought the order of adverbs didn't matter?
1096
There is only one adverb (ne) here (so no order of adverbs), and it usually refers to the word after it:
- Mi ne manĝas viandon = I do not eat meat.
- Mi manĝas ne viandon… – I eat not meat (but something else); the listener would normally wait for something like Mi manĝas ne viandon, sed legomojn.
- Ne mi manĝas viandon = It is not I who eats meat.
Normally, to negate a whole sentence, put ne before the verb. To negate another word, put ne before that word. PMEG expresses this as follows:
Por nei frazon oni uzas la vorteton ne. Ne neas tion, antaŭ kio ĝi staras. Normale ne staras antaŭ la ĉefverbo, kaj se oni neas la ĉefverbon, oni neas la tutan frazon. (To negate a sentence the word ne is used. 'Ne' negates what follows it. Normally ne stands before the main verb, and by negating the main verb you negate the whole sentence.)
