neal@druny.UUCP (Neal D. McBurnett) (04/06/86)
I've run across many words in Esperanto which differ from the corresponding English words in the way they take the plural. Can anyone add to this list, comment further on the English semantics, or add examples from other languages? In the examples that follow, all you have to know is that all nouns in Esperanto are marked by the ending "o", and that plural nouns have a "j" after the "o". Several things are gramatically plural in English but singular in Esperanto. In order to discuss several of the objects in English, you have to use a form of measure: pairs of pants, bowls of oats pants pantalono sissors tran^cilo oats aveno The word "sheep" (^safo[j]) is different: the same word is used for the singular and the plural: only other words in the sentence indicate the number. The words "news" and "information" are strange: they are gramatically singular, but can be used to express notions which can be either singular or plural. E.g. in Esperanto you have to specify whether you are talking about a "piece of news" (nova^jo) or several distinct items of news (nova^joj). An example from a fascinating book "Lingvistikaj aspektoj de Esperanto" (Linguistical aspects of Esperanto) gives a humorous example of how confusing this can be. Compare the following three sentences. I ate a meal. The cow ate some meal. That was *some* meal! -Neal McBurnett, ihnp4!druny!neal