Yes-No Questions with Ĉu

Esperanto forms a yes-no question by putting ĉu before a complete statement. Unlike English, it does not invert the subject and verb and does not add a form of “do.” This one stable pattern works with every tense and almost every kind of predicate.

Put ĉu before the statement

Begin with an ordinary sentence:

Add ĉu at the beginning to ask whether the whole statement is true:

The order vi laboras does not change. Esperanto has no auxiliary equivalent to English question-forming “do,” and the verb keeps the tense it had in the statement:

This makes the rule productive: ĉu + normal clause. The same pattern works with esti, modal verbs, past -is, present -as, and future -os.

What ĉu asks

Ĉu asks for confirmation or rejection of the proposition that follows it. The answer can normally be jes “yes” or ne “no”:

Context can allow a short elliptical question:

This is ordinary (informal) conversation. The fuller Ĉu tio estas vera? is available when the context is less immediate.

An alternative question can present two choices:

The expected answer is usually one choice, not simply jes. The ordinary pattern is ĉu … aŭ …. Repeated ĉu … ĉu … normally means “whether … or …” with indifference to which alternative holds, so it is not the usual way to offer coffee or tea.

Do not add ĉu to a content question

Questions with kiu, kio, kie, kiam, kial, kiel, and other ki- correlatives ask for missing information. The ki- word itself marks the question:

Do not add ĉu before them. Compare the two question types:

The first proposes a complete answer—je la oka—and asks whether it is correct. The second asks the listener to supply the time. See content questions with ki-correlatives for the complete system.

Both markers can occur in one sentence when they belong to different clauses:

Here ĉu asks whether vi scias is true, while kie introduces the embedded question whose answer is a place. The rule is not “never put ĉu and a ki-word in the same sentence”; it is “do not use both to mark the same question clause.”

Negative questions and the scope of ne

To make the proposition negative, place ne before the verb or other element it negates:

This question often shows that the speaker expected the person to come or is surprised that they may not. A neutral positive question makes less of an assumption:

Ne can have narrower scope when it stands directly before another constituent:

Here the visit itself is not denied; only hodiaŭ is rejected. Position is meaningful, so do not move ne merely to copy English rhythm. The clause negation page develops this contrast.

Negative correlatives already contain negation

Words beginning with neni-—such as neniu “nobody,” nenio “nothing,” and neniam “never”—are negative. Standard Esperanto normally does not add ne to the same clause:

This differs from varieties of English that use negative concord, such as informal “I didn't see nobody” with a single negative meaning. Esperanto does not use that pattern. Adding ne creates a second negation and can reverse or severely obscure the intended meaning.

The accusative ending in nenion is separate from its negative meaning: nenio becomes nenion because it is the direct object. See negative correlatives for their forms and scope.

Do not turn that beginner rule into the claim that Esperanto never has negative concord. Established usage sometimes lets two neni- words reinforce one negation, although context can also produce a genuine double-negative reading. The clearest international default is one clause-level negative expression with an i- word elsewhere:

Here neniu negates the clause and ion supplies the indefinite object. A sequence such as neniu diris nenion is attested but potentially harder to interpret, so beginners should not use it merely by copying negative concord from English.

Answering with jes and ne

With a positive question, the answer system is straightforward:

Negative questions are harder because Esperanto speakers use two established response systems. In the more Western-style system, jes affirms a positive answer clause and ne introduces a negative one. In another established system, the particle confirms or rejects the negative wording of the question. A bare jes after Ĉu vi ne venos? can therefore be understood differently by different speakers.

The reliable international solution is to include the answer clause:

These examples use the more widespread Western-style pairing. Even for speakers accustomed to the other convention, the repeated clause makes the intended proposition explicit. For maximum neutrality, omit the response particle after a negative question and answer simply Mi venos or Mi ne venos. If you do use jes or ne, the repeated clause—not the bare particle—should carry the decisive meaning.

Tags and embedded questions

In conversation, ĉu? or ĉu ne? can be added after a statement to request confirmation:

This is common in neutral and (informal) speech. It is not built from the many different English tag forms—“isn't it?”, “didn't you?”, “won't they?”—because Esperanto can use the same ĉu ne? after different clauses.

Ĉu also introduces an embedded yes-no question after verbs such as scii, demandi, or memori:

This means “whether,” not “if” in the conditional sense. It remains ĉu because the embedded content corresponds to the direct question Ĉu la trajno jam foriris? The dedicated ĉu-clauses page covers their syntax.

Common Mistakes

Copying English inversion

Inventing English do-support

Combining ĉu with a ki- question

Adding ne to a negative correlative

Answering a negative question too briefly

Key Takeaways

Put ĉu before a normal statement and keep the statement's word order and tense. Use a ki- correlative—not ĉu + ki-—when asking for missing information. Place ne immediately before its scope, and do not add it to a clause already made negative by a neni- word. After a negative question, include a short answer clause so that jes or ne cannot be misunderstood.