Idiom and Style
Esperanto Reading 1
Chapter 7 · Idiom and Style
💬 Idiom and Style — Idiomoj kaj stilo
Word-building lets you take a word apart, but an idiom is a whole phrase whose meaning is more than its parts. Proverbs are the best place to meet idioms, because they are short, rhythmic and meant to be remembered. This chapter reads fourteen proverbs from the Proverbaro Esperanta, and then looks at how the tone of Esperanto changes from friendly to formal.
The Proverbaro Esperanta
The proverbs below come from the Proverbaro Esperanta, a collection of Esperanto proverbs and phrases arranged by L. L. Zamenhof from the work of his father, Marko Zamenhof, and published in Paris in 1925 (second edition). Zamenhof's text is in the public domain, and these lines were taken from the Esperanto Wikisource copy of that edition. The meanings are given in English below each group.
Proverbs about beginnings and effort
| Proverb | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Komenco bona — laboro duona. | A good beginning is half the work. |
| Ĉiu komenco estas malfacila. | Every beginning is difficult. |
| Kiu ne riskas, tiu ne gajnas. | Nothing ventured, nothing gained. (Whoever does not risk, that one does not gain.) |
| Per pacienco venas scienco. | Through patience comes knowledge. |
| Rajdi sur ĉevalo oni ne lernas sen falo. | You do not learn to ride a horse without a fall. |
| Nur tiu ne eraras, kiu neniam ion faras. | Only the one who never does anything makes no mistakes. |
Proverbs about people and friends
| Proverb | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Mano manon lavas. | One hand washes the other. |
| Amu domon novan kaj amikon malnovan. | Love a new house and an old friend. |
| Unu amiko malnova pli valoras ol du novaj. | One old friend is worth more than two new ones. |
| Parolo estas arĝento, oron similas silento. | Speech is silver; silence is like gold. |
Proverbs about values
| Proverb | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Pli valoras propra ĉemizo ol fremda plena valizo. | Your own shirt is worth more than a stranger's full suitcase. |
| Unu vido taŭgas pli ol dek aŭdoj. | One sight is worth more than ten hearsays. |
| Venas rido post minaco, kaj paciĝo post malpaco. | Laughter comes after a threat, and reconciliation after discord. |
A fixed expression
Not everything in the collection is a proverb. It also lists phrases for situations, such as ways of saying you do not understand something:
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Ĝi estas por mi ĥina scienco. | It is Chinese science to me: I cannot make head or tail of it. (The nearest English idiom is "It's all Greek to me.") |
How the proverbs are built
- Balanced halves. Komenco bona — laboro duona has two halves of the same length, joined by a dash, and the two endings rhyme (bona / duona).
- Rhyme. pacienco / scienco, ĉevalo / falo, paciĝo / malpaco. Notice that paciĝo (from pac- + -iĝ- + -o, "becoming peaceful") and malpaco (mal- + paco) are both word-built.
- Kiu … tiu. Kiu ne riskas, tiu ne gajnas uses the correlatives kiu (whoever) and tiu (that one) in a pair: a pattern you will meet again and again.
- Oni. oni ne lernas uses oni, "one" or "people in general", which has no English equivalent as handy.
- Inverted order. The adjective follows its noun in komenco bona, domon novan, amikon malnovan. This is allowed (an adjective can go before or after) and in proverbs it helps the rhythm.
- Commands. Amu ends in -u: a command or advice.
- Comparison. pli valoras … ol is "is worth more than" (Esperanto Grammar 1 Chapter 3).
Formal and informal
Esperanto does not have a separate formal and informal grammar, but the tone changes with the words you choose. This is from the general practice of the language, not from the proverbs above:
| Situation | Friendly | Formal |
|---|---|---|
| Greeting | Saluton! | Bonan tagon. |
| Leaving | Ĝis! / Ĝis baldaŭ! | Ĝis revido. |
| Asking | Helpu min, bonvolu. | Ĉu vi povus helpi min? |
| Letter closing | Kore, | Kun saluto, |
The conditional ending -us softens a request: povus "could" is more polite than povas "can". There is also a singular "you", ci, but it is rarely used, and vi is the normal word for one person or many.
✏️ Try It Yourself — Ekzercoj
Say the answer first, then click to check.
1. Give the English meaning of Komenco bona — laboro duona.
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A good beginning is half the work.
2. Which two words rhyme in Rajdi sur ĉevalo oni ne lernas sen falo?
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ĉevalo and falo.
3. In Kiu ne riskas, tiu ne gajnas, which words are the correlatives and what do they mean?
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kiu (who, whoever) and tiu (that one).
4. Take paciĝo and malpaco apart and give their meanings.
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pac- + -iĝ- + -o: becoming peaceful, reconciliation. mal- + pac- + -o: the opposite of peace, discord.
5. Why does Amu domon novan kaj amikon malnovan end its two nouns and adjectives in -n?
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They are the objects of Amu (love), so each noun and each adjective takes the object ending.
6. What is oni in oni ne lernas?
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The pronoun "one", meaning people in general: "one does not learn".
7. Explain the idea behind Mano manon lavas.
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People who help each other get help in return: one favour repays another.
8. What does Ĝi estas por mi ĥina scienco say about the speaker?
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The speaker does not understand something at all ("it's Chinese science to me").
9. Make the request Helpu min, bonvolu more polite using povus.
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Ĉu vi povus helpi min?
10. Choose a proverb from the chapter for a friend who is afraid to start a new project, and say why.
Show answer
One possibility: Kiu ne riskas, tiu ne gajnas, because it encourages taking the first step. Another: Ĉiu komenco estas malfacila, because it admits that starting is hard.
Words used in this chapter
komenco beginning · duona half · riski risk · gajni gain · pacienco patience · scienco knowledge · rajdi ride · ĉevalo horse · falo fall · eraro mistake · lavi wash · amiko friend · malnova old · parolo speech · arĝento silver · oro gold · silento silence · similas resembles · ĉemizo shirt · fremda foreign, someone else's · valizo suitcase · taŭgi be worth, suit · aŭdo hearing · minaco threat · paciĝo reconciliation · malpaco discord · oni one · ĥina Chinese · ci thou