The Table-Word System | Esperanto Grammar

Esperanto organizes 45 extremely common words into a five-by-nine table. The first part tells you the logical force—question, demonstration, indefiniteness, universality, or negation—and the final part tells you the domain—individual, thing, kind, possessor, place, time, reason, manner, or quantity. Once you read both dimensions, forms such as neniam and ĉies stop being isolated vocabulary. All unlabelled uses on this page are neutral in register.

The Core Idea: Choose a Row and a Column

A table word has two fixed meaning components:

an initial: ki-, ti-, i-, ĉi-, or neni-;
an ending: -u, -o, -a, -es, -e, -am, -al, -el, or -om.

For example, ki- asks or relates and -e means place, so kie means “where.” Neni- negates and -am means time, so neniam means “never.” Ĉi- is universal and -es means possessor, so ĉies means “everyone’s.”

Kie estas la stacidomo? — Ĝi estas tie, apud la rivero.

Where is the station? — It is there, beside the river.

Mi iam loĝis en Vieno, sed nun mi loĝas aliloke.

I once lived in Vienna, but now I live elsewhere.

Neniu sciis, kial la trajno malfruis.

Nobody knew why the train was late.

The words form a closed grammatical system. Their pieces are predictable inside the table, but they are not ordinary affixes for unlimited invention. Learn the 45 established forms rather than creating hybrids from English.

The Five Initials

Initial	Core force	Simple memory cue
ki-	question, relative link, sometimes exclamation	which/what?
ti-	demonstrative	that one already shown or mentioned
i-	indefinite	some, unspecified
ĉi-	universal	every/all
neni-	negative	no/none

The force is consistent across domains. Compare the individual series:

Kiu telefonis? — Iu el la hotelo, sed mi ne memoras ties nomon.

Who called? — Someone from the hotel, but I don't remember that person's name.

Kiu asks for an individual; iu leaves that individual unspecified; ties points to the possessor associated with the person just mentioned.

The ki- series has two major jobs. It asks a content question, as in Kie ŝi estas?, or links a subordinate clause, as in Mi scias, kie ŝi estas. English uses “where” in both jobs too, but Esperanto extends the same pattern consistently across all nine domains.

Kiam vi revenos? Mi volas scii, kiam ni povos rekomenci.

When will you return? I want to know when we can start again.

The Nine Endings

Ending	Domain	Question form	Typical English question
-u	individual identity	kiu	who/which one?
-o	thing or matter	kio	what?
-a	kind or quality	kia	what kind?
-es	possessor	kies	whose?
-e	place	kie	where?
-am	time or occasion	kiam	when?
-al	reason or cause	kial	why?
-el	manner or degree	kiel	how?
-om	quantity or emphasized degree	kiom	how much/many?

English translations overlap, so the ending cannot be chosen by one English word alone. English “that” may be tiu “that individual,” tio “that matter,” tia “that kind,” tie “at that place,” or another ti- word.

Mi volas tiun tason, ne nur tian tason.

I want that particular cup, not merely a cup of that kind.

This minimal contrast separates -u identity from -a kind. The first selects the actual cup; the second describes its type or quality.

The Complete 5×9 Table

Domain	Question/relative	Demonstrative	Indefinite	Universal	Negative
individual	kiu	tiu	iu	ĉiu	neniu
thing	kio	tio	io	ĉio	nenio
kind	kia	tia	ia	ĉia	nenia
possessor	kies	ties	ies	ĉies	nenies
place	kie	tie	ie	ĉie	nenie
time	kiam	tiam	iam	ĉiam	neniam
reason	kial	tial	ial	ĉial	nenial
manner	kiel	tiel	iel	ĉiel	neniel
quantity	kiom	tiom	iom	ĉiom	neniom

The system is coherent, but frequency is not perfectly even. Kiu, kio, kie, kiam, kiel, tiu, tio, ĉiu, ĉio, neniu, and nenio are extremely common. Regular forms such as ĉial, ĉiom, and nenial are much rarer. A table predicts meaning, not conversational frequency.

Case and Number: Which Endings Can Change?

The table-word ending determines whether -j or -n can follow.

Ending	Plural -j	Accusative/directional -n	Example
-u	yes	yes	kiujn, tiujn, ĉiujn
-a	yes	yes	kiajn, tiajn, neniajn
-o	normally no	yes	kion, tion, ĉion
-e	no	direction only	kie → kien
-es, -am, -al, -el, -om	no	no	kies, tiam, kial, tiel, iom

Kiujn librojn vi aĉetis? — Tiujn, kiujn vi rekomendis.

Which books did you buy? — The ones you recommended.

Kien vi iras? — Tien, al la biblioteko.

Where are you going? — There, to the library.

In kiujn librojn, -j and -n mark plural objects. In kien/tien, -n marks direction toward a place, not a direct object. By contrast, kiam, kiel, and kiom never accept -n.

Rare plural uses of -o words such as tioj are attested but nontraditional. Learners should use a clear noun phrase such as tiuj aferoj. This separates foundational norm, exceptional attestation, and the recommended learning target.

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Do not decide endings from English. First identify the table-word column; that column tells you whether -j or -n is possible.

Three Important Syntactic Patterns

U and A words are determiners

The -u and -a words can stand before nouns, and they exclude la: tiu libro, ĉiu tago, tia problemo, nenia dubo. They agree where their column allows it.

Mi legis ĉiujn tiujn mallongajn raportojn.

I read all those short reports.

O words stand alone

The -o words represent a thing or matter; they do not determine a noun. A direct adjective follows them: io grava, ĉion necesan.

Ĉu okazis io grava? — Ne, nenio serioza.

Did anything important happen? — No, nothing serious.

ES words precede the possessed expression

The -es words include a possessive de relation, act as definite determiners, and never agree: kies libro, ies libroj, ĉies opinion. Do not add la.

Kies jako estas tiu? — Ĝi estas ies jako, sed mi ne scias kies.

Whose jacket is that? — It is someone's jacket, but I don't know whose.

Quantity words often take da before the measured noun: kiom da akvo, iom da tempo, neniom da sukero.

Negative Table Words and Concord

Every neni- word carries negation. It normally negates its clause without ne.

Mi neniam vidis ion tian ie ajn.

I have never seen anything like that anywhere.

Esperanto does not normally copy English-style or Romance-style negative concord. After one neni- word has supplied the negation, use i- words for additional indefinite meanings: neniam ion, not automatically neniam nenion. Adding ne can create real double negation.

Mi ne vidis neniun.

It is not true that I saw nobody; I saw somebody.

That sentence is grammatical only with the special positive implication shown in the translation. For ordinary “I saw nobody,” say Mi vidis neniun.

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In a basic negative clause, choose one negative carrier: ne or a neni- word. Do not add both by reflex.

Ĉi- versus the Separate Word Ĉi

Universal ĉi- in ĉiu, ĉio, ĉie means “every/all.” The separate particle ĉi marks proximity and normally accompanies a ti- word: ĉi tiu “this one,” ĉi tie “here.” They are different grammatical elements.

Ĉiu infano sidu ĉi tie apud sia gepatro.

Every child should sit here beside their parent.

Ĉiu contains the universal initial; ĉi tie contains the separate proximity particle plus tie. Never infer that ĉiu means “this person.”

Scope Comes from Context

Universal and negative words range over a contextually relevant set. Ĉiuj venis means all members of the understood group came, not every person on Earth. Nenie mi trovis ĝin means nowhere in the relevant search area. This is ordinary pragmatic restriction, not an exception to the system.

Mi serĉis en ĉiuj ĉambroj, sed nenie trovis la ŝlosilon.

I searched in every room but found the key nowhere.

For clear prose, establish the relevant group, place, time span, or alternatives before using an all-inclusive or negative form.

Common Mistakes

Translating the English word instead of selecting two dimensions

❌ Mi volas tio libron.

Incorrect — tio is a standalone thing word and cannot determine libro.

✅ Mi volas tiun libron.

I want that book.

Inventing a hybrid form

❌ Kiuom da homoj venis?

Incorrect — the quantity question is the established form kiom.

✅ Kiom da homoj venis?

How many people came?

Adding an ending to an invariant column

❌ Mi ne scias kialn ŝi foriris.

Incorrect — -al words never take accusative -n.

✅ Mi ne scias, kial ŝi foriris.

I don't know why she left.

Adding ne to a negative correlative

❌ Mi ne neniam faras tion.

Incorrect for ordinary 'I never do that' — neniam already negates the clause.

✅ Mi neniam faras tion.

I never do that.

Confusing universal ĉi- with proximity ĉi

❌ Ĉiu libro estas sur mia tablo.

Incorrect if the intended meaning is 'This book is on my table' — ĉiu means every.

✅ Ĉi tiu libro estas sur mia tablo.

This book is on my table.

Key Takeaways

Read every table word in two dimensions: logical force from the initial and semantic domain from the ending. The system is closed and regular, but the endings differ in case, number, syntax, and frequency. -u/-a can agree, -o normally takes only -n, -e takes directional -n, and the remaining five endings are invariant. Negative neni- forms normally negate without ne. The detailed rules continue in correlative endings and case and number on correlatives.

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