All answers were very good.
I'll post the third lesson now since I just have some time and ideas for it, but
if there are more people who'd still like to work on the previous lessons, ask questions about them or do the exercises, that's okay, too. You can join anytime.
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Lesson 3: A stranger at the airport
Li: Saluton! Chu iu chi tie parolas Esperanton?
Roberto: Jes! Mi parolas Esperanton. Saluton!
Li: Saluton! Mia nomo estas Li kaj mi venas el Chinio.
Roberto: Ho! Mi lernas la chinan. 'Renshi ni wo hen gaoxing'. Tio signifas 'estas plezuro renkonti vin', chu ne? Mi estas Roberto.
Li: Jes, vi pravas. Ankauh estas plezuro renkonti vin. Roberto, mi bezonas vian helpon. Tio estas mia unua fojo en Brazilo kaj mi ne parolas la lingvon. Mi volas shanghi monon, sed la monshanghisto ne komprenas min.
Roberto: Ne estas problemo. Mi tradukas por vi.
Li: Dankegon!
New words:
iu = somebody
[remember "tiu"(this person) and "kiu"(who)?]
paroli = speak
[English/German "parole"; French "parler"]
Esperanto = Esperanto
[obvious]
jes = yes
[obvious]
nomo = name
[Italian "nome", Latin "nomen"]
veni = to come
[Italian/Latin "venire", French "venir"]
Chinio = China
[obvious]
lerni = to learn
[German "lernen", English "learn"]
china = Chinese
[obvious]
tio = this thing
[remember "tiu"(this person)?]
signifi = to mean
[French "signifier"; English "significant"(meaningful)]
plezuro = pleasure
[English "pleasure"; French "plaisir"]
renkonti = to meet
[French "rencontrer"]
pravi = to be right
ankauh = also, too
bezoni = to need
[French "besoin"]
helpo = help
[obvious]
unua = first
[derived from "unu"(one)]
fojo = time (as in: one time, two times, three times)
[French "fois"]
lingvo = language
[Italian/Latin "lingua"]
voli = to want
[German "wollen"]
shanghi = to (ex)change
[English "change"; French "changer"]
mono = money
[obvious]
sed = but
[Latin "sed"]
kompreni = to understand
[French "comprendre"]
problemo = problem
[obvious]
traduki = to translate
[French "traduction", Spanish "traducción"]
por = for
[Spanish "por"; French "pour"]
Dankon = Thanks
[German "Danke"]
In this lesson, I'd like to introduce the Accusative case, because it is almost unavoidable when making sentences. Those who know the Accusative in German, Latin or Russian, don't run away! In Esperanto, it is much, much easier. Esperanto only knows 2 cases: Nominative and Accusative. Nominative is the default case, it's what you have been unconsciously using all the time. Accusative is used only for direct objects and direct objects are easy to spot in Esperanto: any noun (word ending in -o) or pronoun (mi, vi, li ...) that is neither the subject of the sentence nor preceded by a preposition.
English only knows the Accusative for pronouns: for example, it is "He helps me" and not "He helps I". And it is "She thanks him" and not "She thanks he". Unfortunately, English also uses the Accusative for words after prepositions (e. g. "to us") and in languages like German, Latin or Russian it can be a real hassle to determine whether a word should be Accusative or not, no matter whether it follows a preposition or not, because there are also other cases used for the same purpose. Esperanto is very clear in this respect: if a word is the object of the sentence and not behind a preposition, it has to be Accusative. In any other case, it is unchanged.
The change required for the Accusative is much easier than in other languages, too: just add an -n to the word. It's the same for nouns, adjectives depending on them and even pronouns, whereas in English there is no logic behind "I" becoming "me" but "he" becoming "him" or any of the other changes.
Examples of the Accusative in Esperanto:
Mi helpas la novulon. (I help the newbie)
Mi helpas lin. (I help him)
Mi lernas la anglan lingvon. (I learn the English language) - or simply: mi lernas la anglan ("lingvon" is understood and can be omitted)
Mi lernas ghin. (I learn it)
Lupo atakas min. (A wolf attacks me; there's no equivalent of "a" in Esperanto, it's just left out)
Mi atakas lupon. (I attack a wolf)
Since the object of the sentence can easily be identified because of the -n, you can change the word order as you like. For example, "I attack a wolf" would usually be said as "Mi atakas lupon", but if you want to stress that you attack a wolf and not a bear, you can say "Lupon atakas mi" and people will not confuse it with "Lupo atakas min"(A wolf attacks me).
You will also find that the Accusative is used for most polite phrases like "Saluton"(Hello), "Bonan matenon"(Good morning), "Bonan tagon"("Good day", used like "Bonjour"/"Buongiorno"/"Guten Tag" or the like as a standard greeting during daytime), "Bonan vesperon"(Good evening), "Bonan nokton"(Good night) and "Dankon"(Thanks). That is because these phrases have to be understood as "I wish you ... (a good morning / evening / ...)".
The only words exempt from the Accusative are foreign words that are not esperantified. For example the word "Cantr" in the sentence "Mi ludas Cantr". Cantr is not the subject of this sentence, so it should normally be "Mi ludas Cantr-n" just like it is "Mi ludas ludon"(I play a game), but "Cantr-n" isn't pronounceable for an Esperantist anyways. Now, if we were to esperantify it as "Cantro" or even "Kantro", we would definitely have to add the -n in that sentence.
Now, just a sneak preview of "tabelvortoj"(table words), so that you will hopefully find it easier to learn seemingly random words like "iu", "kiu", "tiu", "tio", "tie" etc. No need to memorise it all at this time.
These tiny words that are so difficult to learn in natural languages are organised into a scheme in Esperanto. The basis is the combination of two parts into a short word. The first part is: i for the meaning "some-", ki for the question word, ti for the demonstrative word (this ...), chi for the meaning "every-" and neni for the meaning "no-".
The second part is: -u for people, -o for things, -e for places, -el for a way or method, -am for a time, and there are some more.
EDIT: the forum doesn't want to display the table correctly, so look at it on my site:
http://snow.prohosting.com/sprach/eo_tabelvortoj1.htm
This may look threatening at first, but once you understood the underlying concept, it can be used very intuitively and it is certainly easier than to learn these tiny words by heart. As I said, just have a glance at it now and we'll deal with the table in more depth in a later lesson.
How to use what you learned in Cantr? There are a lot of actions you can now take. Examples:
Vi prenas noton. = You take a note.
Vi formetas malnovan ostan tranchilon. = You drop an old bone knife. (Note the -n on all the adjectives and the noun!)
Vi donas uzatan martelon al Petro. = You give a used hammer to Peter.
Vi diras: "Mi havas lignon. Kiu shanghas lignon por spinaco?" = You say: "I have wood. Who exchanges wood for spinach?" (Note that ligno requires an -n because it's the object, but spinaco doesn't because it's behind a preposition)
Exercise:
Make more sentences about yourself: which languages do you speak or learn? What are you doing today? Feel free to experiment; there's not much you can do wrong now as long as you stay in the present tense.
Esperanto is very versatile.
