5 ms·
One interesting influence of Chinese on Esperanto is that you now have two ways to use adjectives as predicates. To say "Anna is beautiful" you can use the copu
by xiaq 9y ago
One interesting influence of Chinese on Esperanto is that you now have two ways to use adjectives as predicates. To say "Anna is beautiful" you can use the copular verb est:
Anna est bela.
Which is like English and most European languages. But you can also say
Anna belas.
That is, you turn the adjective to a verb and use it as a predicate directly. This mirrors the syntax of Chinese.
- etatoby 9y agoDesu!!! (sorry, I had to)
- thriftwy 9y agoI think it's mostly an influence of Russian/Belorussian: verb form: Анна красива. adjective form: Анна красивая.
- xiaq 9y agoHmm that's also possible. Only those who have studied the history of Esperanto can give us a definite answer, I suppose.
- jwilk 9y agoWait, where's the verb in the first form?
- thriftwy 9y agoкрасива is predicate (or сказуемое)
- kemerover 9y agoIt is not a verb form. It is just a short form. Both forms can be used as predicates but have different meanings. For example, "ты болен" and "ты больной" both mean "you are sick", but in the first case it means a temporary state. Another example, "эта юбка коротка" and "эта юбка короткая" both mean "this dress is short", but in the first case it has an implication of being short relative to something. For example, you would use first form to mean that this dress is short for you.
- msoucy 9y agoVerbing weirds language. Is "est" acceptable Esperanto? I thought that it had to be "Anna estas bela"?
- robotoloco 9y agoYes, Anna estas bela is the recommended form. 'est bela' is incorrect.