"He orders more tomatoes."

Translation: Li mendas pli da tomatoj.

[ColoradoPhil]

I got it wrong when I put an n on 'tomatojn'. Wouldn't 'tomatoes' be the direct object?

[mizinamo]

The direct object is the entire prepositional phrase "pli da tomatoj".

Things after "da" never take a -n ending even if they are part of the direct object.

[ColoradoPhil]

Dankon!

[HamiltonM01]

Maybe a stupid question,but why not: "Li mendas pli tomatoj." Tks.

[mizinamo]

pli is an adverb, not a determiner or counting word -- it can modify a verb, but not directly stand before a noun like that.

It's a bit like "a lot" in English -- you can't say "He orders a lot tomatoes", even though you can say "He sings a lot" (adverb). Before a noun, you need "a lot of tomatoes" with the extra word "of" in there to turn it into a measure "a lot of".

Similarly here, with li mendas pli (he orders more: adverb) but li mendas pli da tomatoj (he orders more tomatoes: measure).

[HamiltonM01]

Excellent explanation mizinamo , Thanks a lot!

[echolaliaa]

mi mendas pliajn tomatojn? how does pli become pliajn?

[mizinamo]

• pli = more (an adverb), e.g. "he drinks more"
• plia = more (an adjective), e.g. "more coffee" in the sense of "additional coffee" (plia kafo)

Just add the adjective ending -a.

Then once you have an adjective, it can take further adjective endings such as plural -j and accusative -n.

[Sirplentif]

But what about the accusative? Why is there no -n in the translation?

[mizinamo]

pli is an adverb and doesn't take an -n; and da is a preposition which (like most prepositions except for a handful of two-purpose ones) takes the nominative.