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Advanced derivation
We have seen in lesson 4 that new words can be derived by changing the ending of a word and that words can be put together in a compound word. In lesson 6 we have seen that compounds can also be created by tacking on a preposition to a word. Here we will learn yet another way of deriving new words.
Words can also be derived by tacking on a part-of-speech ending or even a suffix to an entire phrase, usually to construction like "en la domo" or "sur la tablo". This is, however, not limited to those: Occasionally entire sentences are even used, such as "Kiel vi fartas?". When this is done, any article in the phrase is normally dropped. Usually, the part-of-speech endings are dropped from words in the middle of the phrase, unless this sounds awkward or would be unclear. The endings of ordinal numbers and possessive pronouns are never dropped. Examples are:
| Examples | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base phrase | Meaning | Derived word | Meaning | Audio |
| en la domo | in the house | endome | in the house | |
| sur la tablo | on the table | surtabla | '... that is on the table' | |
| multaj flankoj | many sides | multflanke | on many sides | |
| kvar anguloj | four angles | kvarangulo by tacking on -o | tetragon, quadrilateral | |
| du sencoj | two meanings | dusenca | ambiguous (with two possibilities) | |
| pluraj sencoj | multiple meanings | plursenca | ambiguous (with multiple possibilities) | |
| pluraj lingvoj | multiple languages | plurlingva | multilingual | |
| la kapo al la tero | the head to the ground | kapaltere | (done) with the head to the ground | |
| sama lando | same country | samlandano | compatriot | |
| alia mondo | different world | alimondulo | someone from another world (figuratively) | |
| Kiel vi fartas? | How are you? | kielvifartasulo | someone who doesn't get passed saying basic phrases in Esperanto | |
| duba senco | dubious meaning | dubasenca | with a dubious meaning | |
| magra kvalito | low (meager) quality | magrakvalite | of a meager quality | |
| povi pagi | (to) can pay | pagipova note that order of the words has to be changed here | able to pay | |
| mia opinio | my opinion | miaopinie | in my opinion | |
| via hejmo | your home | viahejme | at your home/place | |
| unua rango | first rank/grade | unuaranga | first-grade | |
| dua klaso | second class | duaklase | in second class | |
The new word may then also get affixes tacked on to it:
| Examples | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base phrase | Derived word | Meaning | Audio | |
| dubasenca | dubasencaĵo | something dubious | ||
| surseĝa | surseĝulo | someone sitting on a chair | ||
| dulingva | dulingveco | bilingualism | ||
Occasionally, part-of-speech ending are also added to verbs in the imperative (-u).
| Examples | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base phrase | Derived word | Meaning | Audio | |
| vivu! | vivui | to call 'live!', to acclaim, to applaud | ||
| savu! | savuo | a call for rescue | ||
| helpu! | helpui | to call for help | ||
Theme vocabulary
Exercises
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