Esperanto Grammar - Word Order

Word Order

Esperanto has a fairly flexible word order. However, word order does play a role in Esperanto grammar, even if a much lesser role than it does in English. For example, the negative particle ne generally comes before the element being negated; negating the verb has the effect of negating the entire clause (or rather, there is ambiguity between negating the verb alone and negating the clause):

mi ne iris 'I didn't go'

mi ne iris, mi revenis 'I didn't go, I came back'

ne mi iris or iris ne mi 'it wasn't me who went'

mi iris ne al la butiko sed hejmen 'I went not to the shop but home'.

However, when the entire clause is negated, the ne may be left till last:

mi iris ne 'I went not'.

The last order reflects a typical topic–comment (or theme–rheme) order: Known information, the topic under discussion, is introduced first, and what one has to say about it follows. (I went not: As for my going, there was none.) For example, yet another order, ne iris mi, would suggest that the possibility of not having gone was under discussion, and mi is given as an example of one who did not go.

Compare:

Pasintjare mi feriis en Italujo

'Last year I vacationed in Italy' (Italy was the place I went on holiday)

En Italujo mi feriis pasintjare

'I vacationed in Italy last year' (last year was when I went)

En Italujo pasintjare mi feriis

'In Italy last year I went on vacation' (a vacation is why I went)

En Italujo pasintjare feriis mi

(I am the one who went)