La luanto pagis kaj ricevis la ŝlosilojn samtempe.

Luanto means the person who rents the place for their own use: the tenant / renter.

It is built from:

• lui = to rent
• -ant- = active participle element
• -o = noun ending

The person who rents something out to someone else is luiganto.

Because luanto is a noun describing the person’s role, not the tense of the whole sentence.

The past time is shown by the verbs pagis and ricevis. So even in a past-tense sentence, luanto can still mean the tenant / renter. In practice, words like -anto often function as ordinary role-nouns, not as strict time labels.

-is is the Esperanto ending for the past tense.

So:

• pagi → pagis
• ricevi → ricevis

Since both verbs have -is, both actions are presented as past actions.

Because the same subject, la luanto, is understood for both verbs.

Esperanto does this just like English:

• The tenant paid and received the keys

You do not need to repeat the subject unless there is a reason to emphasize it or to avoid confusion.

That ending is made of three parts:

• -o = noun
• -j = plural
• -n = accusative, marking the direct object

So ŝlosilojn means keys as the thing being received.

The base word is ŝlosilo = key.

Because la luanto is the subject, not the direct object.

In this sentence, the tenant is doing the actions:

• pagis
• ricevis

The thing received is la ŝlosilojn, so that is the part that gets the accusative -n.

La means the.

So:

• la luanto = the tenant
• la ŝlosilojn = the keys

Esperanto uses the same la for singular and plural, and it does not change form. Also, Esperanto has no separate word for a/an, so when you see la, it specifically marks something definite.

Samtempe is an adverb meaning at the same time or simultaneously.

The ending -e shows that it is modifying the action, not naming a thing.

Related forms:

• samtempa = simultaneous
• samtempe = simultaneously

Here it tells you how the two actions happened: they happened at the same time.

Not in this sentence, because samtempe explicitly says they happened at the same time.

Without samtempe, the sentence would simply tell you that both actions happened in the past, and the exact time relationship would be less explicit.

Yes. Esperanto word order is fairly flexible, especially because -n helps show what the object is.

The original sentence is natural and neutral, but these are also possible:

• La luanto samtempe pagis kaj ricevis la ŝlosilojn.
• Samtempe la luanto pagis kaj ricevis la ŝlosilojn.

The basic meaning stays the same, though the emphasis shifts slightly.

• ŝ sounds like English sh
• j sounds like English y

So ŝlosilojn is pronounced roughly shloh-SEE-loyn.

Esperanto also always stresses the second-to-last syllable, which helps make pronunciation predictable.