PARTS OF SPEECH (Parolpartoj).
95. There are nine parts of speech in Esperanto, as found in most other languages, viz., the Article (Artikolo), Noun (Substantivo), Pronoun (Pronomo), Adjective (Adjektivo), Verb (Verbo), Adverb (Adverbo), Preposition (Prepozicio), Conjunction (Konjunkcio), Interjection (Interjekcio).
Nouns, derived adjectives and adverbs, and verbs have distinctive terminations. If a word ends in -O, it is a noun; if in -A, an adjective; if in -E, an adverb; if in -I, -U, -AS, -IS, -OS, or -US, a verb. If it ends in -N, it is in the accusative case, and if in -J, it is plural.
Examples.—Domo = a house. Facila = easy. Feliĉe = happily. Doni = to give (Infinitive). Batu lin = beat him (Imperative and Accusative). Mi vidas la homojn = I see the men (Present tense and Accusative plural). Vi diris = you said (Past tense). Ni iros = we shall go (Future tense). Se ili estus bonaj = If they were good (Conditional mood and plural adjective).
THE ARTICLE (La Artikolo).
96. There is no word in Esperanto for the Indefinite Article. It is, as in Latin, implied in the noun, if the sense in English requires it.
Examples.—Tio estas floro = That is a flower. Patrino kaj filo = Mother and son. Ĉu vi vidas birdon sur tiu arbo? = Do you see a bird on that tree?
97. The definite article is la = the. It is, as in English, the same for all genders, numbers, and cases.
Examples.—La patro = The father. La patrino = The mother. Donu al mi la libron = Give me the book. Ili estas la lernantoj diligentaj = They are the diligent scholars.
98. As regards its use, la is used very nearly as the definite article "the" in English, namely, to show that one is speaking of something known or definite, as opposed to what is indefinite.