[This document was developped by Steve Belant  <sbelant /c`e/ cello.gina.calstate.edu>, additions by Ken Caviness  <caviness /c`e/ southern.edu>]  PRONUNCIATION AND SOME GRAMMAR AT A GLANCE  Alphabet:   A B C C^ D E F G G^ H H^ I J J^ K L M N O P R S S^ T U U^ V Z  Every letter has only one sound and is always pronounced.  Stress is  always on the next-to-last syllable.  Pronounced close to English except note:  Vowels A E I O U are pronounced as in "Pa, let me go too!".  c danCer, caTS;  c^ CHurch; k Kiss;  g Get;  g^ Germ; j^ pleaSure;  j Yes; h Hat;  h^ loCH ness; s Said;  s^ Sure; u tUtor;  u^ blUEish,  WHisper.  The parts of speech are formed by adding endings to root words  (no exceptions).  Noun Adjective Plural Object   |       |       |      |   o       a       j      n  Esperanto havas facilajn regulojn. Esperanto has easy rules.  Inteligentaj personoj lernas la internacian lingvon. Intellegent people learn the international language.  The ending of an adjective always agrees with the the noun(s) it  modifies.  Verb endings stay the same regardless of number or gender; there are  *no* exceptions to these endings, no irregular verbs, no spelling  modifications _ever_:  infinitive        -i    vidi        to see present           -as   vidas       sees past              -is   vidis       saw future            -os   vidos       will see command           -u    vidu        see! conditional       -u    vidu        would see  Adverbs can be formed by changing an adjective's -a ending to -e:  bela = beautiful;  bele = beautifully  Vocabulary:  You only learn the root words, and can then form 50-100 words from  each root word by adding prefixes and suffixes.  This cuts down on  the vocabulary which must be memorized, and since the affixes can be  added to any word, even "komencantoj" (beginners) can feel free to  coin their own words to make their meaning clear.  Try it, you'll  love it!  Of course, you have to learn the endings, but only one time; then  they can be added to any word to adjust the meaning:  bona (good)                   alta (tall, high)        sana (healthy) malbona (bad)                 malalta (short)          malsana (sick, ill) bone (well, in a good manner) alte (highly)            sane (in a healthy  bonega (excellent)            altega (very tall, giant)      manner) boneco (goodness)             alteco (tallness) bonigi (to make good)         altigi (to make tall)           etc. plibonigi (to make better,    plialtigi (to make taller)            to improve)  Here we have applied the grammatical endings   -o = noun -a = adjective -e = adverb -i = infinitive verb  and only five affixes  mal- = opposite of -eg- = augmentation: huge, large -ec- = quality -ig- = cause to be pli- = more, greater  to the roots roots "bon-", "alt-", "san-".  Imagine what we can do  with the full spectrum of some 30 affixes!  Notice that often it is  convenient to attach several affixes and roots together, such as:  mal- (opposite) / san- (healthy) / -ul- (person) / -ej- (place) / -o (noun)  ==> malsanulejo (a place of sick people = hospital)  And affixes can be used as roots themselves, giving:  ejo (place),  ulo (person, individual), etc.  With a list of prefixes and suffixes in front of you, and dictionary  to refer to for any root words which you might not recognize (although  they were chosen to be internationally familiar), you could start  reading in Esperanto right now!  But rather than try to learn all the  prefixes and suffixes at one time, why not work through the free 10- lesson email course?  Go to <http://www.southern.edu/~caviness/cge/> and  select the language you'd like your tutor to use in helping you.  Or  go to <http://www.southern.edu/~caviness/Eo_unue/atestoj.html> to read  about my own experiences and those of others learning Esperanto.    To quote Harry Harrison, noted sci-fi author and author of the  Stainless Steel Rat series:  "It will change your life!"