16 Comments
Is it clear if it means it's hard to work frequently, or that work is often difficult?
Does it mean "Working is often difficult?" Should Duo accept that?
Hey, I think you're right. (Labori ofte)(ne estas facile) or (labori)(ofte ne estas facile.)
Is there any reason to pick one over the other?
I wondered too about this - maybe it's an ambiguous sentence in Esperanto? I wrote: "working is not often easy" which was accepted. But I see it also accepts "working often is not easy".
So I'm kind of confuses why the infinitive verb is used her. There isn't a subject so wouldn't you use a noun form of "labori" since we are describing the concept of working?
Hey, I'm just happy to realise that the course is teaching rich enough to teach daily usage and poetics.
Just checking: Because 'Labori' is an infinitive verb we use the adverb 'facile' after estas rather than the adjective 'facila'?
Not necessarily because it is an infinitive verb, but because it is a verb. Adjectives modify nouns while adverbs modify verbs.
Li estas bona.
Li laboras bone.
Therefore I'm guessing the translation "Working isn't often easy" is wrong, since it would be "Labori ofta ne estas facila", while "Labori ofte ne estas facila" would mean "Working often isn't easy"
Working isnt often easy is a correct translation of this sentence.
Word placement in Esperanto is fairly free when it doesnt cause confusion. However in a sentence like this, where there are multiple verbs, the adverbs should be placed in front of the verb that they modify unless it is placed after the last verb in the sentence. So "[Working often] [is not easy]" should be written "Ofte labori ne estas facila"
In Esperanto, if the subject is a verb, or there is no subject (pluvas, neĝas, etc), the descriptive word modifies a verb, even if that verb has a syntactical function as a noun, and therefore, consistently, the adverbial form is used.
- labori ne estas facila.
- Mia laboro estas facila.
- Erari estas home.
- Neĝas multe, tial estas multa neĝo.
- Labori ofte ne estas facile = Working often is not easy
- Ofte labori ne estas facile = Working often is not easy
- Labori ne ofte estas facile = Working is not often easy
- Labori ne estas facile ofte = Working is often not easy
- Ne labori ofte estas facile = Not working is often easy
- Ofte ne labori estas facile = Not working often is easy
etc.
