Use of Accusative.
When there is no ambiguity to be feared, the preposition je, and even other prepositions, are often omitted in Esperanto; and the word to which the preposition, if expressed, would have referred is put into the accusative. Thus, instead of saying li ridas je mi (he is laughing at me), one might say li ridas min; similarly, du metrojn alta would stand for alta je du metroj. Ĝi kostis je tri ŝilingoj is more usually expressed: ĝi kostis tri ŝilingojn. Mi restis tie dum kvin horoj (I stayed there for five hours) could be: mi restis tie kvin horojn; and so on.
Certain prepositions, viz., antaŭ, before, ĉe, at, en, in, sub, under, sur, on, kontraŭ, against, super, over, and trans, across, are often used to denote movement towards, whereas of themselves they only express rest at. In order to make it quite clear whether motion or rest is intended, use is made of the accusative. Thus: li promenis en la urbo, he took a walk in the city; but li promenis en la urbon, he took a walk into the city. Li kuris antaŭ mi, he ran (along) before or in front of me; but li paŝis antaŭ min, he stepped in front of me; and so on.
Adverbs are sometimes used with prepositional force. Thus: proksime de la domo, near the house; dekstre de la arbo, on the right of the tree, etc.
The Conjunction.
A full list of Conjunctions will be found on page [72]. The following constructions should be noted:
Tenses after Ke (that).
- Mi vidis, ke ŝi ploras, I saw (that) she was crying.
- Mi sciis, ke li venos, I knew that he would come.
- Mi sciis, ke li jam alvenis, I knew (that) he had already arrived.
- Li diris, ke se li estus tiel granda, kiel mi, li facile farus tion, he said that if he were as tall as I, he would easily do that.
Note that in Esperanto the verb is put in the exact time or tense used by the speaker. Thus: mi ne sciis, ĉu li venos, I did not know whether he would (lit., will) come; ili ne diris, ĉu ili vin renkontis, they did not say whether they had met you.