"Where do we start?"
Translation:Kie ni komencas?
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Why is it "kie ni komencas" and not "kien ni komencas"?
Would the answer also be "ni komencas tie" and not "ni komencas tien"?
"komenci" is not a verb of motion. So there's also no direction and thus no accusative of direction.
Right! So the -n forms of the correlatives are only used when direction/motion are relevant, and not everywhere you'd use the -n form of a noun. Thanks for your help!
-ien correlatives mark motion, while -ie correlatives mark location. Other correlatives (e.g. kio) still take the accusative when they would normally take the accusative. http://donh.best.vwh.net/Esperanto/correlatives.html
That website has always put a bad taste in my mouth and unfortunately they are too many Esperanto speakers with the same attitude.
"The correlatives are the bete noir of many English-speaking students of Esperanto; they never seem to get them right. This is, in my opinion, a simple lack of diligence on their part; even memorizing the fifty words separately should take no more than the better part of an evening. "
In other words, if you get them mixed up or wrong you are an idiot.
Not quite. It's not due to correlative or noun, it's due to the function of the correlative in the sentence.
I think that makes sense. You wouldn't use a noun in a sentence like this without a preposition anyway.
Well... If we were classes wanting to start in a school, we would say that :D But normally we only start something (we start eating, we start sleeping, we start making, we start going...). "Komencigxi" is for the other meaning of "start" (the TV show started, a new age starts...)
Are pronouns absolutely necessary? If in context, one were to say "kie komencas?" Would they be understood? Would it be strange?
Which is now making me wonder; could you go more literal and say "Kie komenci?" to the room instead?
I think it's introduced a little before, but most of our U ending comes from "Imperative" in section 2