Mi konas ties dunganton.

Ties means that one’s, that person’s, or more literally belonging to that one. In Mi konas ties dunganton, it tells you whose employer is meant: that person’s employer.

It belongs to the ti- correlative family, the same family as tiu meaning that one.

Because ties does not specify gender.

• lia = his
• ŝia = her
• ilia = their
• ties = that one’s / that person’s

So ties is useful when the person has already been identified as that one, or when you do not want to say whether the person is male or female.

It is fully correct, but many speakers use it less often than forms like lia or ŝia. In everyday speech, some people may prefer a phrase like de tiu instead.

So alongside Mi konas ties dunganton, you may also hear a construction like Mi konas la dunganton de tiu. The version with ties is shorter and perfectly grammatical.

The -es correlatives are normally invariable. That means you do not add -j or -n to ties.

The noun shows the grammatical ending instead:

• ties dunganto = that person’s employer
• ties dunganton = that person’s employer as direct object
• ties dungantoj = that person’s employers
• ties dungantojn = that person’s employers as direct object

So ties stays ties.

Because it is the direct object of konas.

In the sentence:

• Mi = subject
• konas = verb
• ties dunganton = direct object

Esperanto marks a direct object with -n, so dunganto becomes dunganton.

Dunganto means employer.

It is built like this:

• dungi = to employ, to hire
• -ant- = active participle element, meaning the one doing the action
• -o = noun ending

So dunganto literally means one who employs.

A useful contrast is:

• dunganto = employer
• dungito = employee

Esperanto usually distinguishes between koni and scii:

• koni = to know someone or something through acquaintance or familiarity
• scii = to know a fact, piece of information, or how to do something

Because dunganton is a person, koni is the natural choice.

So:

• Mi konas ties dunganton = I know that person’s employer
• Mi scias, kiu estas ties dunganto = I know who that person’s employer is

Those are related, but not the same.

Because possessive words already identify the noun, so Esperanto normally does not use la with them.

Compare:

• lia libro = his book
• mia amiko = my friend
• ties dunganto = that person’s employer

Using la here would normally sound wrong.

Yes. Esperanto word order is fairly flexible because -n marks the direct object.

The neutral order is:

• Mi konas ties dunganton.

But for emphasis, you could also say:

• Ties dunganton mi konas.

That puts more focus on that person’s employer.

Esperanto stress falls on the second-to-last syllable of each word.

So you get:

• Mi = one syllable
• konas = KO-nas
• ties = TI-es
• dunganton = dun-GAN-ton

A rough English-style guide would be:

• mee KO-nas TI-es doon-GAN-ton

Also, g is always hard, as in go.