A First Meeting

This original A1 dialogue takes place before a meeting at a local Esperanto club. It uses a small set of highly productive patterns: saluton, mi nomiĝas, personal pronouns, present-tense esti, ĉu, and short follow-up questions. Read the complete exchange once for meaning; then return to the annotations and parse each form before translating it.

For the reusable social formulas behind the exchange, see greetings and farewells and introducing yourself.

The complete dialogue

Mira: Saluton! Mi nomiĝas Mira. Kiel vi nomiĝas?
Samir: Mi nomiĝas Samir. Tre agrable!
Mira: Ankaŭ por mi. Ĉu vi estas nova en la klubo?
Samir: Jes. Hodiaŭ estas mia unua renkontiĝo.
Mira: De kie vi venas?
Samir: Mi venas el Tunizio, sed nun mi loĝas en Liono. Kaj vi?
Mira: Mi estas el Pollando. Bonvenon al la klubo!
Samir: Dankon!

The exchange is neutral and friendly. It works at an international club, conference registration desk, language exchange, or community event. Esperanto uses vi for one addressee and for several, without the built-in formal–informal split found in many European languages.

Saluton: a complete greeting in one word

Saluto is a greeting; saluton has the accusative ending -n because the expression historically behaves like an abbreviated wish or offering of a greeting. In present-day use, however, learn Saluton! as a complete conventional formula. It is neutral in ordinary first meetings—not especially formal and not intimate.

For a fresh model:

At a more formal event, Bonan tagon! “Good day” is also natural. Hej! is (informal) and suits friends or a very relaxed group, but it is not the safest default with a stranger.

Mi nomiĝas: the subject carries its own name

The structure is:

• mi — first-person singular subject, “I”
• nom-iĝ-as — name + become/be called + present tense
• Mira — the name assigned to the subject

The suffix -iĝ- makes nomiĝi intransitive: the person has or bears the name. Compare Mi nomas la katon Luna “I call the cat Luna,” where nomas is transitive and la katon is an object. English my name is can tempt learners to build a possessive noun phrase, but Mi nomiĝas ... is the ordinary compact introduction.

That imitation sentence displays the productive contrast: mi nomiĝas versus ili nomas min.

Kiel vi nomiĝas?: asking for a name

Literally, kiel asks “how” or “in what way.” In this conventional question, it asks how the person is called. Vi is the subject, and nomiĝas remains unchanged: Esperanto finite verbs do not agree with person or number.

The response mirrors the question:

A fresh third-person model is:

The question word comes first. There is no English-style auxiliary do, and the verb does not move before the subject.

Tre agrable and ankaŭ por mi

Tre means “very,” and agrable is the adverbial form “pleasantly.” The phrase is an elliptical evaluation of the whole situation: “It is very pleasant [to meet you].” Because there is no noun subject being described, Esperanto uses -e, not adjectival agrabla.

This answer is also elliptical. Ankaŭ adds “also,” por introduces whose perspective or benefit is meant, and mi follows the preposition without -n. The fuller Estas agrable ankaŭ por mi is possible, but the short reply is more natural in conversation.

A transferable model:

Ĉu turns a statement into a yes–no question

Start with the statement Vi estas nova en la klubo. Add ĉu at the beginning, and it becomes a neutral yes–no question. The remaining order stays subject–verb–description. English inverts you are to are you; Esperanto does not need that inversion.

• vi — subject
• estas — present of esti, unchanged for every person
• nova — adjective describing vi
• en la klubo — prepositional phrase locating the social context

The first dialogue answer is simply Jes. The next sentence supplies useful new information rather than repeating the entire proposition.

Hodiaŭ estas mia unua renkontiĝo

Hodiaŭ sets the time frame first. Mia and unua both describe singular renkontiĝo and therefore end in -a. No article appears because a possessive adjective such as mia already makes the noun phrase definite.

The word renkontiĝo can be segmented as renkont-iĝ-o: an event of people coming into contact or meeting. For a fresh model:

Here estos changes the time to future, while nia dua leciono keeps the same noun-phrase pattern.

De kie vi venas?: origin as an open question

Kie means “where”; de kie asks for a source or origin. The preposition stays before the KI-word. Venas is present tense and can refer to literal movement from a place or, in a first-meeting context, personal origin.

The answer uses el, “out of/from within,” a natural choice with countries and places of origin. Tunizio is the Esperanto country name. A fresh model is:

Origin questions can be sensitive when they imply that someone does not belong locally. In an explicitly international Esperanto gathering they are common and relevant. Elsewhere, Kie vi loĝas? “Where do you live?” or Ĉu vi loĝas proksime? may be a more appropriate first question.

Sed nun mi loĝas en Liono

Sed joins contrasting clauses: place of origin versus present residence. Nun makes the time contrast explicit. Loĝi normally takes a location phrase with en; it does not take the city as a direct object.

Liono is the established Esperanto form of Lyon. Speakers vary in how fully they adapt less internationally familiar personal and place names, but a beginner should use well-established Esperanto country and major-city names when known.

Kaj vi?: recoverable words can disappear

The full question—De kie vi venas? or Kie vi loĝas?—is recoverable from the conversation, so only the contrasting pronoun remains. This is natural conversational ellipsis, not missing grammar. Vi receives spoken stress because it contrasts with mi.

Mira answers with another common origin pattern:

Both mi venas el and mi estas el are neutral. The first conceptualizes coming from a place; the second states origin as a property.

Bonvenon and dankon close the exchange

Like saluton, bonvenon and dankon are conventional accusative formulas. Al la klubo names the destination or group into which Samir is welcomed. A fresh model is Bonvenon al nia urbo! “Welcome to our city!”

Information flow and social tone

The dialogue moves from shared ritual to increasingly specific information: greeting → names → membership status → origin and residence → welcome. Each question reuses material from the preceding answer, so neither speaker must produce a long monologue. This short-turn rhythm is neutral and cooperative.

Esperanto vi avoids choosing a T/V form, but politeness still comes from greeting, reciprocal questions, attentive answers, and formulas such as tre agrable and dankon. Directness is not automatically rudeness.

Common Mistakes

Using nomi without the intransitive suffix

Choosing kio from the English word “what”

Omitting the location preposition after loĝi

Adding an article before a possessive

Key Takeaways

• Use Mi nomiĝas ... and Kiel vi nomiĝas? to exchange names.
• Put ĉu before ordinary statement order to form a yes–no question.
• Distinguish origin with el from present residence with loĝi en.
• Short forms such as Tre agrable, Kaj vi?, and Dankon are complete conversational moves.