Zamenhof's Sixteen Rules

Foundations

Sixteen short rules that every other rule is built on.

How It Works

The Fundamento de Esperanto (1905) has a short grammar chapter with sixteen numbered rules. It also begins with the alphabet, which has no number. Almost all of the book comes from Zamenhof's earlier works, above all his first book of 1887.

RuleIn short
1The only article is la; there is no a or an.
2Nouns end in -o; plural -j; object -n.
3Adjectives end in -a; pli and plej compare.
4The numbers: unu, du, tri, and so on.
5The pronouns; add -a for my, your, his.
6Verbs do not change for person or number.
7Adverbs end in -e.
8Prepositions take the plain form.
9Every word is read as written.
10The stress is on the second-to-last syllable (in practice, the second-to-last vowel).
11Compounds are made by joining roots.
12With another negative word, ne is left out.
13A place you go to takes -n.
14Each preposition has a fixed meaning; je has none.
15Foreign words keep their root and take the Esperanto spelling and endings.
16The final o of a noun, or the a of la, may become an apostrophe.

It is a common mistake to think that these are the only rules. The exercise part of the book teaches many more.

Examples (3)

  1. Ana havas bonan amikon en Japanio.

    Ana has a good friend in Japan.

    No article for a (rule 1), and -a and -n follow rules 3 and 2.

  2. La amikoj parolas Esperanton.

    The friends speak Esperanto.

    La stays the same for a plural noun, and the plural is -j (rules 1 and 2).

  3. Fatima iras Parizon.

    Fatima is going to Paris.

    A place you go to takes -n (rule 13), as in the Fundamento sentence Mi iras Parizon.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Zamenhof's Sixteen RulesFoundations

Learn This First

The sixteen rules sum up the regular grammar, the plural ending and the object ending.

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.