A Complete Grammar of Esperanto

by Ivy Kellerman Reed

IMPERSONAL VERBS.

50. Verbs with an impersonal or indeterminate subject, as "it rains," "it is snowing," are called impersonal, because there is no actual subject, the word "it" serving merely as an introductory particle. No such particle is used with impersonal verbs in Esperanto:

Pluvas, it rains, it is raining.
Neĝis hieraŭ, it snowed yesterday.

VERBS PRECEDING THEIR SUBJECTS.

51. When the verb in a sentence precedes its subject, English often uses an introductory particle, such as "there," "it." In Esperanto no such particles are needed:

Estas floroj sur la tablo, there are flowers on the table.
Estis Johano, ne Alfredo, en la ĝardeno, it was John, not Alfred, in the garden.
Estas domo en la kampo, there is a house in the field.
Estis mi, it was I.

COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS.

52. Words like aŭ, kaj, nek, sed, which join words, word-groups, or sentences together are conjunctions. All the conjunctions given so far connect words, phrases, or sentences of similar rank or kind. These are called coordinating conjunctions, and the words, phrases, or sentences connected by them are said to be coordinate:

Ĉu vi marŝas aŭ kuras?
(Aŭ connects the verbs.)

Ŝi iris, kaj ni estis feliĉaj.
(Kaj connects the sentences.)