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What is Esperanto

WHAT IS ESPERANTO?
Esperanto is an international language which does not belong to any particular nation. It was designed to allow direct communication between people. It is easy to learn, and has no exceptions. One page is sufficient to specify all the rules of its grammar (as you can see below).
ISN'T ENGLISH THE INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE TODAY?
Well, not exactly:
 - Only 7% of the world population speak English as a mother tongue, while additional 7% have studied the language to a level of basic conversation.
 - In most of the countries, apart from tourist cities, the residents don’t speak English at all.
 - English is a language which is difficult to learn, with a large vocabulary and many exceptions and irregularities. It’s quite difficult to learn it to a high level.
 - In any meeting with English-speaking people, they enjoy an advantage – they have a perfect accent and a complete language mastery. When it comes to Esperanto, everyone is equal, everyone is at the same starting point, no one has an advantage over the others. For instance, Esperanto has no accent – everyone speaks it using the accent of their own national language.
WHY SHOULD I LEARN ESPERANTO? 
 - Because there’s beauty in the simple but sophisticated and accurate structure of the language.
 - Because you can meet through it people from all over the world – and speak with them directly, without any mediating language, as equals – whether on the Internet or in a face-to-face meeting.
 - Because Esperanto attracts interesting people, all with a common denominator – their choice of the language.
 - Because it allows creating and enjoying original works – literature, poetry, music – especially for people whose national language is not widespread around the world.
 - Because you can participate in international meetings of Esperanto  speakers, and no translators are needed. There’s a large conference, or congress, every year, each time in another place in the world, as well as a lot of other smaller meetings.
 - Because you can travel around the world, enjoying the hospitality of Esperanto speakers at their own homes.
 - Because after you learn Esperanto, it is much easier to learn other national languages.
IS IT REALLY THAT SIMPLE TO LEARN ESPERANTO?
The language is easy to learn due to the following:
 - Simple rules of grammar
 - Every word is pronounced the way it is written. Dictations are pointless in Esperanto.
 - There are no exceptions or irregularities
 - The language is based on roots from which you can construct many words using a system of prefixes and suffixes. This way you can learn a large vocabulary relatively easily.
 - The Esperanto vocabulary is based on the European languages, but it also includes words from other languages.
 - The sound of the language is pleasant to the ear – it’s something between Spanish and Italian.
 - However, it’s still a language just like any other language in the world. Basic mastery of Esperanto can be achieved approximately ten times faster than mastery of English, for instance. But in order to achieve full mastery, you should invest time and effort.

IS THERE ANY ESPERANTO ACTIVITY ON THE INTERNET?
Esperanto flourishes on the web. The language is  ideal  for the web – because it allows direct communication with people all over the world, without any  intermediate  language. There are websites, blogs, forums, podcasts, YouTube channels – all in Esperanto. There’s Wikipedia in Esperanto. In the Telegram messaging program, there are over 1,000 messages per day in the general Esperanto group, with activity taking place around the clock. Once they used to say that the sun never sets in the British Empire. It’s no longer true for a long time. But it can definitely be said about Esperanto, whose speakers practically reside all over the world.
BUT... IS IT RAELLY A REAL LANGUAGE THAT YOU CAN EXPRESS EVERYTHING WITH? DOES IT HAVE WORDS FOR ANYTHING?
Of course. It can be proved by the fact that many children grow up with it as their mother tongue. It has slang, jokes, songs, folklore, newspapers and magazines, literary contests, you name it.

GIVE ME ONE SENTENCE IN ESPERANTO
Well, let’s start with the most important sentence: I love you – Mi amas vin.
SO HOW CAN I LEARN ESPERANTO?
Everyone can find the way that suits them. Nowadays, it’s very common to learn Esperanto on the Internet and using the smartphone. Everything is free of charge, of course:
	Duolingo
	Lernu
Here is a brief Esperanto grammar (but this is almost all...):

1. There is no indefinite article (English a, an); there is only a definite article "la", alike for all genders, cases and numbers (English the).
Monto (mountain). La monto (the mountain). Hejmo (home). La hejmo (The home).

2. Every word is read as it is written.

3. The accent always falls on the next-to-last syllable (vowel).

4. Personal pronouns: mi (I), vi (you), li (he), ŝi (she, pronounced the same), ĝi (it, pronounced like in giraffe), ni (we), ili (they).
Libro (book). Mia libro (my book). Via libro (your book).

5. All nouns end in -o. To form the plural, add the ending -j (pronounced "y"). 
Vorto (word), Vortoj (words). Hejmo (home, pronounced hey-mo), hejmoj (homes).

6. All adjectives end in -a. To form the plural, add the ending -j (pronounced "y").
Forta vento (strong wind). Fortaj ventoj (strong winds).

7. All Adverbs end in -e.
Vero (truth), Vere (really - pronounced ve-re, as written!).

8. The verb does not change for person or number:
Voli (to want).
Mi volis (I wanted).
Mi volas (I want).
Mi volos (I will want).
Mi volus (I wish I wanted).
Volu! (want! a command).
Li kantas bone (He sings well).

9. The basic numerals (not declined) are: unu (1), du (2), tri (3), kvar (4), kvin (5), ses (6), sep (7), ok (8), naŭ (9), dek (10), cent (100), mil (1000).
Dek du (12), Dudek (20), Cent dudek tri (123).

10. The accusative ends in -n:
Mi amas vin (I love you) = Vin amas mi.

11. The ending n also describes time or direction:
Kie (where). iri (to go).  Kien vi iras? (Where do you go to?)
Mi iras hejmen (I'm going home).

Esperanto has an exceptionally simple way to learn a whole set of very important and useful words - look at the "Correlatives" button below.

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Correlatives

Esperanto has a simple way to learn a whole set of very important and useful words. The way to create any of the words is to take one of the 5 beginnings, shown at the top of each column (in yellow), and add that to one of the endings, shown in the rows at the left (in light blue).
		What	That	Some	Each	No
		ki-	ti-	i-	ĉi-	neni-
Noun	-o	kio (what)	tio (that)	io (something)	ĉio (everthing)	nenio (nothing)
Person	-u	kiu (who)	tiu (that)	iu (someone)	ĉiu (everyone)	neniu (no one)
Kind of	-a	kia (what kind)	tia (such a)	ia (some kind of)	ĉia (every kind of)	nenia (no kind of)
Reason	-al	kial (why)	tial (therefore)	ial (for some reason)	ĉial (for all reasons)	nenial (for no reason)
Time	-am	kiam (when)	tiam (then)	iam (sometime)	ĉiam (always)	neniam (never)
Place	-e	kie (where)	tie (there)	ie (somewhere)	ĉie (everywhere)	nenie (nowhere)
Manner	-el	kiel (how)	tiel (thus, so)	iel (somehow)	ĉiel (in every way)	neniel (in no way)
Possessive	-el	kies (whose)	ties (its)	ies (someone's)	ĉies (everyone's)	nenies (no one's)
Amount	-om	kiom (how much)	tiom (that much)	iom (some, a bit)	ĉiom (all)	neniom (none)
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