La artisto prezentis novan verkon ĉe la festivalo.

In Esperanto, -is marks the past tense. So prezentis means presented.

A quick comparison:

• prezentas = presents / is presenting
• prezentis = presented
• prezentos = will present

This is one of the very regular parts of Esperanto: verb endings do not change for different persons, only for tense.

The ending -n marks the direct object in Esperanto.

Here, novan verkon is the thing that was presented, so it gets the accusative ending:

• verko = a work
• verkon = a work, as the direct object

The adjective must agree with the noun, so nova also becomes novan:

• nova verko = a new work
• novan verkon = a new work, as the direct object

This agreement in number and case is a basic rule in Esperanto.

Esperanto has only one article: la, which means the.

So:

• la artisto = the artist
• la festivalo = the festival

There is no separate word for a or an in Esperanto. So novan verkon can mean a new work, depending on context.

That is why the sentence can have:

• la artisto = the artist
• novan verkon = a new work
• la festivalo = the festival

ĉe often means at, by, or with, depending on context. In this sentence, ĉe la festivalo means at the festival.

This is natural when talking about an event:

• ĉe la festivalo = at the festival

By contrast, en usually means in or inside:

• en la domo = in the house

With events, ĉe is often preferred because the idea is participation in or presence at the occasion, not literally being inside something.

In Esperanto, nouns normally end in -o. So:

• artisto = artist
• verko = work
• festivalo = festival

This makes it very easy to identify nouns in a sentence. If you see -o, it is usually a noun in its basic form.

Yes, adjectives can go before or after the noun in Esperanto.

So both are possible:

• novan verkon
• verkon novan

However, putting the adjective before the noun is more common and usually sounds more natural, especially for straightforward description.

No matter where the adjective goes, it still has to agree with the noun:

• nova verko
• novan verkon

You can tell mainly from the endings:

• La artisto has no -n, so it is the subject
• novan verkon has -n, so it is the direct object

So the sentence means that the artist did the presenting, and the new work was the thing presented.

This is one reason Esperanto word order is fairly flexible: the -n ending helps show the role of the noun phrase.

Yes. Because Esperanto marks the direct object with -n, the word order can be changed more freely than in English.

For example, these are possible:

• La artisto prezentis novan verkon ĉe la festivalo.
• Ĉe la festivalo la artisto prezentis novan verkon.
• Novan verkon la artisto prezentis ĉe la festivalo.

All of these still mean basically the same thing, though the emphasis may change. The original order is the most neutral.

The base form is prezenti, which is the infinitive, meaning to present.

It breaks down like this:

• prezent- = the word root
• -i = infinitive ending
• -is = past-tense verb ending

So:

• prezenti = to present
• prezentis = presented

This kind of regular word-building is a major feature of Esperanto.

Usually, yes. Verko often refers to a work, especially a created work, such as a literary, musical, or artistic piece.

In this sentence, because we have la artisto and ĉe la festivalo, verkon strongly suggests some kind of artistic creation: a piece, work, or production.

So even without extra context, it sounds natural to understand it as an artistic work.

Because la festivalo is not the direct object here. It is part of the prepositional phrase ĉe la festivalo.

In Esperanto, prepositions such as ĉe normally take a noun without the accusative -n:

• ĉe la festivalo = at the festival

The -n ending is mainly used for:

1. direct objects
2. motion toward something in some contexts

Neither of those applies here, so festivalo stays in its normal form.