Veni: To Come | Esperanto Grammar

Veni is the basic regular verb for movement toward the speaker, listener, meeting place, or another active viewpoint: “come” or “arrive here.” It is normally intransitive. Sources and goals are expressed through de, el, al, directional -n, or directional adverbs, and productive compounds such as alveni, reveni, deveni, and kunveni refine the path or meaning.

Complete regular paradigm

Form	Function	Typical translation
veni	infinitive	to come
venas	present indicative	come(s), is coming
venis	past indicative	came, was coming
venos	future indicative	will come
venus	conditional	would come
venu	volitive	come!, let ... come

Mia fratino venas al ni por la semajnfino.

My sister is coming to stay with us for the weekend.

Ĉu vi venos al la kunveno morgaŭ?

Will you come to the meeting tomorrow?

The form never changes for person or number: mi venas, ŝi venas, ili venas. Venus frames the coming as conditional or imagined; venu makes it wanted.

Venu iom pli frue, por ke ni povu paroli antaŭ la prelego.

Come a little earlier so that we can talk before the lecture.

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Choose veni when the movement is toward the conversational or narrative viewpoint. Choose iri when it is away from that viewpoint toward somewhere else.

Viewpoint: why “come” and “go” are relational

The destination need not be where the speaker is physically standing at the moment of speech. It can be the listener's location, a place where the participants plan to meet, or the viewpoint established in a story.

Mi venos al via oficejo post la tagmanĝo.

I'll come to your office after lunch.

The speaker is not yet at the office, but treats the listener's destination as the relevant center. By contrast, Mi iros al la banko poste normally presents the bank simply as another destination.

In a narrative, the viewpoint can move with a character:

Lina atendis ĉe la enirejo, sed la taksio ne venis.

Lina waited at the entrance, but the taxi didn't come.

The taxi would have moved toward Lina's established location. Viewpoint choices sometimes allow both iri and veni, but they are not arbitrary: each tells the listener where to imagine the center.

Sources with de and el

Use de for a general origin, departure point, person, institution, or broader location.

Ni venis de la flughaveno rekte al la hotelo.

We came from the airport directly to the hotel.

Tiu mesaĝo venis de la financa fako, ne de la direktoro.

That message came from the finance department, not from the director.

Use el when movement out of an interior, bounded space, group, or substance is important.

Ŝi venis el la kuirejo kun du tasoj da teo.

She came out of the kitchen with two cups of tea.

With a city or country, de neutrally identifies origin: Mi venas de Kanado. El Kanado is also possible when the “out of/from within” perspective matters. The distinction is semantic, not a rigid rule that one preposition belongs to countries.

Directional accusative never marks a source. Forms such as de la stacidomon are impossible because the preposition already marks the role and because -n cannot mean movement away.

Goals with al and directional -n

Al introduces a person or place as the goal:

Post la laboro venu al mi; mi kuiros vespermanĝon.

Come to my place after work; I'll cook dinner.

With a spatial preposition, directional -n shows movement into a new position:

La hundo venis en la ĉambron kaj kuŝiĝis apud mia seĝo.

The dog came into the room and lay down beside my chair.

Compare venis en la ĉambro, which locates the movement inside the room, with venis en la ĉambron, which makes the room's interior the destination.

Directional adverbs need no al: veni ĉi tien, veni tien, veni hejmen, veni supren, veni reen.

— Kiam vi venos hejmen? — Mi ne venos antaŭ la deka.

— When will you come home? — I won't come before ten.

See Direction toward a Place for the full contrast between static prepositional phrases and directional -n.

Alveni: reaching the destination

Alveni profiles the endpoint of arrival: reaching the goal. Bare veni focuses on movement toward the viewpoint and can describe someone still on the way.

La trajno venas; mi jam vidas ĝin ĉe la fino de la kajo.

The train is coming; I can already see it at the end of the platform.

La trajno alvenis je la oka kaj foriris kvin minutojn poste.

The train arrived at eight and left five minutes later.

This contrast is productive rather than absolute. Context can let venis imply arrival, but alvenis explicitly profiles reaching the endpoint. Alveno is the corresponding event noun, and alvenhoro is an arrival time.

Reveni and reiri

Re- can mean again or back. With motion verbs, viewpoint determines whether the return is presented as coming or going.

Mi forgesis mian telefonon, do mi revenis hejmen por preni ĝin.

I forgot my phone, so I came back home to get it.

Post la tagmanĝo mi reiros al la oficejo.

After lunch I'll go back to the office.

In the first sentence, home is the point to which the subject returns and the narrative viewpoint accompanies that return. In the second, the office is another place toward which the speaker will go. In real conversation, viewpoint can make either form possible; the useful distinction is toward the active center versus away toward another center.

— Ĉu vi baldaŭ revenos? — Jes, mi nur iras al la apoteko.

— Will you be back soon? — Yes, I'm only going to the pharmacy.

The exchange establishes the current place as the return center, so revenos is the natural question.

Other productive compounds

deveni de — originate from, derive from
elveni — come out, emerge
enveni — come in
kunveni — come together, meet formally or as a group
interveni — intervene
venigi — cause to come, summon, bring a person or thing to the viewpoint

La termino devenas de malnova greka vorto, sed ĝia nuna signifo estas pli vasta.

The term derives from an ancient Greek word, but its current meaning is broader.

La komitato kunvenos vendrede por diskuti la buĝeton.

The committee will meet on Friday to discuss the budget.

Deveni requires de for the origin; it is not simply a formal synonym of veni de in every concrete travel sentence. Kunveni is neutral in organizational contexts and can sound more formal than everyday renkontiĝi.

La kuracisto petis, ke oni venigu la sekvan pacienton.

The doctor asked for the next patient to be brought in.

Venigi adds an external causer. The patient comes; someone else causes that coming. Its object therefore takes -n.

Participles and compound forms

The ordinary participles are active: venanta “coming,” veninta “having come,” and venonta “about to come.” Because simple veni is intransitive, it does not normally form passive participles.

La venonta buso iros rekte al la urbocentro.

The next bus will go directly to the city center.

Venonta has lexicalized strongly in time expressions such as venonta semajno, where it simply means “next/coming.” Veninto can mean someone who has arrived, though alveninto is often more precise.

Veninte al la hotelo, ni tuj telefonis al niaj familioj.

Having arrived at the hotel, we immediately called our families.

The adverbial veninte shows that arrival preceded the call. Compound forms such as estis veninta are grammatical, but in most narratives venis plus jam or a time clause is more natural.

Register and frequency

Veni and its major compounds are frequent and neutral. Alveni, reveni, and deveni occur freely in conversation and writing. Kunveni is common in meeting and organizational language, while interveni often belongs to (formal) political, medical, or administrative contexts.

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Keep the path visible: general source de, exit from an interior el, goal al, and movement into a spatial relation with directional -n.

Common Mistakes

Treating the goal as a direct object

❌ Mi venos via oficejo posttagmeze.

Incorrect — ordinary veni is intransitive and needs a goal marker.

✅ Mi venos al via oficejo posttagmeze.

I'll come to your office this afternoon.

Adding al before a directional adverb

❌ Kiam vi venos al ĉi tien?

Incorrect — ĉi tien already expresses direction toward this place.

✅ Kiam vi venos ĉi tien?

When will you come here?

Using directional -n for origin

❌ Ili venis de la flughavenon per taksio.

Incorrect — de already marks the source, and source is never shown by directional -n.

✅ Ili venis de la flughaveno per taksio.

They came from the airport by taxi.

Confusing reveni with simple repetition

❌ Mi revenis la filmon hieraŭ.

Incorrect — reveni means come back, not see or do something again.

✅ Mi revidis la filmon hieraŭ.

I watched the film again yesterday.

Adding a plural ending

❌ Ŝi venas hodiaŭ, sed ili venan morgaŭ.

Incorrect — the finite form never agrees with number.

✅ Ŝi venas hodiaŭ, sed ili venas morgaŭ.

She's coming today, but they're coming tomorrow.

Key Takeaways

Veni presents motion toward a conversational or narrative viewpoint and is normally intransitive.
Use de/el for sources, al for goals, and directional -n for movement into a spatial relation.
Alveni profiles reaching the destination; reveni profiles coming back toward the active center.
Active participles are normal; passive forms of simple intransitive veni are not.

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