This particle may be considered the equivalent of the initial mark of interrogation used in Spanish, and serves to remove all complications in connexion with word order.

EsperantoEnglishFrenchGerman
amantalovingaimantliebend
amintahaving lovedayant aiméder geliebt hat
amontaabout to lovedevant aimerder lieben wird
amatabeing lovedétant aiméder geliebt wird
amita(having been) loved(ayant été) aiméder geliebt worden ist
amotaabout to be loveddevant être aiméder geliebt werden soll
mi estas amintaI have lovedj'ai aiméich habe geliebt
vi estis amintayou had lovedvous aviez aiméSie hatten geliebt
li estas amantahe is lovingil est aimanter ist liebend
ŝi estis amatashe was being lovedelle était en train d'être aiméesie war im Zuge geliebt zu werden
ni estos amintajwe shall have lovednous aurons aiméwir werden geliebt haben
vi estas amatajyou are lovedvous êtes aimésSie werden geliebt
ili estas amitajthey have been lovedils ont été aiméssie sind geliebt worden
mi estus amintaI should have lovedj'aurais aiméich würde geliebt haben
vi estus amitayou would have been lovedvous auriez été aiméSie würden geliebt worden sein
li estas foririntahe has gone awayil s'en est alléer ist fortgegangen
ili estus foririntajthey would have gone awayil s'en seraient alléssie würden fortgegangen sein

This chapter on labour-saving may fitly conclude with an estimate of the amount of mere memorizing work to be done in Esperanto. Since this is almost nil for grammar, syntax, and idiom, and since there are no irregularities or exceptions, the memory work is, broadly speaking, reduced to learning the affixes, the table of correlatives, and a certain number of new roots. This number is astonishingly small. Here is an estimate made by Prof. Macloskie, of Princeton, U.S.A.:

Number of roots new to an English boy without Latin, about 600*
"""""with""300
"""a college teacher"100

*i.e. about one-third of the whole number in the Fundamento.

IV

how esperanto can be used as a code language to communicate with persons who have never learnt it

Technically speaking, Esperanto combines the characteristics of an inflected language with those of an agglutinative one. This means that the syllables used as inflexions (-o, -a, -e, -as, -is, -os, -ant-, -int-, -ont-, etc.), being invariable and of universal application, can also be regarded as separate words. And as separate words they all figure in the dictionary, under their initial letters. Thus anything written in Esperanto can be deciphered by the simple process of looking out words and parts of words in the dictionary. For examples, see pieces 1 and 2 in the [specimens of Esperanto], and read the Note at the beginning of [Part IV]. As the Esperanto dictionary only consists