"He loves a woman."

Translation: Li amas virinon.

[LlvMatthews]

I'm confused as to whether word order matters or not. I put 'li virinon amas' but it was marked wrong and Duo wanted 'li amas virinon' instead. Is the word order subject verb object?

[vikungen]

Word order is very liberal, li virinon amas is correct, it just has not been added as one of the correct options yet.

[Rae.F]

Because of the way the direct object is marked, all six permutations of "li amas virinon" should be valid. But it's likely that some are more common and some are more poetic.

[TaminaPete]

Can somebody explain the Akkusativ for me ? When is it virino and when virinon?

[Rae.F]

The accusative is the direct object of a transitive active verb. It receives the action of the verb.

I like her = Mi sxatas sxin.
She likes me = Sxi sxatas min.
The dog bites the boy = La hundo mordas la knabon.
The boy bites the dog = La knabo mordas la hundon.
He loves a woman = Li amas virinon.
A woman loves him = Virino amas lin.

[TaminaPete]

Thanks :) Now I get it !

[Fernandogoq]

Don't you guys think that "He loves a woman" and "He loves woman" have different meanings? The fact of Esperanto doesn't have indefinite articles really bother me.

[Rae.F]

The distinction would be between "He loves a woman", specifically, and "He loves women", generally. It's less a matter of using an indefinite article and more a matter of singular vs plural. "He loves woman" really isn't grammatical in English.