Contents

1 Introduction 2 Script and pronunciation 3 Vocabulary 4 The Article 5 Word endings 6 Pronouns 7 Prepositions 8 Verbs 8.1 Participles 9 Correlatives 10 Negatives 11 Questions 12 Conjunctions 13 Affixes 13.1 Suffixes 13.2 Prefixes 13.3 Compounds 14 Numbers 15 Comparisons 16 See also 17 External links

Introduction

Esperanto is a constructed auxiliary language with an agglutinative morphology, no grammatical gender, and simple verbal and nominal inflections. Although it is billed as an international language, Esperanto syntax, vocabulary, and semantics are thoroughly European. Verbs have four moods, of which the indicative has three tenses; they do not agree with the grammatical person or number of their subjects. Nouns and adjectives have two cases, nominative and accusative, and two numbers, singular and plural. Adjectives generally agree with nouns in case and number. In addition to indicating direct objects, the accusative case is used with nouns, adjectives and adverbs to show the destination of a motion, or to replace certain prepositions; the nominative is used in all other situations. The case system allows for a flexible word order, as in Russian, Greek, or Latin.

A logical structure makes Esperanto easier to learn than most of the world's languages, even for non-Europeans, though particular features may be more or less advantageous to speakers of different language backgrounds. The grammar is very nearly regular, the alphabet phonemic (meaning that words are pronounced as they are written and vice versa), the parts of speech have distinctive word endings (-o for nouns, -a for adjectives, etc.), and the morphology is so straightforward that new words may be coined on the spot and readily understood.

Script and pronunciation

The script is modeled after the Czech alphabet, but with circumflexes instead of hačeks on the letters ĉ, ĝ, ĥ, ĵ, ŝ; and with ĝ, ĵ instead of Slavic dž, ž. The letter ǔ was taken from the Belarusian Łacinka alphabet. These accented letters have simple ASCII conversions. (See Esperanto orthography.)

The consonantal phonemes are those of Polish or especially Belarusian, minus the palatalized consonants, and the vocalic phonemes are also those of Belarusian, minus y and the more difficult diphthongs such as oǔ, but Italian is given as the model for pronunciation. (See Esperanto phonology and pronunciation.)

Vocabulary

Most Esperanto root words is taken from languages of the Italic and Germanic families of Indo-European. The main languages contributing to the original core vocabulary were French, Italian (or generic Romance), English, and German, the modern languages most widely learned in schools around the world at the time Esperanto was devised, with a few words taken directly from Latin (sed "but", tamen "however", and parts of the body such as brako "arm", okulo "eye") and Classical Greek (kaj "and", pri "about", and the plural suffix -j), as well as Russian and Polish (barakti "to flounder", celo "aim, goal", ĉu "whether", klopodi "to take steps", kolbaso "sausage", krom "except", nepre "without fail", prava "right [in opinion]", svati "to matchmake", vosto "tail"), Lithuanian (tuj "immediately", ju [see below]), and Hebrew (the jussive mood in -u). Modern international vocabulary, much of it Latin or Greek in origin, is of course used as well, but frequently for a group of related words only one will be borrowed directly, with the rest derived from it using Esperanto means of word formation. For example, the computer term bit was borrowed directly as bito, but bitoko (byte) was then derived from bito with the numeral ok (eight).

The Article

Esperanto has a single invariable definite article, la, which is used basically as English the. However, the article is used instead of a possessive pronoun for inalienable possession such as body parts and kin terms: li tranĉis la manon (he cut his hand [or] he cut himself on the hand).

There is no grammatically required indefinite article: homo means either human being or a human being, depending on the context. The words iu and unu may be used somewhat like an indefinite article, but they're closer in meaning to "some" and "a certain" than to English "a".

Word endings

The suffixes -o, -a, -e, and -i make a word a noun, adjective, adverb, and infinitive verb, respectively. Many words can be derived simply by changing these suffixes: From vidi (to see), we get vida (visual), vide (visually), and vido (sight).

A suffix -j following the noun or adjective suffixes (forming a diphthong) makes a word plural. Direct objects take a case suffix -n, which goes after the plural suffix, if any.

Adjectives are plural if the nouns they describe are plural. The same goes for the accusative. Compare bonajn tagojn (correct) "[I wish you] good days" with ^*bona tagojn (incorrect). Zamenhof later regretted making this requirement, but it allows for the free word order of adjective-noun and noun-adjective, even when two noun phrases are adjacent in subject-object-verb etc. clauses:

• Noun Adjective-n Noun-n Verb (adjective-noun order, the adjective is in the object noun phrase):

la knabino feliĉan knabon kisis (the girl kissed a happy boy)

• Noun Adjective Noun-n Verb (noun-adjective order, the adjective is in the subject noun phrase):

la knabino feliĉa knabon kisis (the happy girl kissed a boy)

Agreement clarifies the syntax in other ways as well. Adjectives take the plural ending when they modify more than one noun, even if those nouns are all singular: ruĝaj domo kaj aŭto (a red house and [a red] car) versus ruĝa domo kaj aŭto (a red house and a car). A predicative adjective does not take the accusative case even when the noun it modifies does: mi farbis la pordon ruĝan (I painted the red door) versus mi farbis la pordon ruĝa (I painted the door red).

A limited number of adverbs do not end with -e, but with an indefinite part-of-speech ending -aŭ. Most of these words are used as several parts of speech in addition to being adverbs, such as hodiaŭ "today" [noun or adverb] or ankoraŭ "yet, still" [conjunction or adverb], and people would find it difficult to use an adverbial suffix consistantly. Other adverbs are bare roots, such as nun "now", tro "too [much]", and many of the correlatives. (See special Esperanto adverbs).

Otherwise, the parts of speech which occur as bare roots are pronouns [mi (I)], prepositions [al (to)], conjunctions [kaj (and)], interjections [ho (oh)], numerals [du (two)], and several "particles" which must generally precede the words they modify, such as ne (not), ankaŭ (also), nur (only), eĉ (even).

Pronouns

The Esperanto personal pronoun system is similar to that of English, but with the addition of the reflexive pronoun of the Romance languages.

		singular	plural
first-person		mi (I)	ni (we)
second-person		vi (you)
third-person	masculine	li (he)	ili (they)
	feminine	ŝi (she)
	neuter	ĝi (it, s/he)
indefinite		oni (one)	-
reflexive		si (self)

Pronouns take the accusative suffix -n like nouns: min (me), lin (him), ŝin (her). Possessive pronouns are formed with the adjectival suffix -a: mia (my), ĝia (its), nia (our). These agree with their noun like any other adjective: ni salutis liajn amikojn (we greeted his friends). The "mine" form of the pronouns is generally indicated with the definite article: la mia.

The reflexive pronoun is used in non-subject phrases to refer to back to the subject, usually only in the third and indefinite persons: li lavis sin (he washed [himself]); li manĝis sian panon (he ate his [own] bread) — compare li manĝis lian panon (he ate his [someone else's] bread).

Zamenhof also proposed an informal second-person singular pronoun ci (thou), parallel to most European languages, but it is rarely used.

The demonstrative and relative pronouns form part of the correlative system.

Prepositions

Although Esperanto word order is fairly free, prepositions must come at the beginning of a noun phrase. Whereas in languages such as German, prepositions may require a noun to be in various cases (accusative, dative, etc.), in Esperanto all prepositions govern the nominative: por Johano (for John). The only "exception" is when a preposition is replaced by the accusative.

Prepositions should be used according to their dictionary definitions. When no one preposition is clearly correct, the indefinite preposition je may be used: ili iros je la tria de majo (they'll go on the third of May: the "on" isn't literally true).

Alternatively, the accusative may be used without a preposition: ili iros la trian de majo. The accusative may stand in for other prepositions as well; it is especially common when there would otherwise be a double preposition with al (to): la kato ĉasis la muson en la domo (the cat chased the mouse in [inside] the house); la kato ĉasis la muson en la domon (the cat chased the mouse into the house).

As a bare root may indicate a preposition or interjection, removing the grammatical suffix from a root can derive a preposition or interjection from another part of speech. From fari (to make) we get the preposition far (by), a more precise substitute for de (of, by, from).

Verbs

All verb inflections are regular. Tenses are formed using a for the present, i for the past, and o for the future. There is no need to change the verb form to agree with the subject. For example, "I am", "we are", and "he is" translate into mi estas, ni estas, and li estas respectively.

Esperanto verb forms

	Indicative	Active participle	Passive participle	Infinitive	Jussive	Conditional
Past	-is	-inta	-ita	-i	-u	-us
Present	-as	-anta	-ata
Future	-os	-onta	-ota

The verbal forms may be illustrated with the root esper- (hope):

esperi (to hope)

esperas (hopes, is hoping)

esperis (hoped, was hoping)

esperos (shall hope, will hope)

esperu (hope!)

esperus (were to hope, would hope)

A verb can be made emphatic with the particle ja (indeed): mi ja esperas (I do hope).

The jussive mood, also called the volitive, is used for wishing and requesting, and serves as the imperative. It covers some of the uses of the subjunctive in European languages:

Iru! (Go!)

Mi petis, ke li venu. (I asked him to come.)

Li venu. (Let him come.)

Ni iru. (Let's go.)

Benu tiun domaĉon (Bless this mess.)

The verb esti (to be) is both the copula and the existential verb . As a copula linking two noun phrases, it does not cause either to take the accusative case. Therefore, unlike the situation with other verbs, word order with esti can be semantically important: compare hundoj estas personoj (dogs are people) and personoj estas hundoj (people are dogs).

It is becoming increasingly common to replace esti-plus-adjective with a verb: la ĉielo estas blua or la ĉielo bluas (the sky is blue). This is a stylistic rather than grammatical change in the language, as the more economical verbal forms were always found in poetry.

Participles

Participles are verbal derivatives. Compound verb forms are formed from adjectival participles with esti (to be) as the auxiliary verb:

• Present imperfective: mi estas kaptanta (I am catching), mi estas kaptata (I am caught)
• Present perfect: mi estas kaptinta (I have caught), mi estas kaptita (I have been caught)
• Present predicative: mi estas kaptonta (I am going to/about to catch), mi estas kaptota (I am going to be/about to be caught)

The tense and mood of esti can be changed: mi estis kaptinta (I had caught), mi estus kaptonta (I would be about to catch), mi estos kaptanta (I will be catching). The option of replacing esti + adjective with a verb holds for the participles as well, with the tense reflecting the tense of the auxiliary: mi kaptintas (I have caught), mi kaptintis (I had caught).

Adjectival participles agree with nouns, as any other adjectives do: ili ŝparis la arbojn hakotajn (they spared the trees that were to be chopped down), from haki (to chop [down]).

Participles may be turned into adverbs or nouns by replacing the adjectival suffix -a with -e or -o. This means that, in Esperanto, some nouns may be inflected for tense.

Adverbial participles are used with subjectless clauses: Kaptinte la pilkon, li kuris golen (Having caught the ball, he ran for the goal).

A nominal participle indicates one who participates in the action specified by the verbal root. For example, esperinto is a "hoper" (past tense), or one who had been hoping. Occasionally this system will be extended to include conditional participles, with the vowel u (-unt-, -ut-). This can be illustrated with the verb prezidi (to preside):

Just after the recount of the 2000 US presidential election, Clinton was still prezidanto, Bush Jr was declared prezidonto, Bush Sr was the last prezidinto, and Gore was prezidunto ("The Man Who Would be King" - that is, if the recount had gone differently).

The three indicative forms may be subsumed under the term prezidento (president), if the speaker doesn't wish to specify the tense.

Correlatives

The correlatives are used to ask and answer the questions what, how, why, etc. The correlatives beginning with "ki-" have a double function, as questioning and as relative pronouns or conjunctions (just as the words "who", "which", "why", etc. do in English).

Esperanto correlatives

		Interrogative (What)	Demonstrative (That)	Indefinite (Some)	Universal (Every)	Negative (No)
		ki-	ti-	i-	ĉi-	neni-
Quality	-a	kia	tia	ia	ĉia	nenia
Reason	-al	kial	tial	ial	ĉial	nenial
Time	-am	kiam	tiam	iam	ĉiam	neniam
Place	-e	kie	tie	ie	ĉie	nenie
Manner	-el	kiel	tiel	iel	ĉiel	neniel
Possession	-es	kies	ties	ies	ĉies	nenies
Thing	-o	kio	tio	io	ĉio	nenio
Quantity	-om	kiom	tiom	iom	ĉiom	neniom
Individual	-u	kiu	tiu	iu	ĉiu	neniu

Several adverbs are used primarily with the correlatives: ajn indicates generality, ĉi indicates proximity, and for indicates distance. The accusative is commonly used with the place correlatives (-ien) to indicate direction of motion.

Some examples

kiu (who, which)

kio (what)

kio ajn (whatever)

io (something)

io ajn (anything)

tio (that [general])

tiu (that one)

tiu ĉi (this one)

tiu for (that one yonder)

ĉiam (always, all the time)

neniel (nohow, no way)

iom (some [amount], a bit)

tial (thus, for that reason)

tia (such a)

nenies (no one's)

tie (there)

tien ĉi (hither [to here])

It's not uncommon to see the correlative system extended to the root ali- (other), at least when the resulting word is unambiguous: aliam (another time).

Examples of the interrogative versus relative uses of the "ki-" words:

Kiu ŝtelis mian ringon? (Who stole my ring?)

La polico ne kaptis la ŝteliston, kiu ŝtelis mian ringon. (The police haven't caught the thief who stole my ring.)

Kiel vi faris tion? (How did you do that?)

Mi ne scias, kiel fari tion. (I don't know how to do that.)

Kia viro li estas? (What kind of man is he?)

Kia viro! (What a man!)

Note that standard Esperanto punctuation puts a comma before the relative word (a correlative in ki- or the conjunction ke, "that").

Various parts of speech may be derived from the correlatives, just as from any other roots: ĉiama (eternal), ĉiea (ubiquitous), tiama (contemporary), kialo (a reason), iomete (a little bit).

Negatives

A statement is made negative by using ne or one of the negative (neni-) correlatives. As in English, but unlike the Romance languages, double negatives cancel each other out:

Mi ne faris ion ajn. I didn't do anything.

Mi ne faris nenion ajn would mean "it wasn't nothing that I did" — that is, that I did do something. Such usage is normally avoided.

The word ne comes before the word it negates, with the default position being before the verb:

Mi ne skribis tion (I didn't write that)

Ne mi skribis tion (I didn't write that) [It wasn't me who wrote that]

Mi skribis ne tion (I didn't write that) [It wasn't that that I wrote]

Questions

"Wh" questions are asked with one of the interrogative (ki-) correlatives. They commonly are placed at the beginning of the sentence, but different word orders are allowed for stress:

Kion vi faris? (What did you do?)

Vi faris kion? (You did what?)

Yes/no questions are asked with the conjunction ĉu (whether):

Mi ne scias, ĉu li venos (I don't know whether he'll come)

Ĉu li venos? (Will he come?)

Such questions can be answered jes (yes) or ne (no) in the European fashion of aligning with the polarity of the answer, or ĝuste (correct) or malĝuste (incorrect) in the Japanese fashion of aligning with the polarity of the question:

Ĉu vi ne iris? (Didn't you go?)

— Ne, mi ne iris (No, I didn't go); — Jes, mi iris (Yes, I went)

— Ĝuste, mi ne iris (Correct, I didn't go); — Malĝuste, mi iris (No, I did go)

Conjunctions

Basic Esperanto conjunctions are kaj (both/and), aŭ (either/or), nek (neither/nor), se (if), ĉu (whether/or), sed (but), anstataŭ (instead of), krom (besides, in addition to), kiel (like, as). Like prepositions, they precede the phrase they modify:

Mi vidis kaj lin kaj lian amikon (I saw both him and his friend)

Estis nek hele nek agrable (it was neither clear [sunny] nor pleasant)

ĉu pro kaprico, ĉu pro natura lingvo-evoluo (whether by whim, or by natural language development)

However, unlike prepositions, they allow the accusative case, as in the following example from Don Harlow:

Li traktis min kiel reĝidon (He treated me like a prince: i.e., as if I were a prince)

Li traktis min kiel reĝido (He treated me like a prince: i.e., as if he were one)

Affixes

Esperanto uses a large number lexical as well as grammatical affixes (prefixes and suffixes). This decreases the number of words that must be learned, as it allows for the expansion of a relatively small number of basic roots into a large vocabulary.

One of the most immediately useful affixes for the beginner is the prefix mal-, which derives antonyms: peza (heavy), malpeza (light); supren (upwards), malsupren (downwards); ami (love), malami (hate); lumo (light), mallumo (darkness).

When a root receives more than one affix, the order does matter, as affixes on the outside modify the entire stem they're attached to. That is, the outer affixes modify the inner ones. Most affixes, like roots, have an inherent part of speech, and this are indicated with suffixes in the table below by the final vowel. A few do not affect the part of speech of the root, and these are indicated with a hyphen in place of the final vowel.

Lexical affixes may act as roots by taking one of the grammatical suffixes: mala (opposite), eta (slight), ano (a member), umo (a thingumbob), eble (possibly), iĝi (to become). Also, through compounding, roots may act as affixes: vidi (to see), povi (to be able to), vidpova (able to see, not blind). It is quite common for prepositions to be used as prefixes: alveni (to arrive), from al (to) and veni (come); senespera (hopeless), from sen (without) and espero (hope), etc.

Suffixes

-aĉ-	indicating dirtyness or contemptuousness	rigardaĉi (to gape at); veteraĉo (fowl weather)
-ado, -adi	an action or process (as a noun); frequent, repeated, or continual action (as a verb)	kuradi (to keep on running); parolado (a speech)
-aĵo	a concrete manifestation	manĝaĵo (food, from 'eat'); novaĵo (news, novelty)
-ano	a member, follower, participant, inhabitant	kristano (a Christian); marksano (a Marxist); usonano (a US American) [cf. amerikano (a continental American)]
-aro	a group that's more than the sum of its parts	arbaro (a forest, from 'tree'); vortaro (a dictionary, from 'word')
-ĉjo	affectionate form of masculine proper nouns; the root name is often shortened by one to five letters	Joĉjo (Jack); paĉjo (daddy); fraĉjo (bro)
-ebla	possible	kredebla (credible); videbla (visible)
-eco	an abstract quality	amikeco (friendship); boneco (goodness)
-eg-	great size, intense degree [augmentative]	domego (a mansion); librego (a tome); varmega (boiling hot); ridegi (to guffaw)
-ejo	a place for a purpose	lernejo (a school, from 'learn'); vendejo (a store, from 'sell')
-ema	having a propensity, tendency	ludema (playful); parolema (talkative)
-enda	mandatory	pagenda (payable), leg-end-aĵo (required reading)
-ero	the smallest part	ĉenero (a link, from 'chain'); fajero (a spark, from 'fire'); neĝero (a snowflake, from 'snow')
-estro	a leader, boss	lernejestro (a school principal); urbestro (a mayor)
-et-	smallness, slight degree [diminutive]	dometo (a hut); libreto (a booklet); varmeta (lukewarm); rideti (to smile)
-ido	an offspring	katido (a kitten); reĝido (a prince); arbido (a sapling)
-igi	to make, to cause to become [transitivizer]	mortigi (to kill, from 'die'); purigi (to clean, from 'clean')
-iĝi	to become [intransitivizer]	amuziĝi (to enjoy oneself); naskiĝi (to be born)
-ilo	a tool, instrument	ludilo (a toy, from 'play'); tranĉilo (a knife, from 'cut')
-ino	feminine	bovino (a cow); patrino (a mother)
-inda	worthy of	memorinda (memorable); vidinda (worth seeing)
-ingo	a holder, sheath	glavingo (a scabbard); kandelingo (a candle-holder)
-ismo	a doctrine, system (as in English)	komunismo (Communism); kristanismo (Christianity)
-isto	person professionally or avocationally occupied with an idea or activity (a narrower use than in English)	instruisto (teacher); dentisto (dentist)
-njo	affectionate form of feminine proper nouns; the root name is often shortened by one to five letters	Jonjo (Joanie); panjo (mommy); franjo (sis)
-obla	multiple	duobla (double); trioble (triply)
-ono	fraction	duona (half [of]); centono (one hundredth)
-ope	collective numeral	duope (by twos); gutope (drop by drop)
-ujo	a (loose) container, country (archaic in this sense)	monujo (a purse, from 'money'); Anglujo (England [more often Anglio in current usage])
-ulo	a person possessing a quality or characteristic	junulo (a youth); riĉulo (a rich person)
-um-	indefinite suffix indicating some relation with the root	kolumo (a collar, from 'neck'); krucumi (to crucify, from 'cross'); malvarmumo (a cold, from 'cold'); plenumi (to fulfill, from 'full')

Some examples:

  amantino        a lover (female)
  aminda        lovable
  ameme        lovingly
  malameti        to feel distaste for

  Esperantujo        "Esperantoland" (wherever Esperanto is being spoken)
  esperiga           hopeful (of a situation: inspiring hope)
  esperema           hopeful (of a person: tending to hope)
  esperantaĉo        broken Esperanto
  esperantano           an Esperantist

A small number of noun roots, mostly titles and kinship terms, are inherently masculine unless the feminine suffix -in- is added. Some people avoid this by using an unofficial masculine suffix -iĉ- alongside -in-, with the root being made neuter: patro (parent), patrino (mother), patriĉo (father), panjo (mama), paĉjo (papa). Another option is to use the prefix ge- in the singular for the neuter.

Prefixes

bo-	relation by marriage, -in-law	bopatrino (a mother-in-law); bofrato (a brother-in-law)
ĉef-	head, chief	ĉefurbo (a capital); ĉefministro (a prime minister)
dis-	separation, scattering	disĵeti (to throw about); dissendi (to distribute)
ek-	beginning of action, sudden or momentary action	ekbrili (to flash); ekkrii (to shout out)
eks-	former, ex-	eksedzo (an ex-husband); eksprezidanto (a former president)
ge-	both sexes together	gepatroj (parents); gesinjoroj (ladies and gentlemen); la geZamenhofoj (the Zamenhofs); gelernejo (a coeducational school)
mal-	opposite	malgranda (small); malriĉa (poor)
mis-	incorrectly, amiss	misloki (to misplace); miskompreni (to misunderstand)
pra-	great-(grand-), ancient	praavo (a great-grandfather); prapatro (a forefather); prabesto (a prehistoric beast)
re-	over again, back again	resendi (to send back); rekonstrui (to rebuild)

ge- is clasically used only with plurals, as in the examples above. The use of ge- in the singular to mean "of unspecified gender" with the few roots that are inherently masculine, e.g. gepatro (parent) from patro (father) or geedzo (spouse) from edzo (husband), is not universally accepted. Another option is to use the unofficial masculine suffix -iĉ-.

These affixes may be used in novel ways, creating new words that don't exist in any national language. Sometimes the results are poetic: In one Esperanto novel, a man opens an old book with a broken spine, and the yellowed pages disliberiĝas [from the root libera (free) and the affixes dis- and -iĝ-]. There is no equivalent way to express this in English, but it creates a very strong visual image of the pages escaping the book and scattering over the floor. More importantly, the word is instantly comprehensible the first time one hears it.

Compounds

Compound nouns in Esperanto are similar to English, in that the final root is basic to the meaning. The roots may be used in their bare form, or with the nominal suffix -o:

kantobirdo (a songbird) versus birdokanto (a birdsong)

velŝipo (a sailship) versus ŝipvelo (a ship sail)

centjaro (a centennial [a year of a hundred]) versus jarcento (a century [a hundred of years])

Numbers

The cardinal numerals are:

nul (zero)

unu (one)

du (two)

tri (three)

kvar (four)

kvin (five)

ses (six)

sep (seven)

ok (eight)

naŭ (nine)

dek (ten)

cent (one hundred)

mil (one thousand)

As in English, there are several systems for numerals above million. A British billion and a US billion are different (10¹² vs 10⁹), and Esperanto biliono is likewise ambiguous. However, there is a third, unambiguous system:

10⁶: miliono

10⁹: miliardo (or mil milionoj)

10¹²: duiliono

10¹⁵: duiliardo (or mil duilionoj)

10¹⁸: triiliono

10²¹: triiliardo (or mil triilionoj)

etc.

Numerals are written as one word when their values are multiplied, and as two when added (dudek 20, dek du 12, dudek du 22). Ordinals are formed with the adjectival suffix -a, multiples with -obl-, fractions with -on-, and collectives with -op-.

sescent sepdek kvin (675)

tria (third [as in first, second, third])

duobla (double)

kvarono (one fourth, a quarter)

duope (by twos)

The preposition po is used to mark distributive numbers, i.e., the idea of distributing a certain number of items to each member of a group: mi donis al ili po tri pomojn (I gave them three apples each). [Note that po tri behaves as a unit, and unlike other prepositions, does not prevent pomojn from taking the accusative.]

Comparisons

Comparisons are made with the adverbial correlatives tiel ... kiel (as ... as), the adverbial roots pli (more) and plej (most), the antonym prefix mal-, and the preposition ol (than):

mi skribas tiel bone kiel vi (I write as well as you)

tiu estas pli bona ol tiu (this one is better than that one)

tio estas la plej bona (that's the best)

la mia estas malpli multekosta ol la via (mine is less expensive than yours)

Implied comparisons are made with tre (very) and tro (too [much]).

Phrases like "The more people, the smaller the portions" and "All the better!" are translated using ju and des in place of "the":

Ju pli da homoj, des malpli grandaj la porcioj.

Des pli bone!

See also

Esperanto orthography

Esperanto pronunciation

Riism

External links

A fairly good overview of Esperanto's grammar and word-building system can be gained by viewing "The Sixteen Rules of Esperanto", "The Esperanto Correlatives" and "Word Building With Esperanto Affixes"

Also see Jiri Hana's Master thesis overview of Esperanto:

"Esperanto Grammar"