"La sumo kiun li postulis estis dek eŭroj."

Translation: The total that he demanded was ten euros.

[tommylinsley]

This looks very strange after being taught for a few months now that usually an 'infinitive' would follow "postulis". Did I miss a lesson somewhere?

[FredCapp]

No, you missed the fairly common linguistic trick of using a phrase as an adjective. The phrase kiun li postulis describes "sumo" and is treated in relation to the rest of the sentence as if there is no verb in it .

I'm sure that one of the language wonks can give you a more definitive explanation, I'm just remembering High School English classes here.

[NicolasDaL698501]

No, it's a fairly good explanation.

"ke li postulis" is a subclause and refers to "sumo". The verb "estis" that comes next is the main verb of the sentence, with subject "sumo".

The subject of "postulis" is "li".

Hope that clarifies.

[aanaaaa]

Oh god, I need the turtle for new words....

[FredCapp]

Ĉu testudo?

[aanaaaa]

Yeah, the slow pronunciation , but there is no slow pronunciation in Esperanto course, but I needed it 3 months ago, not anymore :)