La pato estas varma.

to be

Breakdown of La pato estas varma.

• la: the
• varma: hot
• pato: the frying pan

Questions & Answers about La pato estas varma.

Why does the sentence start with la?

La is the definite article in Esperanto, like the in English.

So la pato means the pan, not just a pan or pan in a general sense.

A few useful points:

• Esperanto has only one definite article: la
• It does not change for gender, number, or case in normal use
• There is no separate word for a/an in Esperanto

So:

• la pato = the pan
• pato = pan / a pan

What does pato mean exactly?

Pato means a pan, especially a cooking pan such as a frying pan.

The ending -o shows that it is a noun.

So the word breaks down like this:

• pat- = the word root
• -o = noun ending

This noun is not plural here, so it means one pan. If it were plural, it would be patoj = pans.

Why is it estas and not something shorter, like English is?