LESSON 26.
The following words, which have already been used in the previous lessons, are always placed before nouns or pronouns, to show the relation (of position, etc.) between the thing for which the noun stands and another thing or an action.
| al, to, towards. apud, beside, near, by. da, of (indefinite quantity). de, of from, by. el, out of. en, in, into, within. ekster, outside. ĝis, until, till, as far as. inter, between, among. kontraŭ, against, opposite. kun, (in company) with. | laŭ, according to. per, by means of, with. post, after, behind. pri, concerning, about. por, for, for the sake of. sen, without. super, above, over. sur, on, upon. tra, through. trans, across, on the other side. je, (has no definite meaning). |
(These words are called Prepositions, which means placed before).
The other simple prepositions are—
| anstataŭ, instead of. antaŭ, before. ĉe, at, with. ĉirkaŭ, about, around. krom, besides, except. malgraŭ, notwithstanding, in spite of. | po, at the rate of. pro, for (cause), owing to. preter, past, beyond, by. spite, in despite of. sub, under. |
The prepositions anstataŭ, antaŭ (ol), and por are also used before Infinitive verbs, as anstataŭ diri, instead of saying (to say); antaŭ ol paroli, before speaking; por lerni, in order to learn.
In Esperanto all the prepositions except "je" have a definite meaning, and care must be taken to use the one which conveys the exact sense. The same word cannot be used for "with" in the two sentences "He went with his father" and "He cut it with a knife," or for "about" in "He spoke about his child" and "They stood about the stove." In the first example "with" his father is "kun", in company with, Li iris kun sia patro, and "with" a knife is "per", by means of, Li tranĉis ĝin per tranĉilo. "About," in "about his child," is "pri," concerning, Li parolis pri sia infano, but "about," in "about the stove," is "ĉirkaŭ," around, Ili staris ĉirkaŭ la forno.
When we cannot decide which is the correct preposition to use in any case, we may use "je," the only preposition which has no special meaning of its own, or the preposition may be left out altogether, and "n" added to the noun or pronoun, provided that no want of clearness ensue (see Lesson 27), as Mi ridas pro lia naiveco, or, Mi ridas je lia naiveco, or, Mi ridas lian naivecon, I laugh at his simplicity.
When we wish to express "motion towards" something, and the preposition does not of itself express it, n is added to the noun or pronoun, as in the case of adverbs (see Lesson 12), Li estas en la domo, He is in the house; but, Li iras en la domon, He is going into the house.