Editing Esperanto (section)

=== Grammar ===
{{Main|Esperanto grammar}}
Esperanto words are mostly [[Morphological derivation|derived]] by stringing together [[Root (linguistics)|roots]], grammatical endings, and at times [[prefix]]es and [[suffix]]es. This process is regular so that people can create new words as they speak and be understood. [[Compound (linguistics)|Compound]] words are formed with a modifier-first, [[head (linguistics)|head-final]] order, as in English (compare "birdsong" and "songbird", and likewise, {{lang|eo|birdokanto}} and {{lang|eo|kantobirdo}}). Speakers may optionally insert an ''o'' between the words in a compound noun if placing them together directly without the ''o'' would make the resulting word hard to say or understand.

The different [[Part of speech|parts of speech]] are marked by their own suffixes: all [[common noun]]s are marked with the suffix {{lang|eo|-o}}, all [[adjective]]s with {{lang|eo|-a}}, all derived adverbs with {{lang|eo|-e}}, and all [[verb]]s except the [[jussive mood|jussive]] (or [[Imperative mood|imperative]]) and [[infinitive]] end in {{lang|eo|-s}}, specifically in one of six [[Grammatical tense|tense]] and [[Grammatical mood|mood]] suffixes, such as the [[present tense]] {{lang|eo|-as}}; the jussive mood, which is tenseless, ends in {{lang|eo|-u}}. Nouns and adjectives have two cases: [[Nominative case|nominative]] for grammatical subjects and in general, and [[Accusative case|accusative]] for direct objects and (after a preposition) to indicate direction of movement.

[[Grammatical number|Singular]] nouns used as [[grammatical subject]]s end in {{lang|eo|-o}}, [[Grammatical number|plural]] subject nouns in {{lang|eo|-oj}} (pronounced [oi̯] like English "oy"). Singular [[direct object]] forms end in {{lang|eo|-on}}, and plural direct objects with the combination {{lang|eo|-ojn}} ([oi̯n]; rhymes with "coin"): {{lang|eo|-o}} indicates that the word is a noun, {{lang|eo|-j}} indicates the plural, and {{lang|eo|-n}} indicates the [[accusative case|accusative]] (direct object) case. Adjectives [[Grammatical number#Adjectives and determiners|agree]] with their nouns; their endings are singular subject {{lang|eo|-a}} ([a]; rhymes with "ha!"), plural subject {{lang|eo|-aj}} ([ai̯], pronounced "eye"), singular object {{lang|eo|-an}}, and plural object {{lang|eo|-ajn}} ([ai̯n]; rhymes with "fine"). In the past some people found the [[Ancient Greek language|Classical Greek]] forms of the plural (nouns in ''-oj,'' adjectives in ''-aj)'' to be awkward, proposing instead that Italian ''-i'' be used for nouns, and that no plural be used for adjectives. These suggestions were adopted by the [[Ido (language)|Ido]] reform.<ref name="JBR">{{Cite web|url=http://jbr.me.uk/ranto/|title=Ranto (JBR Anti-Zamenhofism)|website=jbr.me.uk|access-date=2020-02-22|archive-date=February 22, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200222074330/http://jbr.me.uk/ranto/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="MIR">{{Cite web|url=http://miresperanto.com/konkurentoj/not_my_favourite.htm|title=Why Esperanto is not my favourite Artificial Language|website=miresperanto.com|access-date=2020-02-22|archive-date=December 11, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191211053403/http://miresperanto.com/konkurentoj/not_my_favourite.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

{| style="margin: 0 auto;"
|-
|
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 0 auto;"
|-
! [[Noun]]
! Subject
! Object
|-
! Singular
| -'''{{lang|eo|o}}'''
| -'''{{lang|eo|on}}'''
|-
! Plural
| -'''{{lang|eo|oj}}'''
| -'''{{lang|eo|ojn}}'''
|}
|
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 0 auto;"
|-
! [[Adjective]]
! Subject
! Object
|-
! Singular
| -'''{{lang|eo|a}}'''
| -'''{{lang|eo|an}}'''
|-
! Plural
| -'''{{lang|eo|aj}}'''
| -'''{{lang|eo|ajn}}'''
|}
|}

The suffix {{lang|eo|-n}}, besides indicating the direct object, is used to indicate movement and a few other things as well.

The six verb [[inflection]]s consist of three tenses and three moods. They are [[present tense]] {{lang|eo|-as}}, [[future tense]] {{lang|eo|-os}}, [[past tense]] {{lang|eo|-is}}, [[infinitive]] mood {{lang|eo|-i}}, [[conditional mood]] {{lang|eo|-us}} and [[jussive mood]] {{lang|eo|-u}} (used for wishes and commands). Verbs are not marked for person or number. Thus, {{lang|eo|kanti}} means "to sing", {{lang|eo|mi kantas}} means "I sing", {{lang|eo|vi kantas}} means "you sing", and {{lang|eo|ili kantas}} means "they sing".

{| style="margin: 0 auto;"
|-
|
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 0 auto;"
|-
! Verbal tense
! Suffix
|-
! [[Present tense|Present]]
| {{lang|eo|'''-as''' (kantas)}}
|-
! [[Past tense|Past]]
| {{lang|eo|'''-is''' (kantis)}}
|-
! [[Future tense|Future]]
| {{lang|eo|'''-os''' (kantos)}}
|}
|
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 0 auto;"
|-
! Verbal mood
! Suffix
|-
! [[Infinitive]]
| {{lang|eo|'''-i''' (kanti)}}
|-
! [[Jussive mood|Jussive]]
| {{lang|eo|'''-u''' (kantu)}}
|-
! [[Conditional mood|Conditional]]
| {{lang|eo|'''-us''' (kantus)}}
|}
|}